Natural hairstyle and individuality

As regular readers will know, Fintan, four, has curly hair. Yet, we live in Singapore - a "Land of the Straight-Hairs", as I call it. Basically everyone, apart from foreign visitors, has straight, black, flat hair.

A few days ago, Syahidah took Fintan to the Science Centre, in Singapore. This is a kind of interactive Science Museum - though not as extensive as the Science Museum in Kensington, London, that I remember from my childhood, it is still worth a visit, particularly for children.

While wandering around the exhibits, Syahidah noticed two children who looked rather surprising: they both had curly hair.

"Look Fintan!" she pointed them out to him, "They are like you."

He looked and he saw and then he spoke a little disenchantedly, "Yeh, but who is the father?"

His arm picked out a man far away across the room, amidst the bustle of many people coming and going - a curly headed man. How he spotted the man in such a crowded, busy, poorly lit, room is a marvel - but being sharp of eye is typical for Fintan.

There was too much separation between the children and the "father" so Syahidah watched him for a while. Soon enough she saw him close the gap between them and interact with the kids: sure enough, he was the father.

This was one of the only occasions that Fintan has ever seen another curly headed person. Two things are interesting here: first, he was very quick to scan the environment and link the distant curly headed man as father to the nearby curly headed children. But also, it is telling, perhaps in a sad way, the conclusion he drew from this: that those children had reason enough for their curly hair - but he did not. You see neither his mother nor his father have curly hair - but we both have slightly wavy hair. It seems that two genetic doses of "wavy" is enough to make hair curly.

Why do I write this? Well, Fintan feels set apart by his appearance here, in Singapore. No other child of his acquaintance looks remotely like him. He doesn't look Malay (but is half-Malay), he doesn't look Irish (but is half-Irish), he doesn't look Chinese (but speaks it a little), he doesn't look Indian (but occasionally eats their food!). He has no real visual affiliation with any of the basic groupings of Singapore. Being of two different racial lineages, he looks only like his brothers. Allied to this disparity of race, is his hairstyle - abundant, never straight, curls, with plenty of natural body - and this makes him feel marked out from his fellow children. That feeling is unlikely to ever leave him, unless we live somewhere else.

Even Syahidah's attempt to make him feel that there were others, by pointing out the curly-headed children fell flat - because the father's appearance made it clear where their appearance comes from: Fintan has no such understanding of his origin. He cannot say to himself: "My hair looks like Daddy's" or "My hair looks like Mummy's". The fact is, it looks like neither's. Perhaps, then, he feels a little unanchored, a little set adrift. He needs to be moored to the facts of his origin - in a comprehensible visual way - but, owing to his mixed genetic lineage, he cannot really have that. The admixture has obscured his origins - and made something new.

Yet, I am happy for him that he is different. He is different in many ways - and not just hair. He is very much himself and unlike any other. In time, I think he will come to appreciate that and learn to be content with the way things are. It is just that, at four years old, finding common ground with one's fellow youngsters is a big social issue.

I look forward to the day when he is happy to be a stocky, curly headed, half-Irish, half-Malay, handsome man!

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and nine months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and two months, and Tiarnan, nineteen 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, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

SMRT an unfair taxi fare

This is a post for Singaporeans or those who are to visit Singapore.

Like many who live in Singapore, I not infrequently take a taxi. They are often more convenient than other forms of transport and, because they don't stop at regular intervals throughout a journey, like buses or trains (the MRT), they tend to be quicker. Yet, sometimes they don't seem so good.

A few days ago, I booked a cab. My wife made the call and, seeing that there was just no way on Earth that the cab would arrive before 9.30 am, we thought that we would avoid the penal surcharges that are levied for a booking before 9.30 am. For those who are unaware, the standard starting rate for a taxi in Singapore is $2.50. However, if you book a taxi in the morning, there will be surcharges amounting to another $6.00 making the starting rate $8.50. This comprises a "peak rate" of $2 and a booking fee of $4.00. So, it is more than three times more expensive to take a taxi before 9.30 am, if you book, than if you wait until after 9.30 and don't book. At least the starting rate is that much more expensive.

