A mother in the eyes of her child.

There is something inherently welcome about the observations of a young child. They are always more direct, more honest and more true than those of an adult. The child has yet to learn discretion and censorship, and has not learnt the value of choosing words carefully, to create an effect. If the child says they see something, then that is what they see: their words are not made for the world, but are of the world.

A few days ago, Tiarnan, three, came into our room, as Syahidah had recently risen from bed. She was dressed in a new well-made cotton night dress.

Tiarnan paused on seeing her, surprise in his delighted eyes.

"You look very pretty!", he exclaimed, "Just like a Princess!"

Syahidah was touched, for she knew that if Tiarnan said that was what he saw, then that was what he saw. His words were not made of idle flattery...but were what he thought to be true.

Syahidah had never worn that style of night clothing before, so Tiarnan was rather surprised to see her in it. Yet, his feelings on the matter were deep ones. Each time he saw her wear that dress over the next couple of days, he would compliment her anew. So, not only did Tiarnan make Syahidah's day...he made most of her week, too.

Thank you, Tiarnan, for your kind words on your mummy...or is that Princess Syahidah?

(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.

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

An elephant for breakfast.

Last week, I had an elephant for breakfast. That might sound a little greedy and anti-green...but I shall explain.

At breakfast time, in Chiangmai, Thailand, where we were staying, an elephant walked past the window, right outside our hotel bungalow. As you can imagine, this was rather a surreal sight. Now, not being one who has elephants walk past his window every morning, I rushed out with a camera and my son, Tiarnan, three, to see what this elephant was up to.

We found the elephant just outside the main hotel building. Rather oddly, he was twirling a hula-hoop with his trunk, which he seemed to enjoy. I should point out that this was a "baby" elephant, or at least a child, because it was not fully grown, yet. He enjoyed playing. Standing beside the elephant was a "mahout".

Tiarnan was fascinated. Here was a baby elephant who liked to play games. He stood beside me, in entranced silence, his gaze upon the elephant's every deed.

The elephant turned out to be quite a versatile animal, with many a "trick" at his command. At one point, he played a harmonica with the air blown through his trunk. Tiarnan laughed at this: a musical elephant. At another, he took the proffered Thai Baht note from my hand, which I was trying to tip the mahout/elephant with, by sucking on it, and passed it to his mahout. He picked up a straw hat, nearby and put it on peoples' heads, then took it off again and put it on someone else's head. All of this, was with his trunk, of course. When we asked for a photograph, the elephant came toward us, somewhat, then lifted up one leg and raised his trunk into the air, to pose for it, rather dramatically. He kept the pose until he had heard the last click of our cameras (my sister in law was taking photos, too), then he dropped his leg and trunk.

Promisingly, the mahout had an easel available, but the elephant didn't seem in the mood for that and so we never saw the elephant paint.

By the time the elephant sauntered off back down the lane, outside our bungalow, back to its waiting mother, both Tiarnan and I were most impressed by this elephant's intelligence. Watching it at play, I rather felt there was a happy, experimental, human child stuck inside its massive body. Indeed, looking at the size of its head, and the brain that was no doubt there, I did wonder at just how intelligent elephants really are. It seems such a pity that some people see fit to shoot elephants for sport or their tusks. They are magnificent and intelligent animals.

Where had the elephant come from? Well, much as a hotel might keep a fine dog, in some countries, in Thailand, this particular hotel kept a young elephant and its mother (both female, I think), on the property. They were there to entertain the children, but seemed well looked after. While we were there, Tiarnan visited the elephants every day. He seemed most interested in their doings and beings. He was a lot braver than he should have been, however, and sometimes wanted to get rather too close to them, while they rested. I would have to pull him back, since, though they seemed friendly and tame enough...I wasn't sure they might not step on my little boy without really noticing him.

One thing is for sure: I will never forget the day I had an elephant for breakfast.

(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.

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

Singapore Kindness Movement.

Singapore has a "kindness movement"...but does it need one?

Coincidentally, I had a conversation with a group of Koreans living in Singapore, recently. They spontaneously observed...all of them...that Singaporeans are "not kind". This is, of course, from a Korean perspective, which is, rather like the Japanese, in being quite a gentle, polite society. However, what they had to say was instructive. I shall retell one story from the conversation.

