The thing I was driven about like that was writing, and anything I saw as contributory to that. So I did get French fluency out of my elementary school immersion classes, when most everybody else didn't, but it didn't require any work, it required paying attention. I could see how being competent to a point at music would make me a better novelist, but not beyond that point, so it didn't matter except as a personal-enjoyment thing, which doesn't need an extremely high level.

No one ever managed to explain to me how, say, algebra could make me a better writer, so I simply never paid any attention. It was obvious that, say, history was necessary, so I drove myself to adult competency in that, but that involved reading a lot, which was easy and the thing I loved most in the world. You see the pattern?

Then I hit something which would make me a better writer and required actual study skills, and ouch.

And also there turn out to be a lot of life skills like taxes that are irrelevant to whether or not you are a novelist, and I couldn't be arsed to pay attention to those as a kid, either.

With me it was more like, everything has to relate back to my obsession, and no one ever pushed me to do anything outside my obsession, and my obsession was a comfort zone. I am not sure what is best to do with a kid like that, honestly, except that nobody ever tried to understand my obsession, or relate anything back to it for me that wasn't obvious.

I have no idea what one ought to do with a kid who isn't self-motivated at all.