The best student writer I have seen.

I have written much about the quality - or lack thereof - of writing amongst the students I have taught, over the years. Rarely, have I seen competency in the most basic of all skills: literacy. However, one student comes to mind as coming closest to what I would consider to be a good writer.

I would like you to think about what kind of person you think this student is. Is this student a scholar? Is this student a girl or a boy? Is this student Chinese, Malay or Indian? In fact, is this student local, at all? Picture the student in your mind. Consider whom you think is most likely to be the best writer I have seen since 1999, while working in Singapore.

The writer in question, is an Indonesian boy.

Were you surprised? Did it upset your preconceived views of who is likely to be the best at a literary task?

When I saw this boy's writing, I was surprised by the vision he showed. He seemed to have a very clear idea of what he wished to say. His writing shone with understanding. Each word was well-chosen and added to the picture he wished to portray. There was also great detail in his writing, detail of observation, thought and feeling. Here, I thought, is someone who knows how to write.

There were occasional blemishes in his work: some words were misspelt, for instance - but overall, he showed great ability in expressing himself with words.

He was a foreign student studying in Singapore, in a normal secondary school. He was not a scholar and was not on any special programme for the "best and brightest" - yet his writing was better than any I had seen since my arrival in Singapore. This made me very curious.

I asked him: "Who taught you to write like that?"

"I taught myself.", he said, quietly, without pride and perhaps without awareness of how good he was.

He had taught himself. That warmed me - and surprised me - in equal measure. I have often observed that the best people at any given task, are often self-taught. The genius of a person can only live when the instructor is oneself.

"It's very good.", I observed, with an encouraging smile. He looked down at his work and up at me in a way that made me understand that few, if any, others had said as much. That is a pity, for his work has much promise.

Since I have come to Singapore, I have observed that quite a few Singaporeans look down on their South-East Asian neighbours as somehow "less" than they are. I have always thought this somewhat unwise. Yes, it is true that Singapore is more developed than the neighbouring countries - that it has organized its economy more efficiently and the infrastructure is good - but and this is a BIG but - that doesn't make the people, themselves, any better than those of their neighbours. Singaporeans risk making serious errors of judgement if they think that they are innately superior to their less developed neighbours.

Consider Indonesia, for instance. Many Singaporeans have an Indonesian maid - and quite a few look down on them - and on all other Indonesians, by association. Yet, this is not a very reasoned approach to the situation. Indonesia is a vast country with 235 million people. That means that Indonesia will have more gifted people in its population than Singapore's entire population put together. What that means is that for every ordinary Singaporean of average intelligence, Indonesia would, by force of sheer numbers alone, be able to counter with a gifted person of high intelligence. To a lesser degree, the same argument applies to the other countries in South-East Asia, some of which are also very populous.

Thus, it makes no sense for Singaporeans ever to look down on any other nation - for those nations can outmatch the whole of Singapore, with relative ease, should they wish to try. What impedes them, of course, are infrastructural, political and economic failings. Were these failings ever rectified, it would not be long before Singapore was drowned out by the much larger voices of its larger neighbours.

Yes, some Indonesians are maids. However, one should not forget that others will be as my former student was: the best student writer I had ever met in Singapore. There is a lesson in that, that wise Singaporeans should learn from. The "superiority" of Singapore is a fragile thing and not really founded on a large body of talented people. It could easily decline. Other nations in South-East Asia have many more gifted people to offer than reside in Singapore. In time, they may be afforded a chance to shine in their own countries. When that time comes, Singapore won't seem as bright as it now appears to be.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight 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, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

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