Fast Food - Faster Baby Tiarnan

Babies are famous for eating anything they get a chance to put in their mouths. Some babies are more adventurous in this regard than most. Tiarnan is one of them.

Singapore is not only populated by people, but by lizards - millions of them. They seem to get everywhere - even high up in apartment blocks, where we are, lizards are to be found. They are small, fast-moving creatures, that chatter excitedly in a tongue I do not know. It seems unlikely, looking at the speed with which they move, that a baby would have much interaction with them. Yet, Tiarnan is a well-coordinated baby, who moves very fast.

Two days ago, on the 7th December 2006, Tiarnan Hasyl Cawley, aged ten months, saw a lizard on a wall in our apartment. He hurried over to it - and reached out with his left hand to grab it. The lizard was caught completely by surprise at the speed of his attack: Tiarnan had caught a lizard. Now what do you think he did with his wriggling prize? He moved it towards his mouth, and it was only the intervention of a nearby adult, that stopped Tiarnan swallowing his live lizard whole.

It is funny to note this, because it almost seems a family tradition with our babies. Fintan, three, did the same when he was a toddler - though, he succeeded in killing his find.

It surprises me that a baby of ten months can, in fact, hunt. It seems that our early instincts are not far from the surface, if a little baby, can move fast enough and coordinated enough to catch such a fast-moving animal as a lizard.

So, consider this: what is your baby trying to eat for lunch?

(If you would like to read about Tiarnan's gifted brothers, including Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and two weeks, then please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Molecular designer: a chemical genius at work

Ainan Celeste Cawley is seven years old and two weeks, yet last week, he sat himself down and designed his own homologous series of chemicals. This is a series of chemicals with shared characteristics, and which vary across the series in an orderly fashion. He had a particular purpose in mind for these chemicals, which I am not going to divulge - each would perform the stated purpose.

He drew the chemical molecular structure on A4 paper and showed how the members of the series varied across the series by drawing several examples of his series.

It is clear to me that his chemicals would work in the prescribed way: they would perform the function he desired. The structures, too, were correct.

It seems to me an unusual demonstration of the scientific imagination for a seven year old, just turned, to be designing his own chemicals. His creations are viable chemical entities that would have the properties he intends. He often draws chemicals and has been doing so this past year. Yet, this was the first time, I saw him draw an homologous series.

I do not know what he will become - but I can say what he is: a boy who plays with science, as others do with toys, a boy whose ideas are functional aspects of chemical reality, a boy who does what only an adult scientist might be expected to do - to look for new answers to problems, as he has done in this series.

He has many interests. Perhaps one of his interests foreshadows what he will become. If he becomes a designer of molecules, this post would have pinned down the time in which it began.

Happy thinking Ainan!

(If you would like to read more about Ainan Celeste Cawley, my scientific child prodigy son, aged seven years and two weeks, or his gifted brothers, then please go to:
http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Britain rejects its child prodigies

Child prodigies are rare children - so very few children are able to master adult domains while still of tender years. One would have thought that any developed society would treasure, therefore, the few of these children that are found in their midst.

Not so Britain, the only country that I can think of that calls itself Great. I used to live in Britain and there is much that I liked about it...but there is one thing that cannot be liked by anyone with an unbiased mind: an education system that excludes child prodigies.

Recently, in the British media, a case was discussed of a child prodigy, aged 13, who had just completed his A levels, who found every door, in every University, closed to him. Not a single University in Britain would accept a child prodigy. Each said he was too young to be allowed to learn in their hallowed halls. Well, wait just one minute: isn't that the whole point of child prodigies, that they are younger than usual, at any developmental stage? What kind of country is it that SPECIFICALLY discriminates against child prodigies? Incidentally, what kind of future does such a country have? Reason would suggest that an adult genius is more likely to be drawn from the ranks of child prodigies. A single child prodigy could grow up to be a genius who changes the world. Yet, Britain discriminates against child prodigies. No child prodigy is now allowed to proceed to University until they are aged 17. That is rather too late for a thirteen year old A level candidate - and others like him. What is a child prodigy to do in all those wasted years, while his age-mates play catch-up? Grow bored? Lose interest in academia? Forget all that he has learnt? Give up? Is that what Britain wants...for all its child prodigies to give up and start behaving like all the other kids and take a slow measured pace to their learning?

It is sad that education should be so partial. Education should be a right for all. Yet Britain is actively denying an education to its, admittedly few, child prodigies.

Any child prodigy in this situation should just leave Britain for somewhere else - for one's intellectual growth should not wait for a country to wake up to what it is doing. If such a child prodigy then decides to stay and make a life in the new country - then so be it. Any country which denies child prodigies an education does not deserve any better.

The Universities would say that it is not their fault. A new law requires them to screen all their staff for their suitability to teach children under 17. Yet, there is a sign of great laziness here - and essential stinginess. The Universities have been presented with a choice: either screen their staff for their appropriateness (ie safety) in teaching young children - or don't take such children. Rather than make the effort to screen their staff (and shouldn't they be screened ANYWAY, since a staff member who is a danger to a thirteen year old may very well be a danger to eighteen year olds, too, wouldn't you think?) every University in Britain has chosen the other path: simply to reject all candidates under seventeen automatically. Not one University in Britain can be bothered to make the effort of making its institution accessible to the youngest and brightest students.

