The ambition of Singaporean students.

I would like you to think what the most commonly stated ambition of a group of Singaporean scholar students might be. Consider the question as broadly as you like and genuinely give it some thought.

I ask this because my wife is teaching a group of "scholars" and asked them this question today. She was quite surprised by the answer that came back from almost all of them. Not for them, the big job and the flashy cars, not for them the global travel, wealth and fame. No. They wanted none of these things.

Do you know what this group of top students in Singapore professed their ambition to be?

"To sleep".

That just about says it all, for this particular educational system: poor things!

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and one month, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and seven months, and Tiarnan, two years exactly, 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, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

The Singaporean obsession with A grades

The Singaporean educational obsession with A grades even extends to the political class, here. Indeed, the political class seems to have a particularly bad case of it.

Recently, the leadership of Singapore were quoted in the newspapers as saying that they were in search of the next Prime Minister to take over after Lee Hsien Loong becomes too old for the job, some 15 years hence. I write this knowing that Western readers will find this assumption, that one party will still be in power in 15 years time, rather strange. In Singapore, however, the political structure is as unchanging as the weather (here everyday is the same, give or take).

More strange than the assumption of eternal power, though, was another assumption made: that the best candidate would be found among an elite 600 or so, who, secured perfect A grades in their A levels every year (I believe 4 A grades were spoken of). I find this hilarious in what it reveals about the State's understanding of human nature. The assumption is that the best leader will have the best grades. This is just not so. Grades at A level tell us very little about leadership quality - and tell us almost as little about true intelligence. The biggest variable in how well someone does at A level is how hard they are prepared to work. It is just as likely that selecting someone for their A grades will end up choosing the hardest worker in the group, rather than the brightest. Too often, the brightest students don't find A levels interesting enough to work hard for them. If you are really bright, all of education will seem a bit pointless.

There is more, however. By focussing on the select group of 600 or so, every year, with perfect grades, they exclude almost everyone in Singapore from being considered. It is mathematically far more probable that the true best candidate is OUTSIDE that select group, than that they are inside it. Why is this so? Well, because leadership has very little to do with intelligence (just as A level grades themselves don't say as much about it as people believe). Even if intelligence were correlated with leadership, not as much of it would be needed as people believe. Studies show that a leader should NOT be brighter than 30 IQ points above the average of those led - otherwise effective communication becomes problematic and virtually impossible for the brightest of the bright.

Thus in Singapore, a leader would need to have an IQ of 130 odd, at the outside. Thus, they would need to be no more than moderately gifted, at best. About one person in 44 would meet this criterion. So much for there being no-one good enough to take over. It would be unnecessary and unwise were the leader much brighter than this because a leader who can't communicate to his or her people is a leader who can't lead.

If you truly have selected the brightest possible leader, he or she would be too bright to lead Singapore effectively, anyway.

However, I am happy that this would not be so, given the selection criteria. I went to Cambridge University and I have met many people in my life with perfect grades. They didn't, however, have perfect minds. Some people with lesser grades had much more interesting minds. They just weren't bothered about A levels as a worthwhile pursuit. They did, however, turn out to be much more interesting and able people than those who outshone them, in A levels.

There is another factor to consider: how were the perfect A grades achieved? If, as is most common in Singapore, they are achieved by the total exclusion of the rest of life and an absolute focus on studies, then that person would be among the WORST possible candidates for political office. Why is this so? Well, because life skills and social understanding are much more important for political life than A grades at A level. Academic knowledge is of almost no value at all, if it resides in a socially inept, dull individual of no character or life experience. The latter description would suit many who have perfect A grades at A level. It is much less likely to describe those who have led a more rounded existence and grown other characteristics than a monomaniacal tendency to study.

That being said, there is the possibility that the best candidate might reside among the 600. This would be a different case though. This would be the candidate so bright that he or she could excel at A level in all subjects, with relatively little work, while having a complete social life and developing a full range of life skills and experiences. Such a person would make a good candidate. That is not to say, however, that another candidate of lesser grades might not be even better, because of their personal qualities - and perhaps unexpressed intellectual ones.

The Government expressed regret that so many of the 600 leave Singapore every year to work elsewhere. It seems to me that they would not leave, had they suitable opportunities here, for personal growth and career development. Provide those opportunities and many of them would stay.