We got into the cab at 9.39 am - well after the watershed of 9.30 am - and journeyed to our destination. I was rather surprised then, when we arrived, to see the "booking fee" of $4.00 added to my bill.

"Why are you charging me this when your cab didn't arrive until 9.39 am?" I read this time from the receipt.

"Ah, that one is the taxi company: they charge you from the time you book."

He pointed at the time on the booking record: 9.27 am.

Great. So, because my wife picked the phone up at 9.27 am we were charged as if we were travelling at that time.

So, in Singapore it is not the time you travel that determines the charges - it is the time you decide to travel that really counts!

Unless it doesn't bother you to be charged three times as much for the same journey, I would suggest waiting until after 9.30 am to make that call - unless you cannot help it. (Though there is a surcharge for calling after that time, too - though less).

I tried to point out the illogicality of charging a customer a rate for a time not travelled at to "customer service" - but they weren't having anything of it. He mumbled about having to charge that rate "otherwise we have no business...ah".

It is funny really - but the customer service rep justified the charge - and its timing - by saying that his company needed to make money out of the customers. He seemed to be supporting the idea that a company should do what it can to exploit its customers if it gets the chance. I nearly laughed - but instead I put the phone down. It was much more satisfying.

Now, I don't normally complain about poor service or exploitation of the customer, here, simply because there is just so much of it. So I generally "suffer in silence" - it is just that that morning I was so surprised to be charged a surcharge for a time I hadn't actually travelled, that I actually picked up the phone and complained: not, of course, that it did any good.

Yet, it was interesting to learn that, here at least, poor behaviour on the part of a company, is justifiable by its employees because of the desire to make as much money from the customer as possible. I wonder how many other companies around the world, providing a public service, like transportation, would publicly espouse that view?

I had this experience with an SMRT taxi. I don't know if the ruling applies to bookings with Comfort or Citicab or Premiere or any of the smaller firms - but I would not be surprised, since they don't really compete with each other, but tend to move in unison, in the market.

The conclusion from this is that you should not book a taxi in Singapore during the peak period - if you want to travel later than that period - because you will be treated as a peak period traveller, from the point of view of the booking surcharges, no matter what time you subsequently travel.

Happy journeying, all.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and nine months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and two months, and Tiarnan, nineteen 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, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Tiarnan's emotional responses

We live in Singapore. It is a city-state of modest proportions, but great ambitions. As you might expect, it is getting relatively crowded, being a small island with four and a half million people.

A couple of days ago, we were in a taxi being driven through town, with Tiarnan, nineteen months, in the car. He was sitting with his mother, looking backwards, as the car moved ahead. Suddenly, he pointed out of the window, and grinned toothily- his big smile revealing each of his small front teeth, his nose wrinkling up as it always did when he was most happy.

We looked where he had pointed and saw a big expanse of green: nothing more than that - just a patch of grass and trees, battling for survival in the middle of a spreading city. Looking at the green and looking at his smile, I was immediately struck by how great his response to it was: he was really happy to see a patch of living plant life, clambering up a mound of earth by the roadside.

He has shown a love of nature before, but it is becoming more clear that he really loves nature. Many little children wouldn't even notice the presence of grass and trees - but Tiarnan picks them out as worthy of special notice and smiles, abundantly, at their presence. He actually responds emotionally to nature: seeing it makes him happy.

Given Tiarnan's love of nature and Fintan's love of animals, perhaps we should be living in the countryside, and not a city. Or at least, we should make sure they spend more time amidst grass, trees and four legged friends.

I wonder at the future world they will grow up in. The global trend appears to be towards ever larger cities and ever greater encroachments upon nature. Will there be much less of the type of world our children love, when they become self-determining adults? I hope not. It would be a pity if Tiarnan were not to have something to smile about, everyday.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and nine months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and two months, and Tiarnan, nineteen 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, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

In Homeschooling Permission Limbo

We have applied, once more, for permission to homeschool Ainan. In Singapore, one is not automatically free to homeschool: permission must be sought from the Compulsory Education Unit of the Ministry of Education.

