"A Dialogue with He Shuman" was published by Guangming Daily on October 26. He Shuman is the director of the Committee of Supernormal Talents under China Talents Research Institute. She has also been involved in gifted education research and practical studies with teenagers at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC).

The following are key excerpts of the interview:

Reporter: We frequently hear stories of child prodigies and their education has been a hot topic of discussion. What's the current status of education for gifted talents in China?

He Shuman: First of all, not all gifted children can become gifted talents even with education. The "gifted talents" we refer to here are those who have made outstanding contributions to society. Most child prodigies are usually the result of appropriate education given at an early age. They form only a small part of education of gifted talents. In the past, some people used to define gifted education as education for children with a high intelligence quotient, above 130. However, such a definition discounts many talented people like Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Chinese mathematician Hua Luogeng. It also discounts the majority of rural students who account for 80 percent of the population. With the development of society, the era of large numbers of "child prodigies" who benefit from early education is coming to the fore. 

China's gifted talents education has also changed with the times. It's no longer a privilege given to gifted children. It also explores the potential of students with above-medium intelligence. Gifted education does not contradict the regular education system. It focuses more on teaching students according to their aptitude, diversified curricula. It also focuses on one-to-one teaching, which is important for exploring a student's potential. According to China's fifth census in 2000, there were 313 million children under 14 years (children in the cities accounting for 14.7 percent). If gifted children account for one percent of them, there will be at least 3 million gifted children in China and at least 200 million students who are of above-medium intelligence. Therefore the gifted education should be made more widely available.

R: Some very gifted children finally become only mediocre people. Why is this?

He: Using Ning Bo as an example (Ning Bo became a household name in China in the early 1980s. By the time he was two, he could recite 30 poems and was enrolled at USTC when he was 14. But a few years ago, he decided to become a monk.), I talked with him in 1987. He told me he didn't know what to do in the face of all the media hype. He wanted to achieve what the media had said he would achieve, but he felt that he couldn't perform as well as was expected of him, he felt hopeless. Second, pursuing a personal interest is critical. He said he chose the wrong major. He felt that he could have done better had he chosen traditional Chinese medicine or weiqi (go).

In addition, some gifted children's physical development is not synchronized with their psychological development -- their intelligence development is not synchronized with their non-intelligent development; their studies are not synchronized with social development, which are also key reasons why some gifted children eventually become what others might consider to be mediocre people.

Many parents of gifted children accompany their children everywhere, even to college. These children then become unwilling to stay in college dormitories and therefore don't really assimilate into the real college life. They fail to develop a sense of responsibility, either to themselves or anyone else. If they don't learn to socialize, it will be very hard for them to adapt to society, or the "real world", and therefore won't have the opportunity to use their talents.

A special system needs to be set up to serve special talents. Society should have special policies for people with special talents and should be more tolerant with those "unique" talents. Don't judge them only by their scores at school. Be open to the development of children who might be gifted in other ways. Of course, all science and innovation are results of experiments, so we can't guarantee a 100 percent success rate. But if there is no experiment, there can be no success at all. Education is no exception. We can't stop gifted education just because of a few failures.

Currently, more relaxed policies should be made in relation to schools that already offer a gifted education program including Beijing Eighth Middle School, The High School Affiliated to Renmin University of China, Tianjin Yaohua Middle School, and Beijing Yumin Primary School. In addition, gifted education programs should pay more attention to talents in literature, the arts and sports, and not focus only on the sciences.

R: Is gifted education expensive? If so, how can children from poor families, whether in the cities or rural areas, get access to such education?

He: The investment is not directly proportional to the rewards. Some parents carry out prenatal conditioning of the fetus, engage home tutors, and enroll their children in expensive schools. Some even ignore their children's natural talents and design their education according to what THEY, that is, the parents, want.

Children from the rural areas are a disadvantaged group due to the great inherent disparity in education resources between the urban and the rural, the rich and the poor. Gifted education should be made accessible to rural children, too. My suggestions are to carry out gifted education in middle and primary schools. Actually, there are already such examples in China. Tianyi Middle School in Jiangsu Province for one has had a gifted education program for rural children for the last 20 years. The Tianyi model should be promoted and popularized.

(China.org.cn translated by Wang Qian, November 1, 2005)