Word: superkid
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Foxx blossomed into a superkid, leading the church choir at 15 and starring as a high school quarterback in Terrell, Texas. At the same time, he was acutely aware of being unwanted. His biological parents, he says, were 28 miles away in Dallas but rarely visited or noted his achievements. "I passed for more than 1,000 yards, the first quarterback at my high school to do that," says Foxx. "I was making the Dallas Morning News, and my father never came down. That's weird. Even to this day--nothing. I don't know if it's his religion...
...Quest for a Superkid...
Wolin, Brooks and others emphasize that to build resilience in a child does not require the molding of a superkid. What's needed is to find one or two things--what Brooks calls "islands of competence"--at which the child can succeed and thus derive a measure of self-confidence. Barry Plummer, a clinical psychologist on the faculty of Brown University's medical school who, in private practice, works with adolescents, says that grownups should "encourage a kid to master something even if he stinks at school--a sport, music, someplace he can go where he is of value. This...