Jealousy at NUS High School

As you may know, Ainan attended NUS High School for a time. As you probably won't know, we took him out after three weeks because it was clear that he wasn't going to be learning much there. The class offered was not of a level to teach him anything new. They also weren't willing to give him practical chemistry classes, they said: "All our classes are full: we have twenty-five students a class and can't take one more." That is what the Vice-Principal Suresh said to us. So, we didn't send him again.

Anyway, today someone from NUS High School, of about eighteen, wrote a very jealous blog about Ainan and my children. He attacked Ainan, 7, Fintan, 4, and Tiarnan, 1. He said we weren't "decent people". Is this a racist attack, I wonder, given that my children are half-Malay? (The boy in question is Chinese and so this is a potential factor, since "racial harmony" isn't perfect here. His comments were also rather strong.)

I am not going to refer you to the blog. If you have come from it, you should know which I mean. It is clear that he has no idea what a prodigious child is - or how it is defined. A prodigy is a child of adult capability, in an adult area, by the age of 11. By that criteria, Ainan, 7, should be considered a prodigy - for his studies are equivalent to an American Bachelor's degree (A level equivalent - for that is the academic standard of an American Bachelor's degree).

The funny thing is, Ainan is doing a subject at a level of someone the boy's age - yet he argues that Ainan is not "prodigious" for doing so. Ainan is ELEVEN years younger than this boy appears to be. I have not yet read a more jealous piece of writing on the internet.

I am glad, given this boy's attitude, that we took Ainan out of NUS High School: for one boy like that one, is one too many, in a whole nation.

He argues that education is not about allowing children to reach their peak capabilities. He says it is about teaching them to be "decent people" - so stating that my son, and all of us, are not. That is a libel, in itself, and no doubt actionable.

Ask yourself, is this boy an example of a decent person, when he attacks 7, 4 and 1 year olds - and their parents - on the internet? If that is what a decent person is considered to be, what an horrendous society he must come from.

(Note inserted: January 2008. I felt this post was necessary because I had been receiving a lot of traffic redirected from his libellous and offensive post. A defense of the situation was therefore necessary.)

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and ten months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and three months, and Tiarnan, twenty 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, the Irish, the Malays, 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.)

Safety consciousness in toddlers

Tiarnan, twenty months, is a very careful boy. He evaluates his environment, moment by moment and doesn't seem to miss much that would be relevant to him - whether it be an opportunity to do something interesting - or an issue that might be of personal safety concern.

The 21st of October is an example. He started to go downstairs but noted, as he looked ahead of him, a difference in the surface: it had been polished and therefore reflected somewhat more light than usual. He understood what this meant and DIDN'T step onto it. Instead, he sat down, and went down the stairs, not on foot, but on his bottom - one step at a time, bump, bump, bump.

I thought that was a smart response to the situation. First, he understood what a polished surface would mean from the point of view of slipperiness. Then, he had an idea about how he might make the situation safer for himself. It is reassuring that he is so responsive to his environment.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and ten months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and three months, and Tiarnan, twenty 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, the Irish, the Malays, 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.)

Chance meeting with a "family friend"

Today, my wife was in a forested area: a deep, dark, forest. At least, that is what it was as evening approached.

She was with Ainan and Tiarnan, on an adventure. At some point, she encountered a fellow adventurer and struck up a conversation.

As they walked, she talked. "This is his physical education.", she remarked, pointing to Ainan.

The conversation encompased education in general. Finally, being of a mind to know what he thought of the matter, she asked him: "Have you heard about the 7 year old boy?"

"Of course I have," he nodded knowledgeably, "I know the family."

She appraised him carefully on hearing that.

"I know the parents.", he expanded, generously.

Syahidah, the mother of the seven year old in question - had never seen him in her life, before.

It is amazing what the media can do: an appearance in the press can give you friends you never knew you had, friends you have never even met.

How bizarre.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and ten months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and three months, and Tiarnan, twenty 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, the Irish, the Malays, 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.)

Celebrity sighting on a train

Today I had the strangest of experiences.

