The Jewish Assumption for the Gifted.

The Jews are well known to be gifted. Well, actually, this is not strictly accurate - for it is a mere splinter of the Jewish race, the Ashkenazi Jews, who are actually more gifted than usual. The remainder of the Jews (the ones in Israel, for instance), are pretty average, in every way.

In terms of IQ, the Jews have a reputation for being more gifted than others. Yet, again, this is a simplified story. American Jews were estimated to have an average IQ of 112.6 by Herrnstein and Murray in 1994 (which would make them the most gifted group on Earth); but Israeli Ashkenazi Jews were only estimated to have an IQ of 103.5, on average, by Lynn in 2006. This is very similar to European averages and does not justify their illustrious reputation. Thus, the story is a mixed one. So, too, is it more complex. Jews tend to be high on verbal and mathematical skills and as equally retarded, on visual skills, as they are gifted on verbal/mathematical. Thus, they have unequally distributed abilities.

Now, I have written of the background of the Jews, for a very particular reason. If you search on Yahoo with the terms "Ainan Cawley", one of the associated terms it will suggest to you, is "Jews"...another, quite unaccountably, is "The Dead Sea". I find this bizarre. To me, this means that there must be sufficient numbers of people, in the world, assuming that a) because Ainan is gifted and b) because Jews are supposedly more gifted than others that c) Ainan must be a Jew. Well, sorry to disappoint any Jewish readers, but Ainan is not a Jew. Nor does he have a single Jewish gene in him (except for the genes shared by all humanity etc.). Ainan is not a Jew and none of his relatives are, either.

This is not the first time that the Jewish Assumption, as I call it, has been made about our family. Many years ago, in New York, shortly after I had been on CNN, for my Lord Valentine the Misplaced character invention, I was called a "Yid", by an American who had once been married to a Ford heiress. I had never heard the term and had to ask others what he meant. They said: "Yiddish...a Jew."

I was rather stunned into silence and didn't say anything in response to his accusation. I understood, then, as I understand, now, that this man was making a fundamental error of thinking: that I was "intelligent", that Jews are "intelligent", so I must be a Jew. This is really, really, quite silly. Just because the Jewish average IQ is somewhat above normal, and so there will be more highly intelligent Jews than is typical of a racial grouping, this does NOT mean that other races do not have equally (or even more intelligent), members. They do. Intelligent people are to be found in all races, though with differing prevalences. It is both an unsafe and a ridiculous assumption to make, to think that Jews have the monopoly on intelligence. Indeed, in some areas of intelligence, such as the visual (mean IQ 91.3, according to Backman), or oddly, memory (IQ 95.1 according to Backman), Jews are deficient compared to other races, on average. So, the Jewish "we are intelligent", story, is actually a mixed one: they are good, on average at some things - namely school type skills - but bad in other areas.

There is a danger in the kind of thinking which attributes to Jews, all intelligence. If it is taken on and believed (and I wonder to what extent it is believed in America, given the American's view of me, above?), then it will lead to people overlooking intelligence and gift from other racial groupings. There will be the view that others cannot be as intelligent as Jews...and so certain children might go unrecognized and unsupported for their gifts.

There are many highly intelligent and highly creative people in this world who are not Jewish. In fact, most such people are not Jewish. So it is time to shelve the assumption that a highly gifted person must be a Jew. The assumption is real - for I have encountered it at different times of my life, across two decades. It is time to recognize that gift, intelligence and creativity, may arise in a person of any race - and I mean any race - so do not assume that a person of a particular race cannot possess these characteristics - or that a person who does possess them is necessarily a Jew. More often, than not, they will not be Jewish at all.

It should be noted that this is not an anti-Jewish posting. I have nothing against Jews, or any other race, for that matter. It is a posting that seeks a better understanding of the situation and one that seeks to dispel a common misperception about the most gifted of people among us.

In particular, I would like to dispel the notion (which is common enough to have been picked up by Yahoo), that Ainan Celeste Cawley is a Jew. He isn't - nor are any of his relatives. In fact, Ainan is half-Malay and half-Irish; a Eurasian...and not one bit Jewish at all. Thank you.

(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.

We are the founders of Genghis Can, a copywriting, editing and proofreading agency, that handles all kinds of work, including technical and scientific material. If you need such services, or know someone who does, please go to: http://www.genghiscan.com/ Thanks.

IMDB is the Internet Movie Database for film and tv professionals. If you would like to look at my IMDb listing for which another fifteen credits are to be uploaded, (which will probably take several months before they are accepted) please go to: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3438598/ As I write, the listing is new and brief - however, by the time you read this it might have a dozen or a score of credits...so please do take a look. My son, Ainan Celeste Cawley, also has an IMDb listing. His is found at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3305973/ My wife, Syahidah Osman Cawley, has a listing as well. Hers is found at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication prohibited. Use Only with Permission. Thank you.)