It is time to drop this excessive regard for perfect grades in Singapore. The ones with perfect grades do not necessarily have the best minds. In fact, I would say that they are more likely to be less interesting people than others who have more diverse interests, and lesser grades as a result.

"Good" people may be found in many more places than the Singaporean government seems aware. There is a reason for this, of course. They are all, themselves, drawn from the ranks of the perfect graders. So they believe in it. They feel validated by it. The pity of it is, of course, is that it is utter nonsense. Having perfect grades does not make you a genius. Having perfect grades does not make you politically adept. Having perfect grades does not make you creative. In fact, having perfect grades does nothing but give you perfect grades.

It is time people realized that, here, and looked at people more broadly. Then, eyes would open and interesting people would be found in abundance. Until then, of course, "good" people, will seem so scarce as to be almost absent.

What is wrong here is not the number of "good" people - but the way in which they are identified. An error has been made in thinking that A levels are the best measure. They aren't. They measure something else than that which they are being used for. There is not, at this time, an A level in Prime Ministership. It is time the Prime Minister himself realized this and started looking more widely for his own successor. He would find the task a lot easier if he paid heed to this observation.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and one month, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and seven months, and Tiarnan, two years exactly, 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, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Earth Hour: Singapore dims the future, symbolically.

Earth Hour is quite a poetic idea. It is a memorable image to make us all consider the effect of our energy usage on the Earth and global warming. It is a pricking of the global conscience regarding the grave issue of climate change. All in all, the idea of darkening the world's cities, to enlighten all as to the imminent dangers of global warming and excessive energy usage, is a timely and impactful one.

However, not all cities complied in the spirit of Earth Hour. Singapore was one of them. In a letter to the Today newspaper, a reader pointed out that the testing of the Formula One night lights, for the F1 night race, occurred around Earth Hour. If this is, in fact, so, it is very disappointing. Symbolically, it would mean that Singapore values Formula One racing and the right to move as fast as possible, more highly than the future of the Earth. An entertainment is not, and can never be, as important as the issue of climate change and excessive energy usage.

Singapore's leaders speak of the importance of the environment. However, the actions of Singapore are not always in agreement with those expressed sentiments. Earth Hour was one such clash between word and action.

People tell themselves that they won't live to see significant climate change - and so they ignore it. This is deceptive thinking. Climate change is happening fast. Everyone alive today who is middle-aged or younger, should live to see its effects (unless we do something about it). Moreover our children will live out their latter days in a world utterly transformed, for the negative, by our actions or inactions today.

Earth Hour should be respected - for what it represents is the attitude that the future of the Earth matters...and should matter now, to us all.

The next time there is an Earth Hour, I hope to see nothing but darkness across Singapore - and all other nations, too. Perhaps then, we might know, that people are thinking of how to make the world of tomorrow, a better one.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and one month, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and seven months, and Tiarnan, two years exactly, 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, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Kiasu and age appropriate toys

In the run up to Christmas, I was in the toy section of a department store, with Tiarnan, who was then one year old.

Nearby there was a very intent Chinese man in his late 30s, I would say. I noticed him because his son was playing among the toys near my own son. This little boy of his, was shorter than Tiarnan, so I would think he must have been less than two years old - probably 18 months, or something.

What was strange about this was that he kept snatching toys off his son and putting them back on the shelf. The toys he took from him were ones with lights and bells and knobs to turn: simple interactive toys, which were, I felt, age appropriate given his apparent youth. The father seemed quite irked at his son's interest in these toys and would substitute a reading preparatory toy which had all the alphabet on it, and really looked rather complicated. I could see that it was labelled "Suitable for 3 to 6 year olds".

I paused at that. This man's son had a clear and strong interest in toys suitable for a one year old. He looked to be between one and two years old, by comparison with Tiarnan who was standing fairly near him. Yet, the father was trying to interest his son in a toy suitable for up to 6 year olds.

What was particularly interesting was what the son did, everytime the father presented him with the reading toy: he looked briefly at it, didn't look at his father and then turned away, to search for the toy that had just been taken from him. Once he had found it, he would resume playing with it again.

The father would just look angry. He would then pull the toy away from his son, or his son away from the toy and again present the reading preparatory toy. It was a battle of the wills. Yet, clearly the father was not going to win this one, since his son completely failed to attempt to interact with the toy presented to him.