I was sitting on a train, as I rarely do, since I rarely take a train, when I found myself looking at the newspaper of the man sitting next to me. He was in his fifties, and Chinese. The newspaper was called the New Paper - a tabloid.

Perhaps it is not the best of manners, but there was nothing better to do, on the journey, than read his newspaper as he did. He appeared not to notice.

Then, he turned the page. I felt a tingle of surprise, because there, in the newspaper, was a picture of my son, Ainan, 7, taken by my wife (but available on the internet), next to a brief description of his record breaking feat, in passing an O level at only 7 years and 1 month. It was just a few lines.

Now, this is a newspaper that I didn't expect to cover Ainan, at all - since it only deals in "exclusives" - meaning their policy is to run stories that no-one else has. Yet, that didn't apply to Ainan since he had been on the front page of Berita Harian the day before (and mentioned in another article's first paragraph in an article about "Wonder Kids", in the Straits Times, the leading English language daily, the same day). Ainan's story was not exclusive - yet they had mentioned him.

A feeling of surreality came over me as this man began to read about my son. I studied him, as his eyes studied the few words written before him. His eyes lingered long over them, drinking them in, as if he had stumbled upon a wine of unexpected vintage. It felt so strange that I, Ainan's father, was sitting anonymously next to him, as he read of him. He then looked up from the single paragraph, at the photograph above. Again, his eyes spent long, too, too, long, on Ainan's face and then looked across at the board pictured alongside him, with his chemical equations, scrawled on it. He spent perhaps three minutes on an article that would only take about ten seconds to consume, at a normal reading pace. Then he looked away and read the other page - but, before he turned the page, he looked back, again, at my son's face.

I felt a peculiar warmth as I watched this display. I wanted to smile, but didn't: I just observed him.

All over Singapore, other people were reading of Ainan - and I walked among them, utterly unnoticed. What an odd experience.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and ten months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and three months, and Tiarnan, twenty 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, the Irish, the Malays, 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.)

Singapore Book of World Records

Today, Ainan, 7, is front page of the Berita Harian, Singapore's leading daily Malay newspaper.

The breaking news is that Ainan Celeste Cawley is, now, officially the youngest person ever to take an O level exam. The Singapore Book of Records, Singapore's answer to the Guiness Book of World Records, has officially recognized that it cannot find anyone younger than him, who has passed this level of examination, at anytime. It is an official record.

Ainan's record entry is entitled: "Youngest to attain an O level certificate" and will appear in the new edition of the Singapore Book of Records, in January 2008. Ainan was seven years and one month old when he sat the O level paper in January 2007.

For those who do not know, the O level Chemistry exam that Ainan took is at or above American High School graduation standard. Indeed, by observation of the first year courses at such Universities as Berkeley it is above first year University science courses that I have seen, in America. American Universities recruit O level students directly onto their courses.

So as to preserve the article, I am posting it down below.


Singapura : 22 Oktober 2007


Mudah cetak

BUKU REKOD S'PURA IKTIRAF BUDAK PINTAR

Oleh Halifi Hussin

BUDAK pintar yang lulus mata pelajaran Kimia dalam peperiksaan GCE 'O' tahun lalu pada usia tujuh tahun telah dinobatkan sebagai pelajar termuda Singapura yang berjaya berbuat demikian oleh Buku Rekod Singapura.

Ainan Celeste Cawley diberi pengiktirafan itu selepas mendapat Gred C bagi subjek tersebut, walaupun ketika itu dia baru berusia tujuh tahun satu bulan.

Rekod tersebut telah pun disiarkan dalam laman Internet Buku Rekod Singapura dan akan diterbitkan dalam bentuk buku Januari depan.

Dibentuk dalam 2004, Buku Rekod Singapura mempunya matlamat untuk memberi `peluang kepada warga Singapura mencatatkan rekod dunia.

Ainan merupakan anak kacukan keturunan Irish dan Melayu.
Kepintarannya dalam subjek Kimia mula disedari selepas dia sebelum ini berjaya menjawab buku latihan subjek tersebut, walaupun masih setahun jagung.

