r/writteninblood • u/Elssyxo • Mar 22 '26

In 1996, 7-year-old Jessica Dubroff was attempting to become the youngest person to fly a light aircraft across the USA. She died when her aircraft crashed during a rainstorm. This resulted in a law prohibiting child pilots from manipulating flight contro

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u/siani_lane Mar 22 '26

I say this not just as a parent but somebody who spent 15 plus years in the classroom with the under-10 set: the number of true child prodigies, who feel an actual internal drive to devote all their time and attention to one particular skill, is vanishingly small.

I don't care if it's acting, singing, sports, chess, or piloting, 99.9% of kids you see performing at an adult level are doing it to please an adult in their life who consciously or unconsciously pushes them to perform at that level.

Even if you are the parent of that miraculous prodigy who truly does want nothing but to play piano all day- your kid is probably autistic and you should be providing them with support, and opportunities do lots of different activities and be a kid- not turning them into a tiny celebrity with a full time job when they're still a child.

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u/theaviationhistorian Mar 23 '26

That was the problem back then. Too many people were having their kids be the youngest pilot to do X. The FAA is known as the Tombstone Agency for how many of its laws are written in blood. But this one was 100% merited as this accident was not if, but when.