The Secret of the Power Rangers

Are the Power Rangers hiding an operational secret? Fintan has the answer.

Yesterday, we decided to go to the Jewel Box on Mount Faber - a hilltop restaurant venue overlooking Singapore and Sentosa. It affords great views of the city from one of the highest vantages in the region. More of that, however, in another post.

We were with my mother and sister. So, with my wife and I and three kids, that made far too many for one taxi. Thus, we had to take two.

I went with my immediate relatives - Syahidah took everyone else, in a separate cab.

Syahidah was, perhaps, feeling a bit mischievous. She told the driver: "We're in a race. If we arrive second, you have to give us a discount!"

The driver was game, and nodded his agreement.

Ainan piped up at that moment: "You have to win - but you can't break any traffic rules."

The driver laughed at that. Ainan was clearly considering the issue of speeding (he is a careful boy).

The race was on. The only problem was that the driver wasn't sure where he was going. He soon got lost, Mount Faber being a rarely requested destination (I, for one, have only visited it once before in the last seven years).

At a loss, he picked up his hand phone and called someone for help. He spoke in rapid-fire Chinese.

Syahidah turned to Fintan, four, and said: "See Fintan, he is calling the Power Rangers for help."

Fintan looked stunned, "The Power Rangers speak Chinese!", he exclaimed, flabbergasted. Nothing could have been more of a surprise.

The next time he met a Power Ranger, he would know how to address them.

For the remainder of the journey, he looked at the driver with respect, no doubt thinking: "That man has the phone number for the Power Rangers."

When Syahidah arrived at the Jewel Box, she found us waiting there, already.

The driver duly gave her a discount, as promised. Any friend of the Power Rangers, keeps his word.

It was a comical beginning to a great evening.

Maximal enjoyment.

How to be a parent is a question that troubles many a new parent. There are no simple, nor universal answers. How to parent depends on values, outlook, aims, culture, religion, society and many other factors. Consequently, there is no single answer applicable to all. There will be as many answers as there are children - for that is another factor, too: the nature of each child.

All this makes parenting a difficult matter, with no clear rules.

Today, for example, presented a parenting challenge which many may meet.

We were at Sentosa, Singapore's resort island, with my mother and sister. We were sitting having a drink in the shade, by a set of pools with fountains in them. Suddenly, Tiarnan made a break for it, running away from us, towards the pools. I got up and followed him. However, he managed to reach the pools before I did, and leapt in, up to his shins in water. He laughed. I dragged him out and back to our seating.

It was not long, however, before he saw another chance, while we were distracted and ran away again, this time leaping fully into the water and lying down in it. He was drenched by the time I got there. Seeing him like that, I made a decision to let him play.

He was soon joined by Fintan and the two of them began to run from pool to pool, splashing each other, lying in the water - and even trying to taste it (to a loud rebuke from me). Tiarnan and Fintan both took to standing on top of the fountains trying to block the outflow of water. Tiarnan at times sat amongst the gushing outlets and let it flow all over him.

It was notable that no other children were in the pools. They were ornamental and weren't meant for this use.

Passersby would laugh and stop and take photos, in particular of Tiarnan, the frolicing one year old.

One elderly Indian tourist applauded, saying: "Maximal enjoyment!" at the sight of Tiarnan playing in a pool.

I let them play not until they tired, but until I did. For I followed Tiarnan from pool to pool, ever on guard, beneath the hot sun, against accidents. After perhaps half-an-hour, I had had enough and dragged Tiarnan out, much to his dismay.

Fintan didn't come easily, either.

Now, other parents didn't let their children play so. Their concern was for public decorum. For me, however, it was a great pleasure to watch my children's joy, while they played in the water. So what if they got wet? So what if their clothing would take an hour or two to dry out? (For both were fully clothed when they first entered the water). None of that mattered. What mattered, for me and for them - was that they should, as the stranger said, get "maximal enjoyment" from their day on the island. That is far more important to them, in their childhood, than that everyone should think my children are under tight control (as so many of the other children are).

I prefer my way of bringing them up: it is called letting them play.

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

Breaking the 600 barrier

This is my six hundred and second post. The total in about fourteen months, surprises me.

So, although only a handful of posts are listed on the left-hand side bar, there are over 600 hiding here, on this blog.

Happy reading.

The flipside of reservation in the classroom.

There is a flipside to my previous post which I think I should explore.

Society can be most unkind to those it needs most. No-one is more necessary to the future progress of society than its most gifted members - yet, how are those gifted people, young and old, treated in the world's societies?

Well, many a gifted child finds out, quite quickly, through harsh social feedback that, in many societies, being gifted is about as acceptable as being a leper. The more outstanding a child, the more they tend to find that they are not accepted. Of course, there will be exceptions. There will be schools and perhaps even societies that are more welcoming but, in general, this is a global truism.

Ainan has learnt discretion. He has learnt to keep quiet with his thoughts, his observations, his knowledge, in a social setting. He has, it seems, absorbed the lesson that, to stand out, is to be excluded.