Most telling of all, was what the mother was doing, throughout. She was looking on, motionless apart from her lips, which open and shut slightly and rather tensely, as if she wished to speak, but restrained herself. She looked from father to son and back again and did nothing. Clearly, though, she wanted to intervene; clearly she had a different opinion to the father as to what was suitable for the boy.

They were still at it when I left, with Tiarnan.

Though months have passed, this incident stayed with me, for it is emblematic of an attitude Singaporeans are famous for: Kiasu. This is the idea that they must win, that they can't lose or lose out and that they must compete to have it all.

Here was a most kiasu father. He wanted his son to read, just after he had learnt to walk. He didn't want his son to play with mere children's toys (even though the child liked them and they seemed appropriate). He wanted the child to be what the child was not. If the child was ready for reading, he would be showing interest in the reading toy. Yet, he was not. Looking at the boy, it was clear he would not be ready for a few years. Here, was a father who was not going to "lose out"...his son had to read before his neighbours'/friends'/relatives' children did etc etc.

I have reflected upon this. This man didn't know the difference between wanting the best for his son and wanting his son to be the best. They are far from being the same. If the child was ready for reading, then it would be appropriate to give him the toy presented. He might then be the earliest reader in the father's social circle. That is fine if it is so. However, unless the child is actually like that, then you cannot make him be so: the child cannot be made to be the "best" unless that is already in him.

Perhaps this father had heard of an early reader and was now competing with this other child, through his son. This is a common product of kiasu thinking. However, it is the child that suffers in all this, for the child cannot be what the child is not meant to be.

The attitude of kiasu should be laid to rest. Each and every child should be given what they, as individuals, need. If it is reading material at one years old, that is suitable, that is fine. However, the child should never be made to do that which is inappropriate to that particular child. Let each child be, what each child is.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and one month, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and seven months, and Tiarnan, two years exactly, 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, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

The incredible disappearing Daddy.

A couple of days ago, perhaps in remembrance of my days as an actor, I changed my voice, for Tiarnan and spoke to him, in character.

This quite perturbed him. He looked up at me and slapped my legs with his hands, not hard, but complainingly. "I want Daddy!", he demanded.

I thought this very revealing. For him, once my voice changed, I was no longer his Daddy, I was someone else.

I did it again - and got the same reaction and the same demand: "I want Daddy!"

I stopped doing it, lest I disturb him too much and became, in voice and manner, as I had always been for him, his familiar Daddy.

He seemed to go along with the intention of my change of voice, that it should be accepted as another person. I wonder, then, if he understands, perhaps without being conscious of it, what an actor does? After all, he perceived my change of voice, as being that of another person. It is an interesting speculation, at the least.

It is not the first time he has reacted to a change of manner or appearance in this way. When he was five months old, he responded in a very similar way to his mother when she put on a green face mask: "I want my mummy" he had said, crawling afterwards, in somewhat of a panic.

So, for him, a change of voice, or a change of appearance, denotes a change of personhood, in some way.

Funny enough, he himself, has been known to act - but more of that another time.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and one month, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and seven months, and Tiarnan, two years exactly, 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, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Racism at Nebraska Office of the CIO

I was rather surprised at the comment written by a searcher from the Office of the CIO, at the State of Nebraska, two days ago. I didn't print the comment because of its racism.

It began: "Hey hoe hey hoe wats up my black friend..."

I thought this rather telling of the attention with which the person concerned gave the facts and the blog he was visiting. As any reader would know who actually READ a page or two of my blog would know, I am of Irish origin and therefore Caucasian. This State employee presumably thought me "black" because of my name.

He then went onto laugh maniacally for over a line of "hahahahaha..." and so on, before accusing me, in CAPS, of having no information on my blog. It is instructive that the searcher in question looked at precisely one post.

I found the tone of the comment quite disturbing. His IP address began: 205.202.36, in case the State of Nebraska wishes to follow up on it.

The United States is a diverse and multicultural society. Personally, I don't think it is appropriate that an employee of the Office of the Chief Information Officer should be nursing any racism at all - and certainly not posting racially offensive comments across the internet, from the vantage of his (or her) desk at their office.

Even though the poster was wrong about my race, I was offended that he or she should attempt to express racism in my blog comments. Perhaps the State of Nebraska would like to have a word with him or her.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and one month, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and seven months, and Tiarnan, two years exactly, 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, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)