Reader's Diary #2022- Carson McCullers: Wunderkind

Carson McCullers' short story "Wunderkind" is about a young girl whose confidence in her piano playing abilities has been shaken. Once spoken of as gifted, it seems that she and her piano teacher are now having doubts. It doesn't help that one of her peers, who'd also been referred to as such, seems to actually be living up to his reputation.

So many rich themes to explore her: envy, confidence, changes in life direction, and so forth. As a former teacher, I also found myself thinking of how hard it was for me to teach English language arts. Once a favourite subject of mine, one where some of my own teachers heaped praise, I found that I just couldn't teach it and didn't particularly enjoy teaching it. Once you got past the technical side, how did one teach creativity? Not something in which I ever felt successful.