Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
Ender's Game is an essential read for gifted kids and adults who were gifted children. And anyone who is supposed to be raising or educating gifted kids. We don't just root for Ender. We ARE Ender. Although Ender's Game is ostensibly science fiction, much of it reads as a slice of real life for gifted kids. They've all experienced the mix of pride and shame when a teacher singles them out for praise (enraging other kids). They've felt the loneliness and isolation. And they've been let down by the one-size-fits-all education they're required to spend their entire childhoods on. At Socratica, we're very much focused on this essential question: how do you give people the education they NEED and DESERVE? That may be why this book speaks to us. Purchase your copy of Ender's Game here: https://amzn.to/3thefTfThanks for listening. 💜🦉Watch our beautiful educational videos at https://www.socratica.com/Support our work at https://www.patreon.com/socratica or https://www.paypal.me/socraticaTRANSCRIPTWelcome Everybody, to Socratica Reads. My name is Kimberly Hatch Harrison, and I’m the cofounder of Socratica. We make the educational videos of the future. Or educational videos for YOUR future. On the Socratica Reads podcast, I share some of the books that have inspired us, and it’s almost always that literary genre for dreams and dreamers - science fiction. Today I’m revisiting ENDER’S GAME by Orson Scott Card. This is one of those books I wish I had read as a kid. I think it would have helped me channel some rage. It was written in the mid 80s, but I didn’t come across it until I was an adult. I first read Ender’s Game right before I was going to start teaching in my old high school - which was a super high-powered prep school. I am glad I read it then, because it reminded me of what it was like being a smart kid (all the kids I taught were also really smart, and it helped remind me of the situation they were in). This book doesn’t shy away from the power and potential of children. I suspect that makes a lot of people uncomfortable - and I think that’s why, when they did a movie adaptation, they wrote the script with MUCH OLDER kids. But we’re not talking about the movie here on Socratica READS.The other thing I’ll say is that I wish this book was the only book in the series, and not the start of the Ender Wiggin Cinematic Universe. This book is practically perfect, and I was so happy to re-read it. I have no desire to re-read any of the other books, especially because at some point they got REALLY WEIRD about embryos and Petra and Bean could only talk about their potential children? I mean, someone was obsessed. So, anyway, I’m going to do my best to pretend this was the one and only book about Ender. I was thinking about how different the experience is to read a book as a kid, when maybe it’s the first time you’ve ever come across your own thoughts verbalized. What is it like for a smart little kid to read Ender’s Game - what a kindness to create this book for them. I felt so alone as a gifted child - no one knew what to do with me, and everyone pretty much ignored my special needs as long as I wasn’t causing any trouble. At least my parents were able to put me in a private school where I was PHYSICALLY safe - I wasn’t getting beaten up for being smart, but I was certainly verbally bullied and socially excluded. The actual education I received in my grammar school was indifferent at best. I can say it probably did me no harm. Michael, my sweet brilliant husband, grew up in a very small...