Not a stupid question, but in fact, no… Einstein was not a prodigy. Not quite the opposite, but almost.

Einstein was a bright, inquisitive kid (particularly with the encouragement of an intellectual, older cousin, who gave him science books to read) but he was also a bit slow in school and easily distracted. He was also something of a troublemaker, though this is to his credit, as German secondary schools of the day (called “Gymnasia”) were notoriously rigid and even martial in nature, and one can’t blame the free-spirited Einstein for rebelling. He was also a Jew in a class full of Germans, which made him feel ever-ostracized and “different.”

Consequently, he wasn’t much of a student. His schoolmasters were mostly contemptuous of him, telling him he’d amount to nothing.

His bad habits continued at University, where, again, he wasn’t much of a student unless he was *very* interested in the subject… and even then he rarely attended classes.

Of course, all along Einstein was in fact a genius, and his genius quickly became evident to his friends and colleagues.. and of course became world-known when he published his first Special Theory of Relativity paper.

But a child prodigy? Most definitely not. Rather, a poster-boy for the misunderstood, unconventional, diamond-in-the=rough potential genius.