Seven months ago, I applied for permission and was told that I would hear from them soon - but I heard nothing. Recent events have led us to understand that we are unlikely to receive appropriate and adequate educational provision for Ainan from the Singapore public school system - despite our experiences of Raffles Insitution, Raffles College and NUS High School for Maths and Science. The provision is insufficient and now we understand that it is intentionally so. So, we are moved to ask for homeschooling once again.

I have written to them explaining that Ainan is not receiving suitable educational stimulation in school and that the educational authorities have made it clear that they are not going to provide for him. I have put the case for homeschooling to them - and I am now waiting for a reply.

I do understand from their first communication, however, that Ainan's school appears to be resistive to the suggestion. I wonder why since they are unable to provide for him?

At this stage, after giving them a year and a half to sort out their response to Ainan - and watching them respond only in the most minimal of ways - we are convinced and adamant that the only way forward is for us to educate him ourselves.

So, we are in a kind of limbo: the schooling system is not providing for Ainan - and the educational authorities have not yet given us permission to provide for him. For as long as this goes on, Ainan will be wasting his time in a school system unable to cope with his particular gifts. I hope this time does not last long.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and nine months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and two months, and Tiarnan, nineteen 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, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

The pace of education for the gifted

Education should match the one to be educated, in terms of both pace and challenge. Yet, unless that child is very average, with no particular gift, they are unlikely to be educated in such a way.

The problem with education is that all people are not, despite political aspirations otherwise, made equal - at least not intellectually - though they may be equal in terms of rights etc. in some societies. Education aims to educate most people in an acceptable way - so it ends up educating for the average person. This may seem fair, but it isn't to anyone who isn't average - which is quite a lot of people - at both ends of the spectrum.

As I sometimes do, I asked Ainan, this evening, whether he had learnt anything in school.

His response was very informative. He spoke in a long-drawn out way, each syllable pronounced with infinite sloth: "Slllllooooooowwwwwmoooooowwwwww!"

He was saying "Slow motion".

For Ainan, 7, school is something that occurs in slow motion. The pace of lessons is glacial. It must be very frustrating for him because I have often observed that, when I am teaching him some quite complex or subtle scientific point, that he quite often cuts me off with: "That's obvious Daddy".

Here is the rub, as Shakespeare might have said: if conceptual aspects of College level Chemistry are "Obvious Daddy" - how does he feel in School, having to learn the most basic of things, at the most tardy of paces?

It is cruel to do that to a young mind. It is cruel to so underchallenge Ainan that he sees school as if it passes in cinematic slow motion.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and nine months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and two months, and Tiarnan, nineteen 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, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Precocity, child prodigy and achievement.

What advantage is there to be being a child prodigy? Does precocity imply greater ultimate achievement? These are important questions for a society, for it helps to know who best to nurture, for the greatest beneficial outcome.

Two Chinese scientists have already answered this question, through their research.

The paper, "Life span and the precocity of scientists", by Zhao Hongzhou and Jiang Gouhua, the former at the Institute of Physics, Academia Sinica, Beijing, (People's Republic of China) and the latter at the Beijing Research Center of Science, Beijing, (People's Republic of China), addressses this issue.

The key observation of this paper is that scientists who embark on their career early and make their name by the time they are 25 years old, eclipse their older counterparts, greatly. Using this selection criteria alone (that of an early start), the precocious scientists exhibited a 44 per cent increase in lifetime achievements and a 1.7 times "life efficiency" index (meaning as it seems).

Now, I can't, at this moment clarify the meaning of the life efficiency statement, because I do not have full access to the paper. I once read the whole paper - a long, long time ago - but have not seen anything but abstracts since. I suppose I should have downloaded it.

Yet, the intent is clear: precocity, at least in scientists, but presumably in all areas, leads directly to greater lifetime achievement.

I recall something else from my original reading which is telling. These scientists were precocious - but not by much. They were only a few years ahead of their peers. They were not in the prodigious range - they were mid-teenagers or so, upon going to University - yet even this advantage of two or three years or so, led to a great difference in lifetime output.

