What kind of intelligence do you have?

You may have heard of Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences. First proposed in 1983, it suggested that rather than just one type of general intelligence, g, there were seven types of intelligence to be found in individuals, to varying degrees. These intelligences are: linguistic, logical-mathematical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, spatial, musical and bodily-kinesthetic. Later, in 1999, he added naturalistic intelligence (intelligence relating to understanding of the natural world). He is debating, still, whether there is also an existential intelligence. (The ability to ponder the deeper questions of life, death and everything).

Now, you may have wondered, sometimes, what your own particular profile of intelligences looked like. Well, now you can find out. I have stumbled on an online test to determine your individual profile of intelligences. It is called Rogers Indicator of Multiple Intelligences.

It is to be found at: http://quizfarm.com/test.php?q_id=1343

Just do the test, honestly, and it will tell you what your predominant type of thinking is and score you on the relative strength of each area. In my own test, verbal skills and intrapersonal intelligence (knowing oneself) were scored at 100% and everything else was highly rated. This indicates that my intelligences are rounded and well-developed in general. Some people have one or two over-riding strengths, with relative weaknesses in other areas: everyone is different.

Apparently, my own strengths lend themselves well to being an author, a speaker, a poet, an entrepreneur, a philosopher, a psychologist and a teacher, among other things. (Those were the predominant strengths...there were others).

So, have fun with the test. Feel free to comment if you discover anything interesting.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and five months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and ten months, and Tiarnan, twenty-seven 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, niño, gênio criança, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

The relative value of cultures.

What is the value of the modern way of life? Is it any better than that of those ways which preceded it, in the depths of time? I think not.

The way we do things now is a temporary stage; what we value and what we are, is a passing phase; we shall, in time, be surpassed and others will look on us, as primitive. We are not the great "end" of all things that we think we are.

These thoughts are brought to mind by a strange story floating around the internet today. An uncontacted tribe, that has never met with modern men before, has been spotted, from the air, on the border between Brazil and Peru. This tribe live in a "Stone Age" manner. Their houses are huts built from trees. Their weapons are bows and arrows. Their clothes are scanty. Yet, their muscles are strong and lean and they seem physically adept. They have lived, for untold generations, without contact with modern civilization. Imagine, therefore, how they felt when they saw a plane pass over them? Their reaction was swift: out came the bows and arrows - and up they shot, into the air, fruitlessly. No doubt, to them, the plane is some strange beast, a fearful thing to be downed, if it can be - and, in a way, they are right.

What would modern civilization bring to this isolated tribe? Disease, despondency, disillusion, would be their gifts, from us. How would a Stone Age tribe feel to be confronted by a world of jet aircraft, personal computers, mobile phones - and machine guns? The culture shock would be catastrophic. Then there are all the diseases they have never known - diseases which are minor to us, could decimate them. They could be wiped out by the common cold.

I hope that the sighting of the plane is the only contact they will have with us. Let them live in peace as they have for thousands of years. Let them be as they are. No doubt they have their own language, culture and way of life: let them live in their accustomed manner without contact with modern men. Our curiosity about them, which may lead us to contact them, can only destroy everything that they are. I hope that they are left in peace.

Yet, peace may not be their future. Loggers are clearing vast tracks of Amazonian land. When such loggers encounter primitive tribes, the best such tribes can hope for is to move elsewhere. Not infrequently, however, one hears that they are killed, for inconveniently living on land that others want.

Their culture is no less important than ours; their lives no less precious. They should be left alone in their traditional lands. Let the loggers log elsewhere - or don't log at all.

I wish the nameless tribe well - and all uncontacted tribes around the world. Let us be mature enough to give them the space they need to live in peace.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and five months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and ten months, and Tiarnan, twenty-seven 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, niño, gênio criança, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

A day in the chemistry lab.

What does Ainan do at Singapore Polytechnic? Well, today he prepared tris(2, 4 pentanedionato)chromium (III).

The details of what he did to make it are not the subject of this post, what is, is a glimpse at the skills he is developing in working at SP. Firstly, before the laboratory session, he has a series of questions to answer in preparation. These are written down and handed in to be marked. There are matters to be explained, problems to be solved, situations to be examined, in these questions. There are also structures to be drawn. The skills acquired in doing them, are basically those of the theoretical side of chemistry. Then, there is the lab class, in which Ainan performs the experimental manipulations needed to synthesize the target material. This allows him to learn classical chemical techniques - the how of making chemicals in a lab. The results are recorded and handed in to be marked. Then, there is the lecture component of the class in which the lecturer delves into the deeper chemical issues in and around the substance of the day.

In all, I would say that the work at Singapore Polytechnic offers a good grounding in Chemistry, particularly in how to actually do it, rather than just sit around and talk about it.