Bapanya, Encik Valentine Cawley, 39 tahun, yang merupakan ketua jabatan Bahasa Inggeris di Sekolah Linguaphone Education di sini, mendaftar anaknya dalam peperiksaan itu sebagai calon privet di British Council setelah mendapat tahu tentang kepintarannya.

Ditanya perasaannya tentang rekodnya itu, Ainan, anak sulung tiga beradik dengan tersipu-sipu menjawab: 'Saya gembira dan bangga.'

Ibu Ainan, Cik Syahidah Osman Cawley, 28 tahun, adalah seorang artis yang dapat melukis dengan kedua-dua belah tangannya.

Selain Ainan, pasangan tersebut mempunyai dua lagi anak - Fintan Nadym, empat tahun dan Tiarnan Hasyl, satu tahun.

Namun, bagi Ainan, pencapaiannya itu tidak berhenti setakat peringkat GCE 'O' sahaja.
Pelajar darjah dua yang menuntut di sebuah sekolah kawasan Bukit Timah itu kini mahu pula memecah rekod sebagai pelajar termuda yang lulus mata pelajaran Kimia peringkat GCE 'A'.
Encik Cawley berkata, persiapan telah pun bermula tetapi Ainan menghadapi hambatan sedikit kerana kurang latihan praktikal di makmal.

Namun, untuk mengatasi masalah itu, Raffles Institution (RI) dan Maktab Rendah Raffles (RJC) telah menawarkan Ainan peluang untuk melakukan kerja-kerja praktikal di makmal kimia mereka.

'Kami telah membuat persiapan seperti dahulu, iaitu belajar di rumah. Tetapi masalah sekarang adalah kekurangan latihan praktikal di makmal, namum kami yakin Ainan mampu mencapai kecemerlangan,' kata Encik Cawley.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and ten months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and three months, and Tiarnan, twenty 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, the Irish, the Malays, 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.)

Recent UFO sighting in Singapore

UFOs. Believe in them or not, plenty of people claim to have seen them. This is, perhaps, not surprising, given its meaning: Unidentified Flying Object. If you don't know what it is, if it doesn't seem to be anything you know of human construction and it is flying, then that is, by definition, a UFO. So, it is not just the stuff of alien encounters then, though most people would equate a close encounter with a UFO and meeting an alien being (or their technology).

As ever, I have a reason for writing of something. It is always good to have one of those - otherwise, one shouldn't be writing.

Singapore is a very ordered place. It is a place in which not only does one not expect anything unexpected to happen - but, in fact, nothing unexpected ever does happen. Well, almost never.

Yesterday, Syahidah and I were walking between our house and her mother's house. It is not a long walk, but long enough to stretch those legs and feel that a little exercise has been had.

It was dark and Singapore was, as ever, quiet - in the sense of not much happening.

As we turned on to a road which backed onto some empty land (a rare commodity in Singapore) we saw it - actually, them.

It was very dark up ahead and we could not see any object to determine scale but there, perhaps a hundred metres in front of us, were some relatively fast moving, illuminated objects, going back and forth and up and down in graceful curves. They had blue, white and red lights on them, which seemed to shift colours. I theorized that the colours shifted when they shifted directions, but it might just have been confusion over where they were and what they were doing that gave this impression.

I didn't know what they were. At first I thought that they were cars, in the distance, travelling on a winding road, at high speed. But then, I didn't remember the road up ahead, going up a hill that wasn't there, and winding in a way that would not be necessary - because there was no hill to wind up. There were two of them and, after a while, it seemed that they were chasing each other about. After dismissing the idea that they might be cars and looking at their varied and circuitous paths, I realized that they were flying. Yet, they travelled back and forth and turned about much more often, and quickly, than any plane I had seen would do. Why would a plane take such a path through the sky?

Then, of course, came the thought that many people must have. This, I thought, must be what it feels like to encounter a "UFO". Up ahead, something was flying, but I didn't know what. I looked at the light pattern. It was not that of a plane. The spacing of the lights could not possibly describe the perimeter of a plane. It could, however, describe the perimeter of a more circular craft - though not a circle.