I wonder, therefore, how much greater would the lifetime achievement of true prodigies be: with their many year advantage over their peers?

So, for those who question the value of precocity: there is your answer. A precocious scientist is worth a lot more, in terms of real achievement, than a non-precocious one.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and nine months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and two months, and Tiarnan, nineteen 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, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Child Prodigy Schools: an educational trend.

In various parts of Asia, Child Prodigy Schools are being established. They answer to a social need - even, one might say, a social demand, in Asian culture, that children "perform". What this means is that, in many parts of Asia, so competitive is the culture, that many parents want for nothing less than that their children be prodigious.

Now, a child prodigy is, in my opinion, based on close observation, an innately gifted child. The prodigious gift is something that emerges from within the genetic inheritance of the child. It is very clearly present, from birth. It is not and never shall be, an environmentally bestowed attribute. So where does that leave "Child Prodigy Schools"? Nowhere, absolutely nowhere.

Yet, that doesn't stop Child Prodigy Schools from being opened around Asia. A recent one is a case in point: The Henan Child Prodigy School in China.

This school makes, as these schools tend to do, an outrageous claim. The owner of the school states that he can bestow a "photographic memory" on the children who attend his school. There are, at present, 150 of these unfortunate souls. I will tell you why they are "unfortunate" soon enough.

After receiving his training program, Zhang Xuexin, the Principal, claims that the children are able to memorize textbooks and traditional poems, and recite them - forwards and backwards. He then goes on to state that they are, therefore, "child prodigies". Well, even accepting his proposition that they end up with "photographic memories" (which I don't), being able to memorize a text and recite it backwards does not imply that one is a prodigy. It implies that either one has a good memory - or that one has spent an awfully long time learning the text. A good memory, on its own, does not confer prodigious status either. A child prodigy must be able to think (if they are in a cerebral domain - as, it is supposed, these are meant to be). Memory is a tool of thinking - but it is not, in itself, evidence of active thinking. A good memory may exist where a good mind does not.

I have seen a video of these children demonstrating their "talent" and it is truly chilling. They sit in rows in a classroom with their eyes closed (although some appear possibly to be slightly open - but more of that later). Before them lays an open textbook which they are unable to see (except perhaps those whose eyes appear to be slightly open). They are reciting what I am led to assume is the contents of the textbook, in a peculiarly inhuman, robotic way. They speak in unison, chanting the words from the book. Their faces have no expression. There is no emotion in them, as they chant. Most look terribly tired (one child is later seen to struggle to keep his eyes open and rubs them).

In the whole video the only person who shows some enthusiasm for life is Zhang Xuexin (as I assume the interviewee to be) who bubbles over with the simple joy of being interviewed on TV (at least, that is how it comes across). No-one else smiles or shows positive emotion in the whole video.

Nowhere do I see evidence of thinking, from the children. Nowhere do I see evidence of personality. Nowhere do I see evidence of happiness. Nowhere, indeed, do I see evidence of prodigiousness. I do, however, see a lot of children listlessly reciting words without any enthusiasm for doing so. I see humans made into robots.

Yep, that is a "Child Prodigy School" alright.

There is something more you should know - something which is more perturbing than the rest of the story put together. A kid playing table tennis missed the ball an awful lot. Huh? You say, what does that mean? Well, it could mean a lot. You see Zhang Xuexin has a lot of unorthodox ideas - I could have used the word "crazy" - but I didn't. One of these ideas is that the children would benefit from "absorbing energy from the Sun". To do this, he insists that they stare directly into the sun, periodically to absorb this "energy". There could be a very good reason why these children seem not to open their eyes much - and why they can't seem to hit a table tennis ball - I think it certain that most of them have damaged eyesight.

That boy rubbing his eyes may not just be tired - he may be wondering why there is a giant black spot in the centre of his vision. These children will go blind, for sure, if they follow Zhang Xuexin's regime, for any length of time - and if they follow it at all, they will have damaged eyesight.

Perhaps Zhang Xuexin's master plan is to open a School for the Prodigious Blind, next. I just can't wait to see what their training program is like.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and nine months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and two months, and Tiarnan, nineteen 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, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)