Americans don't seem to have any problem with teenagers who show genius in sports (LeBron James) or entertainment (Hilary Duff). But we have a deeply ambivalent relationship with intellectually gifted kids. For every lovable Doogie Howser, M.D., we fear there's also a William James Sidis. Little William was born in 1898 to an experimentally minded psychologist, Boris Sidis. He trotted William through school so quickly that the boy was enrolled at Harvard by age 11: William graduated with a math degree at 16, but soon after he lost interest in math and spent much of his life working at clerical jobs and writing esoteric books. Boris Sidis had offered his prodigy to the public as proof that young children can learn prodigiously; reporters would hound William Sidis as a failure for the rest of his life. He came to resent his parents for driving him and died alone at 46.
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机译：对于那些在体育界（勒布朗·詹姆斯）或娱乐界（希拉里·达夫）表现出天才的青少年来说，美国人似乎没有任何问题。但是，我们与有天赋的孩子有着深深的矛盾。对于马里兰州每一个可爱的Doogie Howser，我们都会担心还有William James Sidis。小威廉姆（Little William）于1898年出生，是一位具有实验意识的心理学家鲍里斯·西迪斯（Boris Sidis）。他在学校里跑得很快，以至于这个男孩在11岁时就被哈佛录取了：威廉在16岁时获得了数学学位，但是不久之后，他对数学失去了兴趣，并在毕生从事文书工作和撰写深奥的书籍中度过了自己的一生。鲍里斯·西迪斯（Boris Sidis）向公众展示了他的出色表现，以证明幼儿可以学习出色。记者会追捕威廉·西迪斯（William Sidis）一生的失败。他因开车逼迫父母而生，并在46岁时独自一人去世。
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