Is school food junk food?

When I was at school - which seems both long ago, and not long ago at all - the food was generally filling, stodgy, and rewarding to childish appetites - that is, not healthy at all, in general. Some things don't change. School food today, is, in many places, just as worrisome - perhaps more so.

Yesterday, Fintan went on a school trip. He enjoys these for they give him a chance to see the wider world in operation. His school seems particularly fond of these external activities and not a month passes by without its quota of such visits to places of all kinds.

After he had come home, he enthused about what he had eaten. "I had bread with sugar on it...and french fries." he told us.

I couldn't quite believe what he had said, but I didn't need to ask him to repeat it - for he did so anyway. I think he knew these were things we would not feed him - and so, in this context, they were a kind of treat.

We raised the matter with his school since I, for one, was concerned that this might constitute his daily diet, at that school.

"Today? Oh, when they go on a trip - the teacher makes sure they have a snack."

There are many snacks in the world - but I am not sure that "bread with sugar on it" qualifies as reasonable food for a child - or an adult or even animal for that matter. Some things just should not be eaten - and something so evidently lacking in nutritional wisdom is one of them.

There is a readily available snack, that is lightweight, portable, nutritious - and, in this part of the world, at least, inexpensive. It is called a piece of fruit. Why don't schools think - really think - of the health of their charges and organize a little trip to the supermarket, before any such school trip, so that teachers don't end up buying the kids plastic, empty, life-threatening junk foods?

It mystifies me, that after so many decades and so many generations of protest about school foods - that they should still consist of the most unhealthy choices available, in many places.

I have never eaten "bread with sugar on it" in my life - and I don't see why my four year old child should be fed it while under the care of his school. That sentiment applies to the French fries, too.

The last thing a parent wants is for the school to instil in the child, a taste for junk food. Such a hankering can become a lifelong desire - with disastrous consequences for the child (who will thus become an unhealthy, short-lived adult).

Schools should understand that they have greater responsibilities than just the education of their students: they need to attend to their health and happiness, too.

(If you would like to read more of Fintan, four years and one month, or his gifted brothers, Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, seven years and eight months, and Tiarnan, eighteen 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 children and gifted adults in general. Thanks.)

The Open University is closed.

The Open University is a UK institution formed with the idea of opening up a tertiary education to people who would not otherwise be able to access it. Many have taken degrees while holding down full time jobs, pursuing their studies, at a distance, without having to be resident in a University (though they do have short-term residential modules, too). All in all, it sounds like a good idea...but it isn't flawless.

I decided to see just how open, the "Open" University really was. I wrote to them, telling them of Ainan, 7, and his need to continue his studies at a University, in the near future. How near that future is, depends on how long I can keep him satisfied at home, on my own resources - for no educational provision that he is receiving on a formal basis is presently meeting his needs. Obviously, I will not be able to keep him stimulated indefinitely: my home, for one, lacks a lab and there are many things I cannot teach him purely from the context of a book and his Dad. He teaches himself many things, too - but again, there are limits - for we don't have personal access to the equipment he would need to develop the practical side of his gifts.

Therefore, I am looking at the University issue, for Chemistry. I thought that the Open University might make it relatively uncomplicated to move on to higher studies since their courses were specifically designed for distance learning. Ainan would be able to pursue a degree with them, while handling whatever other matters he needed to attend to, here in Singapore. That was the idea, anyway.

However, after a few days, I received the following reply:

Dear Mr Cawley

Thank you for your email.

Study with the Open University is normally open to individuals over eighteen years of age; however, we do have a Young Applicants in Schools Scheme (YASS). Unfortunately, Singapore is outside of the area in which the YASS scheme is offered and therefore I am afraid we are unable to offer any study opportunities for your son.

I replied to them, but they didn't get back to me.

Thus, despite describing themselves as "Open" - and despite having been founded on a principle of opening up education to new people who do not have access, Ainan was refused on the basis of age - and bureaucracy. There is an allowance in their scheme for Young Applicants - but that only applies to the UK as far as I am aware.

It seems to me, that often with institutions, the spirit with which they were founded gets lost along the way - so it seems with the "Open" University. They were brought to being with an admirable purpose, but it is not true to say that they still fully serve it. Ainan is outside the norm with regards to his academic needs - a University founded on serving those who do not fit the norm, really, really should have made an exception to any rules that stand in his way: that would have been serving the spirit with which it was founded - and not the letter of any bureaucratic encumbrance that has since accreted.

Not many children need to go to University significantly early (except perhaps in America, where the academic demands ramp up much more slowly than in Europe) - so it should not be beyond universities to make the few exceptions that need to be made to allow these prodigious children to flourish. It costs them nothing to oblige and support these children - but there is a very high price to pay for their societies, in not supporting them: a price of wasted gifts.

So, as ever, I suspect, with any parent of a prodigious child, I am still seeking a better academic fit for his needs. The matter becomes more urgent over time - for as his abilities grow, so does the demand in having to meet them. At some point, it may not be tenable to do so alone without the backing of an appropriate institution. We will see. In the meantime, I will do what I have always done: whatever I can.