This is not as it should be. No gifted child should fear to be themselves and show themselves in public - yet, in so many parts of the world, they are. Giftedness is often something to be masked, to be hidden, to be denied, so that the gifted child might blend in and be accepted. Of course, in doing that, the gifted child is dying, day by day: they are denying themselves and, in so doing, are also destroying themselves. In time, they may forget who they once were. By submerging their gifts, over time, they may lose ready access to them. A child who doesn't express their gifts, is a child who is not developing them, either. The day may come when they truly do blend in - and what kind of victory is that? Their acceptance has been at the price of their true self.

No child, anywhere in the world, should have to hide who they are. I understand that that is an ideal statement that has little hope of being met by the reality of the world we live in, as it is today but, in time, the world may change. One day, the gifted children might be accepted as they are, in all classes, of all schools, in all aspects of life, in all nations, everywhere. I would like to see that world - but I may not live long enough to do so. Such deep change is slow to take hold in the world.

I coined a word, long ago, on this blog: "Giftism". I would say that Giftism is the last prejudice that still seems to be socially acceptable. It is time that it was no longer accepted.

Every gifted child should be free to be themselves, everywhere. They should not need to consider what is socially discrete - nor what is likely to win friends or lose them. They should just simply be allowed to be, free of any social encumbrance, hindrance or penalty.

Wouldn't that be a better world, than the one my son is adjusting to, in his ever-so-discrete way?

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

Reserved silence and social maturity

I had the privilege to observe Ainan, yesterday, in an impromptu classroom situation.

It was at a Science Show in the Mall event. These are events put on by the Science Centre and ASTAR - Singapore's Agency for Science Technology and Research (I think that is how it goes).

It was an all afternoon affair, but it was the end of it, that drew my attention.

Ainan sat with perhaps 50 other kids, listening to the presenters who were asking scientific questions of the audience. At every question, one, two or three kids would raise their hands, their faces straining to be the one chosen to answer. Ainan, however, was much cooler than that. He sat, with his mother and, instead of raising his arm would lean over to her and relay the answer to her.

I was some distance away but I could read the answers on his lips. Then another child would be chosen to answer. They would go up, answer the question into a mike, then receive a prize. Ainan, however, didn't rise to this particular bait - prize or no prize, he never let his arm rise into the air. He just leant over and answered each of the perhaps twenty questions to his mother. He made no effort to draw the presenters attention to himself, he didn't shout out an answer nor raise his arm.

I thought this very revealing. It seems that Ainan has learnt the social value of discretion. What benefit would come to him from answering all the questions? He would learn nothing more - but he might alienate the other children. So, what did he do instead? He answered none of them publicly - yet I could see that he knew the answers. He was taking a more discrete path.

I found myself impressed by this. It seems that he has acquired a certain social wisdom in the past year. He has learnt that it is better to be discrete than to shout out one's knowledge. He is more likely to have friends that way, and more likely to be accepted. He has, it seems, no need for the ego boost that comes from being seen to be the one who knows. He, instead, prefers to know that he knows - and to let his mother know, too. That is enough for him.

Ainan is, it seems, learning how to adjust to the social world rather more effectively than I had hoped. Relatively few gifted children learn to be this discrete, so early on - after all Ainan is yet only 7. It is a hopeful sign, therefore, that he will be able to navigate the social issues ahead that he shall no doubt face.

I wonder how many teachers, however, would understand the quiet child, who knows but doesn't show that he knows? Most would misunderstand, of course. Yet, what he would lose from the teacher, he would gain from his fellows: so it might, indeed, be a fair trade. It is no good having one teacher on your side, when to do so, you lose 40 kids. That doesn't seem wise. Ainan has chosen the socially more enriching path. A reserved silence is what one can expect from this particular gifted child in the classroom.

What do you have to do to find out what's on his mind? Have a quiet chat with him, away from the multitude of observers. Then he will let his guard down.

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

Visitors from afar: mother and sister

My mother and sister are in town, here in Singapore, for awhile, to see, among other things their young relatives, Ainan, Fintan and Tiarnan (and their slightly older ones, too).

Tiarnan, of course, is a new face for them, not having drawn breath the last time they saw us.

I would like to welcome them both to Singapore...and hope that they have a good time here.

I won't detail their doings here: just to say that it is good to see them, again, after so long.

The memory of a toddler

It is said, by some, that young children don't form long term memories. The impression is that they don't retain much of their daily life, for long. I have come to doubt that.

On the 12th November, twenty-one month old Tiarnan saw a Christmas tree in a shopping centre.

He ran over to it excitedly and reached up to pick up at the baubles. That wasn't what got my attention. What did, was his words as he did so: "Mismas! Mismas!" he said. He had remembered Christmas, from a year before when he had been ten to eleven months old.

Now, he had not heard the word Christmas, either, since last year - so his rendition of it: "Mismas" is a memory of word long unheard and long unused. This is another indicator that young children do, in fact, form long-term memories, and are able to recall them much later.

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