So, whose fault is it then: the lawmakers or the Universities? The lawmakers made the law - and they may have meant well by doing so - but the effect of the law is to place a barrier in front of Universities that none of them wish to climb. Yet, to achieve a fair education system open to all, all that the Universities have to do is screen their staff for their safety with children. None of them have chosen to do so. Thus, the Universities of Britain have universally chosen to exclude child prodigies from being educated at all. Those who are best at learning are not allowed to learn, if they live in Britain.

Maybe Britain was "Great" once...but by excluding child prodigies it is not adding to its greatness, but diminishing itself as a nation and quite possibly harming its future. You see, not many children grow up to be geniuses - and it only takes one more genius to make the difference between a great nation - and an also ran. Britain has shown what it wants its future to be: a bit like its present, only worse - Britain, in choosing to exclude child prodigies, also chooses to be a second-rate nation.

What does all of this fuss mean? It means that British Universities are firstly, too lazy to ensure the safety of the children in their midst - and secondly care not at all about the idea that education should be open to all. It is quietly astonishing that EVERY University in Britain, should have chosen to exclude child prodigies, because they would have to do something to be able to accept them. Shame on you all.

(If you would like to read about my scientific child prodigy son, Ainan Celeste Cawley, seven years and two weeks, who doesn't live in Britain and therefore may very well find a University to accept him at the appropriate time, then please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html for a tour. I also write of child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Tiarnan walks downstairs, unassisted

On December 4th 2006, I caught sight of Tiarnan walking down the stairs unassisted. He stepped carefully from step to step and showed no evidence of fear - just an intensity at each movement, always appraising the steps with an attentive eye. Tiarnan is ten months old, so this is unusually young to walk downstairs. Needless to say, he didn't fall. Incidentally, for those who don't know babies well, walking downstairs is much harder and requires much more control, than walking upstairs - which he has already mastered.

At times he wants to climb into his cot - just like his elder brother Ainan used to do when he was eight months. He has long wanted to do this. When we catch sight of him, we stop him from doing so - for we are more concerned for the dangers of falling. It would be interesting to see, however, if like Ainan, he was able to do such a thing.

Tiarnan is proving to be very athletic and attempts things that show a certain bravado. Part of our apartment is split level. Tiarnan has devised a unique way of travelling from one level to the other: climb over a wall that divides them - and drop down into a couch, before proceeding to the ground from the sofa. He has done this quite a few times. At first I was wary, convinced he would hurt himself - but now that I have seen him do it several times, without mishap, I just watch and let him do it. He is happy to do so. He first did this when he was nine months old.

(If you would like to read more about Tiarnan or his gifted brothers, including Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, or Fintan, three, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, intelligence, IQ, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, baby genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

The youngest motivational speaker in the world

There is something special about Fintan Nadym Cawley's personality. He is only three years old, yet sometimes we find him doing things that show an unexpected maturity - and a social gift.

A few days ago, he went with his aunt, a friend of hers' and a couple of kids his own age to the Singapore Botanical Gardens. The other children were equipped with roller-blades and proceeded to roll around the place (if roll is the right verb...perhaps skate would be better).

Was Fintan jealous at this, that he should stand alone blade-less while the others skated? Not at all. He stood at the sidelines and shouted encouragement. Whenever one of them fell over he would shout something like: "Come on! You can do it! It is not so difficult!"

What is very interesting about this is that this desire to encourage and support comes from within him, since he is not imitating another. He has never seen or heard a motivational speaker. He would not know what one was if you used the words - for he has never heard the phrase. Yet, being a motivational speaker is precisely how he behaved on the day. He could not participate, but far from feeling jealousy, he urged them on, encouraging and guiding them in whatever way he felt appropriate.

This social behaviour of Fintan's is as astonishing, in its own way, as Ainan's intellectual behaviours are - and in the real world it has at least as much - perhaps more - utility.

When it came time for the session to come to an end, Fintan walked up to the boys and said:

"You should come home to my place: we have got a TV and food..." He said in a gentle sale.

Charmed, they came.

I find it interesting that skills such as salesmanship and motivational speaking can emerge spontaneously from a child, without a prior example to guide him. I think that it is a talent in itself - a kind of social intelligence. Perhaps the more trendy observers would call it emotional intelligence. Whatever it is called Fintan Nadym Cawley shows it abundantly. (And he looks like a teddy bear, which only adds to his charm.)

Here's to Fintan: the world's youngest motivational speaker - and a gifted natural.

(If you would like to read about Fintan's gifted brothers, including Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, the please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted adults and gifted children in general.)

The Song of the Sun: Celestial Music

Science is rich in beauty for those who know how to see it. Ainan Celeste Cawley, my seven year old scientific prodigy son, is one such. Ainan appreciates the beauty of science...and has beautiful scientific thoughts.

The other day, he said: "Daddy, did you know that the Sun is singing?"

I didn't.