(If you would like to read more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Tiarnan, seventeen months, or Fintan, four years and no 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.)

Where love is banned.

Travel affords one many unexpected opportunities. In particular, living in a part of the world different from one's formative years, can teach us much more than one might suppose.

Singapore, where I live, has a fairly broad contact with mainland China. There are many mainland Chinese here - living, working and studying. Recently I had a peculiar conversation with a group of Chinese mainland students. The subject of social expectation had come up. On this matter, one girl remarked:

"In China, no-one is allowed to fall in love, in school."

I was shocked at this and so was initially silent. Into this silence, she continued: "Not in middle school or high school - but in University, it is OK."

This young woman, of University age, evidently found my surprise, surprising.

"That is really strange." I couldn't help but remark.

"It is normal.", she shrugged, accepting it.

"So, what happens if a student falls in love in high school?"

"Then they are a bad student." Her words were said with meaning: clearly she had imbibed the viewpoint of her society and made it her own. To her, indeed, such a student would be a wrongdoer and a "bad" student.

"Their teacher will be very angry..." she continued, "and will call their parents. Then their parents will be very angry, too."

I was beginning to feel a little horrified at this point, at the nature of the society she was painting. A society in which young love is greeted with anger; in which the natural feelings of bonding that arise between people in their mid to late teens, should be looked upon as "wrong" and "bad", made me really uncomfortable - queasy even.

I tried to imagine what it would be like to grow up in a society so set against love. Every thought and understanding that came to me was accompanied by the conviction that such a world would be very damaging to human development.

I had never met a truly passionate character from mainland China. By this I mean fired with emotion, driven by it, propelled by it. Such people are very capable of great things. Perhaps, the suppression of emotion which all their young have to undergo is responsible for that lack of fire, as adults. Something suppressed for too long, may very well shrivel up from disuse.

This conversation raises a very important issue. Which is more important: academic success or healthy emotional development? Chinese society has, as I am informed, made the decision that academic success stands above all things - and not even love may stand in the way. In choosing this stance, they have, probably without realizing it, chosen to stunt the emotional development of an entire nation. Yes, they may not be distracted from their studies - for as she further explained: "When you are in love, you cannot study well." - but they will also not experience the natural development of their emotional self. That side will be blocked - for many years. By the time they are allowed to express that side, it will have become muted, through both time and disuse. A dispassionate people will be the result.

Raising a child is not easy - and there are many choices that a parent - or an educator - must make - but from my point of view, no choice should be taken that leads to the diminishment of an individual. Nothing should be done to impair their growth in any way.

Yes, love may distract the students from study - but it would also make them happy in the face of great difficulty and perhaps more able to shoulder the burdens of academic demand which are placed upon them. Disallowing it and making it a forbidden emotion, on the other hand, can only ever have a negative and inhibitory effect on the development of their children. China will be much the worse for it, when these emotionally disabled teens become their future leaders of society.

(If you would like to read of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and no months, or Tiarnan, seventeen 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 children and gifted adults in general. Thanks.)

Super blog readers

As a sequel to my comment about the Finnish reader of my blog, I thought I should add that, contrary to what I had supposed, he or she had not finished reading, at that time. Ultimately, their single visit to the blog amounted to 3 hours, 8 minutes and 8 seconds. They read through 125 pages. Without a doubt, that is the longest anyone has spent on a single visit, to my blog since it began.

Yet, the Finnish reader is not alone. Someone today, from Singapore, spent two hours, eight minutes and 56 seconds on a visit, reading 65 pages.

Thank you all for taking such an interest.

Fintan on teaching reading.

The other day, Fintan, just turned four, took out his book, as he likes to do, and began to read aloud.

However, this day was a little more special than a preschooler reading for himself. He was sitting with his grandmother and he took it upon himself to teach her to read.

He took hold of his grandmother's finger and moved it across each word as he said them aloud carefully to her, to make sure that she understood. He was concerned that the lesson should be clear.

After he had read each line, he wanted his grandmother to repeat it. She did so. At one point, however, to tease him, she read, "Dog" as "Cat."

He paused. He looked at her and very patiently corrected her: "Dog, not cat...why did you say cat?"

"Because the dog looks like a cat.", she explained, inaccurately.

Fintan looked long at the dog, examining it for "cat-ness". After a while, he looked up and said, as if to reassure someone who wasn't quite all there: "It's OK...".

He was very nice about it - but I am sure it did plant some doubts in him about his grandmother's perceptions, eyesight or both. Yet, he was patient with her.

I think Fintan makes a good teacher.

(If you would like to read more of Fintan, four years and no months, or his gifted brothers, Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and seven months, or Tiarnan, seventeen 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 and the natural world.

Tiarnan is seventeen months old. For him, many things are new - and it is in watching him witness them for the first time, that I, in turn, come to a new appreciation of all that is around me. That is part of the joy of being a father.

Today, we took Tiarnan for a walk in a green area nearby. Many of my readers are from America and will not, perhaps, be familiar with the kind of things one can find here, so I will explain, in due course.