Ainan is enjoying his time at Singapore Polytechnic - and is looking forward to expanding his studies into other areas in the coming semester.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and five months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and ten months, and Tiarnan, twenty-seven 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, niño, gênio criança, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

A young experimenter's decibel test

Today, I found Tiarnan, twenty-seven months, standing still upstairs, shouting, on his own. It was a strange kind of shout...a long drawn out shout that maintained the same volume and didn't seem to be saying anything in particular.

Understandably, this drew my attention. He stopped shouting, on seeing me, only to continue again almost at once. His face was very intent. He seemed to be concentrating on some inner sensation. Then I noticed something funny. He had yellow earplugs stuck in his ears.

Suddenly, it all made sense: Tiarnan was doing a little experiment on how well the earplugs blocked noise. He was testing them with a sound of a volume known to him: his own voice.

I took the earplugs from his ears - and he soon stopped shouting. Then I put them back in again for him, properly. His shouting resumed. Then he stopped. I spoke to him at normal volume and he smiled, knowing, for sure, then, that these earplugs worked. Satisfied with what he had learnt, he took out the earplugs.

He soon found other things to experiment with. It is interesting to watch him behave in this way, for it so calls to mind the early behaviour of his eldest brother, Ainan, who was always investigating things, for himself. Perhaps, Tiarnan, too, has a scientific bent, among his other gifts. We will see. For now, I will continue to enjoy his daily actions, surprising as they often are.

The next question, of course is: how did he get the earplugs in the first place, when they are kept on the top shelf above my desk?

Tiarnan kept mum on the issue. I am left to assume that some deft climbing was involved. Toddlers can be resourceful little creatures. I will have to find better hiding places for all the things I want to keep from him. (Not that earplugs are one of those things.) Yet, looking at the way he is, nothing short of a locked box will do the trick. Until he finds out how to open it, of course. Oh well...

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and five months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and ten months, and Tiarnan, twenty-seven 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, niño, gênio criança, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Equanimity in the face of adversity.

How do young children take what are, to them, hard knocks? When you are small, little disasters can seem like a big deal.

A couple of days ago, Fintan, four, asked me to buy him some M and Ms at the local shop. I duly did so.

As he walked with me, away from the shop, he decided to open the sweet packet, rather than wait until he got home. He tugged hard at it, pinching it between the fingers of both hands. Suddenly, it gave way catastrophically, scattering the chocolate sweets within, all over the ground.

It was what he didn't do that impressed me. He didn't shout out. He didn't cry. He didn't complain. He looked calmly at the multi-coloured array of sweets scattered all around him and said, quietly: "Never mind. I will buy some another day."

He then reached into the torn packet and ate the three remaining sweets, all without any fuss. When he had done so, he started to play a little game with the fallen chocolates - stamping on them, one by one, as he left for home.

I thought his calm response to sudden disappointment most telling of his character. Fintan is not one easily perturbed - he just carries on, doing what he intended to do, no matter what the difficulties that arise. If disappointed, he seems neither to show it nor to feel it. He just tells himself that all will be well, another time.

I felt so proud, in that moment, to see his mature response to an unexpected disappointment. I feel it promises much for his ability to cope with whatever life throws at him, in later years.

The next time I get him chocolates, however, I will open them for him. At least, then, he will get to enjoy them.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and five months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and ten months, and Tiarnan, twenty-seven 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, niño, gênio criança, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Crime in the UK and Singapore.

Violent crime is the type that people most fear: property can be replaced, life and limb cannot.

I have lived in both the UK and in Singapore. There are many differences between these two countries. Most people are of the view that Singapore is less free and that one's life is less restricted in the UK. There is some truth to this, but there is another side, too. In the UK, there is an epidemic of violent crime afflicting the nation - in Singapore there is no such thing.

In 2006, the Metropolitan Police released a statement that 52 teenagers a week, in London, were subject to knife related crime. That is an astonishing figure and indicates that London is no longer the safe place it was, when I was growing up there. I have seen no figures for Singapore, but in the six years I have spent here, I have only heard of a handful of cases of knife use, in the media, or by word of mouth. It is rare, here.

Why is the UK suffering an epidemic of knife-related crime - and Singapore is not? Well, one key reason is the way the state responds to violent crime. The UK takes a softly softly approach: the penalties for knife crime are really very minor, there. Singapore takes a harsh line, on all crime.

In the UK, in 2006, the Violent Crime Reduction Act increased the maximum penalty for carrying a knife from a pathetic two years in prison, to an almost as pathetic four years in prison. I am not able to find the corresponding penalty for Singapore but, as an indicator, a comparison can be made with gun possession. The possession of any weapon in Singapore is severely punished with lengthy prison sentences and caning (which causes terrible wounds). The use of any weapon in a crime results in life imprisonment and caning. Should anyone be killed by the weapon, the penalty is death - and death is almost inevitable in the Singaporean system. I have never seen anyone "let off".

