Fintan's emotional perception.

Sometimes the questions children ask alter the way a parent sees the world. They are questions which bring home a truth that, perhaps, had been overlooked.

A few days ago, Fintan, five, asked one such question.

He was sitting quietly with his mother, when he turned to her with query in his eyes.

"Why do people look so happy when they are going to the circus, but the animals look so sad?"

The question quite startled his mother, for there was a deep truth in his implicit observation. It is no fun being a caged animal, no matter how much the crowd might enjoy it.

Fintan is a close observer of the world. Sometimes, he sees things which are easy to overlook. Often, he surprises with his questions because they are of a moral, or philosophical or ethical nature. These are not the questions one expects of a five year old. They are questions that show he sees the world through moral eyes, emotional eyes, ethical eyes. He is not only seeing the world for what it is, but asking what it should be. He is questioning the way things are, from a moral perspective and judging it, for emotional value.

It is interesting to see his preoccupation with such questions. Part of him is showing a social maturity that is welcome to see. It is what allows him to get on with everyone he meets. Often, people extend to him an open invitation to visit. What is he doing right, that makes him so popular? Well, that kind of question says it all. Fintan is a young boy who is thinking about feelings, emotions, moral values, what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is not. He is thinking about human conduct - and, beneath it all, seems to hold the value that all should be happy.

Obviously, the character that he has now is but the rudiment of what he is to be. However, I can see that this root promises to be a tree of solid character and human insight. I look forward to knowing, one day, the man he promises 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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