Using a historical approach, ChildPro brought light into the fascination with child prodigies and giftedness showing its implications in the western popular and scientific culture.
Although there is no scholarly agreement on how to define giftedness there is a consensus on why it is important: understanding giftedness, and especially, gifted children, means understanding human potential and development. Conceptions of giftedness affect education and parenting and can create unrealistic expectations in adults and children. Most European countries have national associations for gifted children who counsel families, schools and governments. Yet, a commercial approach trivializes giftedness, selling it as a highly desirable (almost unproblematic) quality in children.
Child prodigies manifest an extreme form of giftedness. They are generally defined as a type of gifted children aged ten or younger, capable of performing at a professional level in skill-demanding domains, such as music and the arts, chess, mathematics and sports. Research on the topic has been chiefly developed within psychology and remains quite ahistorical. Meanwhile, historical research on prodigies focused on case studies, failing to account for today’s interest in gifted children.
ChildPro went beyond these two approaches and explored how the history of child prodigies can help to explain the current fascination with giftedness. The project addressed child prodigies as a cultural phenomenon that: influenced the western scientific interest in giftedness, and built a long-lasting entertainment culture around gifted children. In this way, ChildPro reflected on a timely and socially sensitive topic.
