The importance of personality

I have been pondering the relationship between the observer and the observed with regards to a gifted student. Does what the teacher sees depend on which teacher is looking? I have reason to believe that it does.

In recent times, I have come to observe Ainan in different teaching situations. With some teachers, he opens up and is more fully himself than with others. In fact, with some teachers he is open, energetic, enthused, interested and alert: a delightful student. With other teachers, however, something in him goes on guard and he closes down. He becomes almost inert in their presence, unwilling to engage or contribute, with a tendency to be unresponsive. The child is the same. What is different is the situation he finds himself in. I think this phenomena will not be restricted to Ainan but may apply to many children: the environment in which they find themselves - in particular the match of their personality with that of the teacher will affect, greatly, the effectiveness of the teaching experience. With some teachers, the child - gifted or otherwise - will come alive. With other teachers, the child will close down and disengage and fail to co-operate fully with the learning experience.

What is it that makes Ainan respond as he does? Well, I think that he responds to warmth of character. In the presence of a warm character, he relaxes and opens up and becomes a very engaging and engaged student. In the presence of a cooler character, however, or even a cold one, he withdraws and disengages and doesn't wish to connect with either the teacher or the subject matter that the teacher wishes to relate.

Sometimes, therefore, if a child is not performing as they should in a particular class, you may need to look beyond the child and at the relationship with the teacher: what kind of person are they? How do they behave in the class? Is that kind of person likely to be accepted or rejected by your child?

This question is particularly important when it comes to deciding on the giftedness of a child. More than one teacher's views should be sought. Different teachers will have elicited different behaviour and seen different things. Some teachers may overlook a child's gifts because they have inadvertently switched the child off: other teachers will glow with remembrance of the wonderful child they have had the privilege to teach. The child is the same: it is the teacher who is different.

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

Tiarnan's view of himself

A few days ago, after I had just finished reading a new book, about a robot, to Fintan, three, Tiarnan, fifteen months, piped up.

He had been listening to me read and, when I had closed the book and rose to leave the room, Tiarnan looked up at me and said, quite insistently: "I'm a little robot!"

Now, that is half-right - he is little - but not a robot. It was however very sweet. He stood there, peering up at me, towering above him and seemed to be making himself as big and obvious as he could: "I am here, you know!", he seemed to be saying. He had evidently gathered that the story was about a robot - and the robot was being read about and thought about - so what better an identity - in terms of receiving the focus of our attention, at that moment, than being a "little robot!".

Very funny.

(If you would like to read more of Tiarnan, fifteen months, or his gifted brothers, including Ainan Celeste Cawley, seven years and five months, 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, IQ, intelligence, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted adults and gifted children. Thanks.)

Welcome readers from Italy

Today, I note that there are many hundreds of readers from Italy: welcome. The blog is quite large, so feel free to browse around and come back another time: it is impossible to read it all in one sitting.

There is much to read on Ainan, his gifted brothers and all matters relating to gifted children in general.

Thanks.

Speed Learning Practical Chemistry

Ainan is now studying practical chemistry at Raffles Institution and Raffles Junior College. Regular readers will know this. What you won't know, however, is the nature of the course he is undertaking.

Ainan is doing an A level practical course, condensed into six sessions. You read right: six sessions. In six lessons he is to acquire the fundamentals of A level practical skills. This thought gives me pause. I would like to see him free to experiment, over the long term, in practical matters, exploring his deep interests in Chemistry. Yet, the present need and opportunity are for him to acquire the essence of A level Chemistry skills in only a few lessons. You may be wondering how he can do this - so perhaps I should give you a perspective.

Ainan is familiar with the theory of all that he does in the lab. Thus his experiences in the lab are no more than a physical embodiment of what he has already come to understand in theory. In addition to this, he is very physically capable, being a very hands-on kind of boy. He has always been one to build things and create structures and experiments with his hands, at home: thus the demands of practical chemistry, come naturally to him.

I would, however, like to see a long-term opportunity for him to continue to develop his practical lab experience, allowing him to explore the full measure of chemical techniques and develop the deepest expertise. After this initial course is over, we will see what arrangements can be made and might prove necessary.

For those who are not familiar with the A level: it is of an American college level standard (that is the standard typically reached in an American first degree at University).

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

Tiarnan interprets for daddy

The day before yesterday we were walking in a park-like area in the evening. The only available light was that thrown by nearby buildings across the darkened expanse of tree and grass.

Into this expanse, Tiarnan, fifteen months, who was walking beside us, pointed and said: "Tidur" (if I have the spelling right - I have mispelt it before as "tido").

I knew what that meant and I searched for the animal that it must have been referring to. Though I peered as intently as I might, I could see nothing in the gloom that might correspond to this "tidur".

"What is tidur?", I asked, Tiarnan, thinking another question to the one he logically answered.

He turned at once, in seeming exasperation, at me and said, sharply: "Sleeeeeeep!", in a tone that it made it most clear what he thought of my question: surely you know THAT one, daddy, he was essentially saying.

It was a revealing moment. It showed that he knew my language preference, knew which word to use with Daddy - which for others. It also showed his growing mastery of language - for him, the question had so obvious an answer that it exasperated him to hear it asked.

It was funny to see him take that stance and tone with me. Refreshing.

I never did get to see the sleeping animal he had pointed out: I think his night vision/visual perception must be better than mine.

(If you would like to read more of Tiarnan, fifteen months, or his gifted brothers, Ainan Celeste Cawley, seven years and five months, 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, IQ, child prodigy, intelligence, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted children and gifted adults. Thanks.)

