Of larks and nightingales

Can a nightingale become a lark?

I ask because this is the task set by the Singaporean educational system for our son, Ainan.

Larks awaken with the sunrise and greet its first light with their song. Nightingales are reputed to do the same for the moon. They stir at opposite ends of the day. One is a creature of the early morning, the other of the night.

Ainan is naturally inclined to rise late and go to bed late. He is energized by the evening and the night. Indeed, so much is this so is that I have never seen him tired of an evening.

Until now.

On Ainan's first day back at school, he had to rise at 5.30 am for his 6.20 am bus to school. It wasn't easy. The unnatural hour was most difficult for him to adjust to. Waking was a struggle.
Sleeping, however, was much easier. Early that evening, when Ainan would normally be as alert as ever - perhaps more so, by the passing hours - Ainan fell asleep, in the midst of a quiet conversation with me. He just lolled off.

I found this rather surprising, for I have never seen him do this before. Never before, in all his life, had I seen him tired in the evening - certainly not tired enough to actually fall asleep. Ainan is, in fact, one of those for whom sleep is not easily achieved. He would rather be awake thinking, than asleep dreaming.

This new regime is not easy for him, therefore. So, too, it would not be easy for many thousands of other children who are naturally alert later in the day, and tend to sleep late.

Is this really necessary? Could not the nation build enough schools so that there would be no need to have two sessions per school? With a one session system, no child would have to rise at 5.30 am to get ready for school. It really is too early for a young body and mind to have to endure. Unless, of course, they are naturally "larks" and rise at that time anyway. Yet, most children are not (at least the sample that I have known). Few children like to wake at dawn.

Ainan has already mentioned his unease at the new hours, to me. It is not at all comfortable for him. Ainan, the nightingale, is required to be a lark, by a school system that doesn't consider the child.

I suggest that they try an experiment. Ask a nightingale to rise at dawn. If it cannot - then why ask a child to do the same?

A nightingale is a nightingale, a lark, a lark: their nature should be respected and taken into account. The same applies to children.

As for Ainan: I just suppose that he will continue to be unnaturally tired of an evening.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and no months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and five months, and Tiarnan, twenty-two 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.)