We showed him a plant with a special property, today and encouraged him to touch it. Once he did so, the leaves of this dark, low-lying plant folded up at once and hid away, retracting away from his finger. He was quite taken by this, since it is the first plant he has ever seen which MOVES, when touched.

He did it again and again, touching plant after plant and watched them duly hide away.

We indicated that we were to go - and Tiarnan then acknowledged the plants' strange new status by waving goodbye to them. The little green ones had impressed him in a way that no other plant ever had - and so he accorded them personhood. After all: if a plant can MOVE - it must be alive, in an animal-like way - I assume, he thought.

It was very sweet to watch him react this way to the plant. In all his seventeen months, he had never seen a plant react to touch by moving away - and now one had. It was beautiful to see the surprise dance in his eyes. More beautiful still was it to see him wave goodbye to them, as if to a new found friend.

The plant is the Mimosa, found in Singapore, which is low lying and has dark, delicate leaves that behave in a peculiar way. When the plant is touched, the leaves retract, at once, and fold themselves up, in hiding.

There were other things, too, that impressed Tiarnan - but it was the Mimosa, I suspect, which he will always remember.

(If you would like to read more of Tiarnan, seventeen months, or his gifted brothers, Ainan Celeste Cawley, seven years and seven months, or Fintan, four years and no 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.)

The Garden of Eden, Chinese Style.

Living in Singapore, as I do, in the midst of the Asian world, I sometimes hear things I very much doubt I would hear in London, where I used to live, for instance.

Today, I heard something reputedly to be heard on the tongues of Westernized Chinese people.

The remark in itself is both funny and revealing of the culture that speaks it - though I will leave you to think about what it reveals.

Now, Adam and Eve are usually portrayed as Caucasians, in most accounts. However, what if it were different? I heard, today, that it is said, that if Adam and Eve had been Chinese that we would all still be living in the Garden of Eden - because the Chinese would not have spoken to the snake - they would have eaten it.

I thought it was hilarious.

(If you would like to read of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and no months, Tiarnan, seventeen 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.)

A new champion blog reader?

I have noticed that some new visitors to my blog do spend quite some time reading. Some read many, many posts in one go. I find this encouraging for it indicates that I must be writing something of worth to people - otherwise no-one would take such trouble.

Today is a case in point. A reader from Seinjoki in Western Finland spent 2 hours, 37 minutes and 5 seconds reading 96 pages of my blog. I would have to check back, to see past records, but I think it likely that our Finnish visitor is a new Gold Medallist in the blog reading stakes.

IQ and testosterone in children

When most people hear the word testosterone, they think of strength, power and virility. Images might come to mind of athletic muscular men and women might think of handsome chisel jawed figures. These are all, we are led to believe, positive images associated with testosterone - but is testosterone the undiluted "good" that we think it is?

We all know that too much testosterone can lead to an angry, violent disposition - as revealed in the recent murder-suicide by the well known wrestler, Chris Benoit, in whose body steroids were found. So testosterone has its dark side. Yet, there are other drawbacks to testosterone that are not widely known - indeed, some have only been recently observed.

Have a think about this: what would you think would be the influence of testosterone on IQ and intelligence in children? Would more testosterone mean a brighter child? Would less testosterone mean a dimmer child?

A varied group of scientists decided to answer this question and published their results in their paper: Intelligence and salivary testosterone levels in prepubertal children by
Daniela Ostatníková, Peter Celec, Zdeněk Putz, Július Hodosy, Filip Schmidt, Jolana Laznibatová and Matúš Kúdela.

Most of these researchers are from Comenius University in Bratislava in the Slovak Republic, hence their unfamiliar names.

Testosterone has long been believed to influence intellectual function - and determine the sex differences in cognitive abilities between genders. Their study sought to tease out the truth to these matters.

They took 284 prepubertal children aged 6 to 9 years old of both sexes and took samples of their salivary testosterone levels. The children formed three groups: 107 gifted children with IQs above 130; 100 children of average intelligence (IQ 70 to 130) and 77 mentally challenged/retarded children with IQs below 70.

Unexpectedly, a commonality was found between the low IQ children and the high IQ children. Both the low IQ and the high IQ children had LOW LEVELS OF TESTOSTERONE. The children with high levels of testosterone fell into the average range of intelligence. These differences were statistically significant.

There was no significant difference between the high IQ and low IQ groups' concentration of testosterone.

Please note that these results apply only to the boys: the girls showed no significant differences in testosterone between any of the groups.

The researchers did not offer an explanation as to why the low and high IQ groups gave the same result - nor why high testosterone should connote average intelligence. The matter needs further investigation.

I think these results are interesting and have application in our understanding of the world. High testosterone males are usually easy to recognize - but they are not usually outstanding intellectually - now we have a study that gives us an insight into the situation, even if it doesn't yet provide an explanation.

(If you would like to read about Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and seven months, and his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and no months, and Tiarnan, seventeen 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, gifted children and gifted adults in general. Thanks.)