Whiz Kid Pleased by Atypical Childhood

Avrom Faderman is only 13, so he isn’t in a hurry to graduate from Cal State Fresno. But he does expect to be in graduate school by the time he’s old enough to drive.

Avrom, who will begin his junior year this fall, said he would like to take a wide range of classes for personal enrichment before moving on to graduate studies in math or theoretical physics at a major university such as Caltech or UC Berkeley.

“I plan to go to a large university for graduate school, but I should be older--at least old enough to have a driver’s license,” he said.

So until he’s 16, Avrom plans to satisfy his abundant intellectual curiosity with studies in foreign languages--German, French and Hebrew--classical music, literature and a computer game called Interactive Fiction.

‘Poor at Video Games’

“It’s puzzle solving. It doesn’t involve reflex action,” he said. “I’m remarkably poor at video games.”

Such understatement is typical for Avrom, who enrolled at Cal State Fresno after spending one year at a high school in this city 200 miles southeast of San Francisco.

Students like Avrom present special challenges, said Deanne Schilling, a professor in the advanced studies department and coordinator of Cal State Fresno’s special education program.

“The tongue-in-cheek term ‘severely gifted’ correctly implies that many, but not all, such students do face greater challenges in terms of finding social peers, emotional peers and academic peers,” Schilling said.

“The challenge for parents and society is to see that these students don’t remain diamonds in the rough--to see that we provide experiences to allow their brilliance to shine for the rest of the world to see,” she added.

Doesn’t Feel Isolated

Avrom’s fertile mind sets him years ahead of his contemporaries, but he doesn’t feel isolated. He plays down his talent.

While in Vienna with his mother, an English professor at Cal State Fresno, Avrom took the Scholastic Aptitude Test. On the verbal section he scored 600 and posted a score of 700 on the mathematical section on a scale of 800.

“The scores are very good, but not outstanding per se,” he said.

“In my case, I would not say that my intellectual ability has robbed me of my childhood,” Avrom said. “I would say the idealized version of childhood robs others of their intellectual ability.

“Society has placed great emphasis on children as sweet little lambs. That can encourage kids to concentrate on being innocent and that can stifle their creativity. I haven’t been robbed of my childhood--just a traditional childhood, and I don’t need one.”

For the time being, there’s no stopping Avrom’s ample appetite for knowledge for the sake of knowledge. He prefers math and theoretical physics over engineering or applied physics because theory isn’t bound by the limits of technology.

“I’m interested in finding out about the world as opposed to ruling it,” he said.