"You can't hear it, though, because there is no air in space, and it would be too low a frequency to hear anyway, but it sings like this:" and then he sang, the song of the Sun.

It was beautiful to hear his impression of our celestial neighbour, the song of a star, of our Sun. It alternately rose and fell, a sort of stellar lullaby.

There was truth, then, in the "music of the spheres" of which the Ancients spoke. Astronomy speaks of many beautiful things - a pity that most earthbound humans spend too little time looking up, to see how vast our Universe is.

Ainan looks up. What does he see? A Sun that sings - now that is poetic.

(If you would like to read more about my scientific child prodigy son, aged seven years and one week, or his gifted brothers, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks)

Diamonds and dolomite, the mineral collector

Today, we were at a wedding, but Ainan was most upset. He clutched, in his hand, a brown jewel pouch, in which he kept stones, precious to him, if not to others. He had lost one, and he grieved for it, at the dinner table, surrounded by gaudily dressed wedding guests, festooned in finery and jewelry, emeralds, rubies and diamonds, gold, silver and platinum - and no doubt a fair share of faux diamonds: zirconia and the like. (One never can tell at a casual glance...at least not for the amateur eye).

At weddings of this kind, everything and everyone sparkles - but there was one sparkle missing. Ainan had lost a rock, a stone, a bright, polished sample of a mineral.

He was inconsolable. What had he lost? Well, if measured in carats it was probably about 300 carats. One of the world's biggest diamonds perhaps? The delicately acquired product of a South African diamond mining operation? Not quite. Ainan had lost his dolomite: a light green shiny stone, of no great worth, but huge in sentiment for him.

In his bag were samples of various minerals that he had gathered together: quartz, jostled against agate, and amethyst, and many other loose stones of which I do not know the names. One among them had gone: the only green stone - dolomite.

This fledgling geological collection of Ainan's reflects an earlier interest in geology which first surfaced when he was eight months. At that age, he had a collection of aesthetically chosen loose stones, and shells, which he would study in absorbed silence. He had collected these loose stones himself, in his wanderings, since he had learnt to walk two months previously. Thus, Ainan's return to this interest in geology and mineralogy is a return to an old interest - if it is proper to speak of an old interest in a seven year old.

They are not just rocks, to him, but precious stones, each alive with a vivid power in his mind: he knows what they are made of, where they come from...many things that most people never know.

Again, I do not know what will be made of this island of professional interest in the years ahead. Does it signal a geologist to come?

We will see. Minerals are but one of his many scientific interests. One thing that was revealed today, by his reaction, is just how important these things are to him.

Children have many interests - but for Ainan Celeste Cawley, my scientific child prodigy son, Science is the centre of his focus: it is that which brings him joy.

I suppose I will have to go and find some dolomite, now.

(If you would like to read more about my scientific child prodigy son, Ainan Celeste Cawley, aged seven years and one week, or his gifted brothers, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted adults and gifted children in general.)

Leonardo Da Vinci's Last Words

For many years, I have mulled over the last words of Leonardo de Ser Piero da Vinci.

Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15, 1452 and died on May 2, 1519.

As you no doubt know, he was a true Renaissance Man - a man gifted in many areas. He was an inventor, a scientist, a painter, an architect, an engineer, a military engineer, a musician, both as performer and composer, able to sing and compose songs spontaneously, a noted anatomist, a geologist, a geometer, a mathematician, a sculptor, a physicist and astronomer, a Roman Catholic and a vegetarian. He was the quintessential polymath, who could turn his hand to anything and acquit himself as well - usually better - than any man of his Age. There is much more that I could say about this astonishing universal genius - and I have written one post about him already. http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/09/did-leonardo-da-vinci-exist.html However, it is to his last words that I wish to draw your eyes.

I cannot read Italian in the original, nor would I be familiar with any dialectical variations attendant on the sixteenth century Italian he would have spoken, so I have had to rely on translations.

Many years ago, in a book now forgotten, in a place unremembered, I read what were stated to be the last words of Leonardo da Vinci - and it is this first version or translation of his final utterances that remains my favourite.

"I have offended God and Mankind, by doing so little with my life."

Think about that. The greatest universal genius of all time, thought that he had done nothing much with his life. Isn't that a humbling thought?

He died in the arms of the King Francis, the King of France: the highest honour that could be accorded in the situation, the King being divine.

I have since seen two other, different versions of these words and rather wish that I was familiar with the original Italian language.

"I have offended God and Mankind, by not having worked at my Art as I should have."

and "I have offended God and Mankind because my work did not reach the quality it should have."

All three versions agree that he was expressing dissatisfaction, either with himself or his work. In a way, this is tremendously sad, that he should summarize his life of struggle and achievement in this way. It seems that his inner vision of what he sought to achieve was ever higher than the result.

If only Leonardo da Vinci could know how much he is appreciated almost five hundred years after his death. Perhaps, then, he would not be so worried about having offended Mankind by his lack of personal effort. Rest in peace, Leonardo.

(If you would like to read about my scientific child prodigy son, Ainan Celeste Cawley, seven years and one week old, and his gifted brothers, then please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted children and gifted adults in general. Thanks.)