Leonardo Da Vinci: Musician

Someone searched today using the term: "Did Leonardo play a musical instrument?". Knowing the answer, I thought I would reply to them, lest they visit this site, again.

Leonardo da Vinci, 1452 - 1519, had many gifts, but one of them was for music. He composed music, spontaneously, improvising freely as he went - and presumably he recorded some of this. However, no written record of his music survives. So we may never know whether he was, in fact, a good composer, to add to all his other wonders.

We do know however that he had a great reputation for being able to play ANY stringed musical instrument, at first sight, even if he had never encountered the particular type of instrument before. Though, his official instrument was the lyre, he was able to play others, too. Presumably, he was physically dextrous and so comfortable with music as an art, that he could respond to the opportunities and constraints of a new instrument well enough to coax adequate music from it.

So, not only could Leonardo da Vinci play an instrument - he had shown himself able to play any stringed instrument of his time.

Intellectual stars and national success.

Today, I was privileged to have a conversation with a very intelligent Frenchman. I explored with him the matter of the French attitude towards intellectuals - and learnt that theirs is an enviable stance indeed.

Before I speak of what he spoke of, perhaps I should paint a little background to my perspective on his words. I grew up in Britain. This is a country where, in most schools, to be an intellectual is to suffer a kind of social disease. The gifted child will be almost universally ill-treated, if they have not developed sufficient social skills to deflect such attacks. It is a culture that made being gifted a burden indeed - and one that many children tried to shrug off, by dumbing down: they felt that they had to, because the social environment gave them no choice but to do so.

France, however, stands in contrast to this. The gifted child is, according to my French associate, respected by his fellows and, what's more, the gifted child's parents are well-looked upon, for having raised such a child. I was stunned by that. In many cultures, the parents of a gifted child are actually greeted with incomprehension and the view that they have somehow pushed their child into this "gifted" state. The idea that the parents would actually be admired for their child was a new one for me.

It didn't end there. Throughout French society there is a pervasive respect for the intellectually gifted. Intellectuals actually become media stars. They are listened to with respect and their opinions sought on every matter under the sun. To be an intellectual in France, is often also to be a public figure of some standing. How odd. I don't remember Britain being like that, in the main. Intellectuals did not have the prominence that say, a footballer would have, or a Page Three model (a "topless" model), would have. In Britain it was the "celebrity" who had a sway over the people - not those people who actually had a mind to form opinions and a will to speak them.

France actually has celebrity philosophers. That, in itself, says all that we need to know about the situation of the intellectual, in that culture.

The world would be a better place, in every way, were intellectuals received with the welcome, everywhere, that they receive in France. For a start it could begin in the world's schools. If they were like French ones, there would be no jealousy of the gifted child, from their peers - but a widely held respect. That would surely change the life stories of many gifted children for the better.

Yet, the benefits wouldn't stop there. I believe that every nation that adopted this positive attitude towards its gifted, would benefit, thereby. Their cultures would flourish and deepen, their nations would prosper. Why? Because the best among them would no longer have to hide their gifts; they would no longer have to "dumb down" to enable themselves to fit in: they could soar, instead, to the heights they were born to achieve. They could finally, fully become. How much better a world that would be.

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

Thanks to the anonymous commenter

An anonymous commenter wrote at length about her gifted son - but asked me to keep her post confidential. I would like to thank them for their post and point out that I have no means to reply because no email or other means was left.

Feel free to write further if you wish - and good luck on raising such an interesting child.

Best wishes.

Valentine Cawley Celebrity Look-a-likes part two

It is difficult to be impartial in the matter of appearance. Now, however, one can let a computer make the judgements. In the previous post, I ran one photograph through a site that correlates one's features with famous people. (Its purpose is to find lost relatives, actually, through finding genetic resemblances between people reflected in their features.)

Below is the result of trying another photograph. There is variation between them because a different photo will catch one in somewhat different way. It is interesting to note that Jacqueline Bisset comes up again, despite the change of angle. Albert Einstein also correlates to me, at 52%. I hope it is not my hair that did it.

I am not displeased to correlate with Vince Vaughn and Tom Hanks: amiable souls both.

Have fun all.

Celebrity look-a-likes: famous faces

It is said that everyone has a double, somewhere, somewhen: but is that true? In my life, I have met several people who look somewhat like me, some male, some female - but who, of all the world's famous people do I look like?

There is a website called www.myheritage.com that purports to match genealogy using face recognition. One side effect of this is that it can match any face to its databases of celebrities. Clearly this database is not complete since there are a number of celebrities that I have been said to remind people of at various stages of my life, that did not come up as results - such as Ewan MacGregor (who I was more than once mistaken for, when I was younger) - and Ricky Martin (except one of us is plumper...wonder who?!!). However, given the limitations of the database I thought it a very fun exercise to see who, in the world, one looks like: according to the impartial judge of a computer program that measures faces.

The results are served up here. Apparently, I am a sixty per cent match for Donald Trump (I could do with 60 per cent of his wealth, then...) and a 73 % match for David Bowie. Interestingly, I also resemble Jacqueline Bisset - a woman - and Coolio - who is of a different race. I find this refreshing. In going beyond our ways of categorizing people by race and gender and looking at the actual proportions of the face, this software should give a truer reflection of who we actually look like. The results can be very revealing.

The results depend very much on which photo you upload: different photos may give slightly different results if you are caught differently - or were a different age at the time, I suppose (or weight, I would guess: though it managed to see through my poundage and match the features of ultra-slim David Bowie - so I think the software is pretty good at overcoming such impediments).

I will see if I can check other photos for my family members and post the results for you.

So, who do you look like?