Plagiarism and creativity: original thinker - or derivative copyist?

Is your child creatively gifted? Does your child have new ideas? Fresh conceptions? Original viewpoints? If so, your child could grow into a genius. This presents great promise, but great danger too. You see, it is most likely that your child is surrounded by people who do not think in original ways. The children your child goes to school with may look on his or her ideas acquisitively. The adults your child comes into contact with, may not be paying rapt attention to your child out of altruism, but out of acquisitiveness: the desire to "adopt" an idea that drops from the lips of your child.

Why do I say this? Well, it was my experience in school that whenever I did anything original, whether it be an artwork, a story or a creative idea of any kind, that others would imitate me, pretty quickly. It was disheartening to see echoes of my work in others. Worse still, however, was to see my childhood work, as a child artist, made into advertisements years later. Presumably my fellow students, or others who had seen or heard about the works, had used my ideas later, for personal, professional and monetary gain, claiming them to be their own. It was sickening to see. Why am I sure that the origin of the advertisements lay in knowledge of my works? Simple: the idea, and composition of the images were the same in every significant way. I don't believe in coincidence in matters of art. There is an infinity of possible imagery. If someone reproduces all distinct elements of your work, they have not done so by some independent miracle. They have stolen your work.

A British artist has even built his reputation on ideas lifted directly from an unguarded conversation I had, while at Cambridge. We were at the same college. This man has become famous on the basis of stolen ideas: he is, in effect, an artistic fraud. Such a matter is very difficult to pursue. He would, of course, deny the conversation in question - and pursuing it is a very expensive course of action, legal fees being what they are.

So what should the parent of a creative child do, if they wish to prevent the sorry circumstances above from becoming their life story. Firstly, advise them to be circumspect as to whom they discuss their ideas with. Nothing is more easily stolen than an idea. It seems sad to urge them to such caution, in their young and supposedly free lives - but people have long memories - and the people they share their childhoods with can easily profit later in life from the ideas they acquired from your child.

I cannot think of anyone at my school who was not essentially derivative in outlook. Much the same can be said for most of the people of Cambridge University. Therefore caution is to be advised at all stages of your child's education. Don't think that the academic staff at University won't find "inspiration" in your child's thoughts either - for that type of plagiarism happened to me too.

(For posts on Ainan Celeste Cawley, six, a scientific child prodigy, and his gifted brothers, go to:
http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html )