The darkness prevented an estimate of scale and distance, but logically, I realized that they couldn't be as far as they might be - because there was a forested area ahead of us and, to be seen, they must be ahead of the forest.

I thought, then, of the time, long ago, when I was a child, when my parents saw something they didn't understand, and could not explain, in the skies above our rural home. They had called for me to come down - but I had not yielded up the book I was immersed in. Indeed, I did not hear them. So, as I read, something passed by the house, that my parents could not understand or explain - and I never got a chance to see it.

Today, was my chance, then. Up ahead was something I did not understand, and could not explain. It was flying, it was not identified, therefore it was a UFO. Of course, I didn't believe it could be a UFO - it had to be something else.

Then there was the silence. These things flew through the sky, turned in sharp turns and made not a sound. They just flew, with great agility. Sometimes they appeared to land, sit on the ground momentarily, then take off again. These were UFOs with the minds of insects - flitting about, at seeming random, with God knows what purpose in mind.

We walked closer. My wife wasn't so keen on the idea. For, what if they were as they seemed? Would that be so funny? It would be a situation that no human is truly prepared to face: a close encounter with a UFO (and their alien occupants?).

They didn't look like planes. They looked like "UFOs" - yet I conceived the idea that they could be some kind of model aircraft. The only problem with that was that they didn't have wings - and they were almost circular: strange "planes", then.

There in the darkness up ahead was a lighter patch.

"There's someone there.", said Syahidah, interpreting the patch.

It looked like a patch, to me. A column that didn't move, a single brush stroke of deep grey, on a painting of pure blackness: apart from the brightly lit, almost circular "UFOs".

We walked closer, driven by curiosity.

The wild chase of the "UFOs" continued, around and around. Still, given the darkness we had no idea of scale.

Then we saw them. Two men standing in the darkness. Model planes they must be.

As we neared them, we could see what they were: "planes", with lights all around their unconventional, almost circular, circumference. One of the men turned one over to let us view what was beneath: a tangle of electronics. They were about 80 cm across.

"We made them ourselves.", he explained.

I was impressed. I don't think I could have done the same. At least, not without a lot of research, first. Some people have a practical gift - and these two chaps were clearly of that breed.

"They cost us three or four hundred dollars apiece, to make.", he continued.

It was an amiable close encounter, not with "aliens" but with model plane enthusiasts. In Singapore, such a thing seemed almost as strange as meeting true aliens - for very few people here actually make anything. To meet two young men, who actually made something themselves and did so not out of a motivation to make money, but to express some inner creative desire, was special indeed. It was almost as good as meeting actual aliens. It was, if you like, a close encounter of the friendly kind. As is the way of these things, it turned out that my wife recognized one of the men and knew which street on which he lived. So far from being an alien, he was a face she could place. Such is the small world of Singapore.

This funny experience makes me think, however, how many of those alien sightings (or alien "sitings", as they are often mispelt on the internet), come about. What if we had been too scared to investigate? What if we had hung back at a distance of 100 metres and watched those strange "alien" craft, circling and chasing each other with impossible agility in the night sky? What if we had convinced ourselves, after observation, that they could not be planes because of their almost circular shape? What if we had come to believe that they must be alien spacecraft - simply because we dared not to get close enough to determine that they were of homemade, terrestrial origin?

We, too, might have become tellers of alien tales. We might have spoken, for the rest of our days, of how we had had a "close encounter with a ufo", while walking one day, on a Singapore night. However, we haven't because we had the curiosity and the courage to investigate. So, foolhardy as it may seem, if you ever see a "UFO", try to get closer, try to see for yourself what it is you are actually seeing. I would say that it is more than likely that the mystery will resolve itself once you are close enough, really close enough, to have a "close encounter with a UFO". At that distance, it is more than likely that your "UFO" becomes a very identifiable flying object.

Happy sky watching.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and ten months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and three months, and Tiarnan, twenty 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, the Irish, the Malays, 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.)