Child Prodigy - a blessing or curse?

Remember the news about a sweet little girl who went to Oxford University at the tender age of 13 and gone missing at the age of 15?

Taken from my 2nd source below

Recently, she was found to be working as a prostitute in Manchester. Full story at:

http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/3003_hooker.shtml (Warning: Images need more censoring for younger readers)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/portal/main.jhtml?xml=/portal/2008/04/01/ftgenius101.xml (Suitable for all ages)

It is a very sad story. I'm sure all of you would have formed some opinion towards her, wondering why of all things she could do to earn a living she had to turn to prostitution. The reason can be quite similar to why some people turn to drugs when they've reached pit bottom.

I'm not even sure if she's genuinely a child prodigy after reading about the brutal methods used by her father to nurture her into the so called 'math genius'. Imagine having the house ice cold 24 hours, woken abruptly by punches in the mornings, no television or pop music, making mathematics the main aim in life etc.. I cannot bear to go through all those just to excel in something.

Gaining that reputation of a child prodigy means having to accept all the pressure from expectations to perform even better. This pressure can be so great that it causes nervous breakdowns. For a girl of 13, living in her type of environment doesn't help cope with it at all.

Let me ask you something. Who truly benefited from all the hype and fame gained when Sufiah Yusof went to Oxford University? Was she truly happy to get to where she did? What she truly happy to wear that mortarboard? Her father on the other hand, became famous for his teaching method and many flocked to him and blindly handed him their children to be 'manufactured' into prodigies.
Right from the start, it wasn't about his daughter at all. It was all for his own benefit.

The lost childhood, the mental and physical strains tearing up the soul of this little girl, who wouldn't want to run away from home when you get the chance? She was unlucky not to have come across someone who could tend her wounds, someone who could guided her in the right direction, she was unlucky to have such a 'loving' family. She was so vulnerable yet nobody could reach her.

Child prodigies are rare and so different from us that society only knows how to worship and admire them from afar but have we tried to understand their true needs from us? Have we even wondered if they wanted to be treated like that? A blessing or curse? I'll leave you to decide for yourselves.

A very interesting article on child prodigies by Time:
http://www.time.com/time/asia/covers/501030217/story.html