I have watched the Singaporean legal system now, for several years: punishments for all crimes tend to be severe - and I have never seen moderation in the state's response to crime. In the UK, however, in 60,000 incidents of knife use, only 9 offenders received the maximum penalty. So, the Singaporean state responds aggressively to an individual with a weapon. The UK state does not. Singapore has no violent crime problem; the UK has a terrible one. It is reasonable to conclude that the UK problem is partially caused by its judicial leniency - were they to adopt a harsh response to the possession of weapons, the problem would most probably decline.

In a very real sense, the UK has chosen to have a knife crime problem. They have chosen to have the problem because they have chosen to respond too leniently to the criminals. Imagine that they adopt a harsher penal regime. Imagine that to be found carrying a knife, or any other weapon, would lead to a mandatory penalty of 15 years in prison without parole or bail. Imagine that using the weapon in a crime would lead to a mandatory penalty of life without parole. Imagine that killing someone with the weapon would lead to a mandatory death sentence for the killer. How much knife crime (or other weapon related crime) would the UK have once a few criminals had been sentenced under the new regime? I would think that they would have very close to NO KNIFE CRIME AT ALL.

So, it is up to the government of the UK and its judiciary to solve this problem. All they need to do is come down harshly on the weapon wielders - doing so will make the UK a safe haven, once more, as once it used to be. I really rather hope they do something akin to what I have suggested.

Yesterday, news of the latest teenager to die in a knife-fight in London broke across the world. Rob Knox, an upcoming actor, with a role in the next Harry Potter film, was stabbed to death defending his younger brother and friends from an enraged knife-wielding 21 year old man, outside the Metro pub, next to Sidcup railway station. Rob was stabbed four times, while trying to disarm the man and several others were injured, too. Had the UK a Singaporean style response to crime, it is most likely that this young actor would not have died. It is most likely that his killer would have thought better of the penalty he would receive and not carried a knife in the first place.

Fourteen teenagers have been stabbed to death in London so far this year. How many more must die before the UK adopts a civilized response to knife crime? By civilized response, I mean a response that protects the people of the nation and refuses to tolerate such crime. So, in a sense, one should be as uncivilized as possible to the criminals, so as to preserve the quality of life for everyone else.

Rob Knox's death has brought the knife issue in the UK to the attention of the world. Let him not have died in vain. It is time for the UK to act. Knife crime is easy to stop. All they have to do is make the penalties truly substantial - then it will quickly become a problem of the past.

For the sake of the UK, I hope the government there chooses a better future for its people: stiffen the law, to save the society.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and five months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and ten months, and Tiarnan, twenty-seven 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, niño, gênio criança, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

A child prodigy's acceptance by others

On Friday, 23rd May, Ainan was at Singapore Polytechnic, working the Fragrance Chemistry lab.

As usual, he performed an experimental investigation along with his colleagues. Of course, the unusual thing about this is that these colleagues are two and a half times Ainan's age - or thereabouts. How does he get on with them? Astonishingly well, actually. He jokes with them - and they laugh at his jokes. He talks with them and invents activities as interludes while waiting for reactions to occur - which they join in, with him. He is treated as an equal. It is most reassuring to watch. Yet, sometimes this leads to strange occurrences.

At one point, a female student (who was from outside his normal group), pointed at a gap in Ainan's teeth and asked: "Why don't you have a tooth?"

I looked at her, a little surprised and said, softly: "Because he is of the age when children lose their teeth".

She looked stunned: "Oh...I forgot."

I thought the incident was very telling of how fully Ainan has been accepted by his fellow students. The fact that he is an eight year old has been completely forgotten by some of them. He has become, for them, just another student - though smaller than a typical one. His presence is now so normal for them, that they have come to forget his unique position - he has, therefore, managed to blend in, in a way, despite standing out, so clearly, physically.

I had thought that this situation would take a very long time indeed, to develop. I had thought that acceptance would be long in coming. However, it seems to have been almost immediate. One thing that has helped, I feel, is that Ainan is very comical and jovial. He always gets the other students laughing at his jokes and his observations. I suppose it makes it much easier for them to accept the "little kid" when he also happens to be funny.

This moment, for me, will become, I believe, an emblematic memory of Ainan's acceptance at the Polytechnic. Nothing could be more simple, nor more powerful an indication of his psychological acceptance by others, than that they should puzzle over the loss of one of his milk teeth.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and five months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and ten months, and Tiarnan, twenty-seven 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, niño, gênio criança, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)