Were Jani and Bodhi Schofield Born Schizophrenic?
And if not, what is going on?
Most three-year-olds are in bed by now, but most three-year-olds are not geniuses like my daughter. She can read, calculate multiplication and division in her head, and even quiz my wife, Susan, and me on the periodic table using her placemat with all the elements on it.*
So begins the prologue of January First: A Child’s Descent into Madness and Her Father’s Struggle to Save Her. It’s a memoir by Michael Schofield, January’s father, and it’s a gripping, albeit easy, read.
The paragraph above tells us something we think we already know — that brilliant people don’t behave according to accepted norms. They’re different, just as the very rich are, or the very beautiful, or the very famous.
They don’t have to meet the same behavioral expectations that normal people do. They’re not normal.
So, long after other small children have been put to bed, Michael takes his daughter January (Jani for short) to the mall. He’s hoping to “wear out her mind” so she can sleep.
This is their routine. Michael takes Jani to the zoo, to IKEA, to the park, to McDonald’s, anywhere he can think of in an effort to teach her, to engage her, and to keep her entertained.
