My youngest (now 27) has a bit of a problem with that. The issue is that he’s smart and most things always came easy to him. He’d do those giant writing assignments the night before that are supposed to be worked on for weeks and still get the high grade. Hardly ever seemed to study, but got solid A’s. But when something comes along that he’s not automatically good at, he gets super frustrated. He wanted to learn the guitar in high school (I play a little), so we bought him one and some basic instruction, but he hated it because it didn’t come naturally. It’s a decoration on his wall.
I will give him this though: he decided a few years back that he wanted to learn to draw, and that didn’t come naturally, but he’s continued to work at it and has gotten pretty decent. So it’s something a person can get past.
I think the difference with his guitar playing and drawing was that he probably just didn’t enjoy learning guitar. Tons of people buy an instrument to only learn later that they didn’t like it as much as they thought. Not trying to say you don’t know your kid, just pointing out that learning an art requires an interest to put into it. It can definitely be frustrating to realize that you aren’t as interested in the learning process of something you had dreams of being good at.
I hear what you’re saying, but I honestly think it was just motivation and maturity. I gave you two examples, but there were a number of things that he got very frustrated about when they didn’t come easily. Some were school subjects, so he didn’t have a choice and had to keep pushing at it, and would eventually get there. In fact, he didn’t learn those things more slowly than anyone else, it was just that he was used to getting things instantly.
There’s zero doubt in my mind that he would enjoy the guitar, but he wasn’t mature enough to get past the initial frustration at the time.
That’s good to hear, and I’m glad your kid is figuring it out! Very good point about those that are gifted sometimes needing to work harder at learning to, uh, learn.
My youngest (now 27) has a bit of a problem with that. The issue is that he’s smart and most things always came easy to him. He’d do those giant writing assignments the night before that are supposed to be worked on for weeks and still get the high grade. Hardly ever seemed to study, but got solid A’s. But when something comes along that he’s not automatically good at, he gets super frustrated. He wanted to learn the guitar in high school (I play a little), so we bought him one and some basic instruction, but he hated it because it didn’t come naturally. It’s a decoration on his wall.
I will give him this though: he decided a few years back that he wanted to learn to draw, and that didn’t come naturally, but he’s continued to work at it and has gotten pretty decent. So it’s something a person can get past.
I think the difference with his guitar playing and drawing was that he probably just didn’t enjoy learning guitar. Tons of people buy an instrument to only learn later that they didn’t like it as much as they thought. Not trying to say you don’t know your kid, just pointing out that learning an art requires an interest to put into it. It can definitely be frustrating to realize that you aren’t as interested in the learning process of something you had dreams of being good at.
I hear what you’re saying, but I honestly think it was just motivation and maturity. I gave you two examples, but there were a number of things that he got very frustrated about when they didn’t come easily. Some were school subjects, so he didn’t have a choice and had to keep pushing at it, and would eventually get there. In fact, he didn’t learn those things more slowly than anyone else, it was just that he was used to getting things instantly.
There’s zero doubt in my mind that he would enjoy the guitar, but he wasn’t mature enough to get past the initial frustration at the time.
That’s good to hear, and I’m glad your kid is figuring it out! Very good point about those that are gifted sometimes needing to work harder at learning to, uh, learn.