Beyond this, Gracie also had senses of timing and spatial skills that many also often lack. This is a sort of neurodiversity piece which some are either lifted up or pulled down by within our literacy-focused teaching system.

It may be a skill she's focused on improving, or one which she's naturally gifted and might improve upon to use in a professional career. Focusing on a literacy-only framing for her education is the sort of thing that, instead of amplifying her talents, may have the effect of completely destroying them, and her altogether.

Academics (and other knowledge workers) tend not to focus too much attention on getting better. Skills development happens in an ad hoc way rather than a structured and focused approach to improvement.

This is something that I've been thinking about in terms of career growth, and how one of the things we expect of engineers as they become more senior - is that they can take on leadership roles, level up other people, etc - but we often don't provide them with the tools or opportunity to work on these skills, or go into what skills are required to go into this tk.

Davies, Catherine, Alexandra Hendry, Shannon P. Gibson, Teodora Gliga, Michelle McGillion, and Nayeli Gonzalez-Gomez. ‘Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) during COVID-19 Boosts Growth in Language and Executive Function’. PsyArXiv, 10 March 2021. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/74gkz.