One of the Koreans, who speaks English, Korean and Chinese Mandarin quite well was buying food at a hawker stall. She decided to speak English, rather than Chinese, so as to practise her English (her Chinese being a stronger language, for her).

The two Chinese ladies at the hawker stall also replied in English...bad English, but English nevertheless and set about getting her food. However, what they did next was unexpected. They started criticizing the Korean girl's facial appearance and clothing choices, in front of her, in Chinese. The criticisms were quite harsh and the Korean girl found herself being most wounded by their remarks. She said nothing, however, but just listened.

The Korean girl came away from the experience with the impression that Singaporeans are rather unkind about their fellow humans. She had only been in Singapore a few weeks and this was an influential moment.

There are many examples I could give, from their conversation with me, alone...but that one should suffice. The Chinese stallholders felt safe to be unkind about her, because they thought she would not understand. However, I think that they should not have been unkind, even if she could not understand. She would have picked up on the non-verbal language even if she had not understood a single word of their Chinese (all of which she did understand).

April has been designated as Kindness Month. It will be good to see if the Singapore Kindness Movement can actually have an effect on the type of behaviour I am sure we are all familiar with: that which mars someone else's day, for no other reason than a lack of care for one's fellow man.

(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.

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

Bullying by teachers in Singapore's schools.

Singapore has a bullying problem. Disturbingly, however, the bullies are the teachers.

I have heard many examples of bullying, in Singapore, by teachers. I shall detail a couple in different posts, in due course. Today, I will begin with one I found most shocking.

In one of Singapore's best known schools there is a teacher whose personality can only be described as sadistic. This teacher loves to humiliate students. In this teacher's class there is a young boy who has dyspraxia. This is a disorder of motor co-ordination.

One day, this boy forgot his school books. Instead of arranging for the boy to share his books with a neighbour, the teacher responded to the situation by getting the boy to stand on his desk, for one hour. Recall that he has a disorder of motor co-ordination and that standing on the desk is not easy for him...he could easily fall off.

The teacher wasn't satisified with that. The teacher told him: "Your name is Stupid. What's your name?" He asked the boy this repeatedly until the boy said: "My name is Stupid.", before the whole class. Thereafter, for the rest of the year, this boy was called "Stupid" whenever the teacher addressed him.

The parents of the boy complained about the teacher's behaviour but absolutely nothing was done to stop it.

Finally, the year passed (he had been in Primary Five) and Primary Six began. The boy's parents thought that this would be a better year, because he would no longer have contact with that teacher.

On the first day of P6, the boy's new teacher pointed out the boy in class, as he welcomed the new students and said: "I know your name: you are Stupid!" - and so it began again.

This is the truth of the Singaporean education system. This is what so many students have to endure - tales that echo this one. I have heard quite a few. Teachers are bullying students all over Singapore. Yet, nothing is ever done to stop it: the parents are always ignored.

(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.

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

A literary mystery.

A recent break in Thailand set me a bit of a mystery. Why is the Bangkok Post such a good newspaper?

I picked up a copy of the Bangkok Post while sitting in a hotel lobby in Chiangmai. I didn't expect much of it. After all, Thailand is a country of patchy literacy at best. In North-Eastern Thailand, for instance, only 58% of people are able to read. (This according to an article in the Bangkok Post). Therefore, it was something of a surprise to find myself reading literate, well-written, thoughtful articles with a...and this was the biggest surprise...global perspective. The Bangkok Post, despite having a local style title, was not a local newspaper, in the restricted sense of the word, but an international newspaper.

The Bangkok Post contained feature articles on international figures, in-depth articles on Thai issues - but also articles on world issues. The articles had been written with insight and thoughtfulness and actually seemed "meaty", in the reading.

As I read, I found myself comparing it to the newspapers of Singapore. By contrast, the Singaporean newspapers seem parochial, narrow in focus and local in flavour. They do not really look deeply into international matters, the articles are superficial and contain little real thinking (except those articles which they appropriate from international sources). The Singaporean newspapers seem to be poorly written by comparison to what I read in the Bangkok Post, in general and seem to contain less of actual substance.

Now, this is a mystery to me. The level of literacy in Singapore is 95.7%. Yet, the newspapers are a shallower read than what the Bangkok Post offers. Something is wrong here. Surely, the newspapers of Singapore should be more literate, better written, thoughtful and insightful than those of a much less developed nation, Thailand? Yet, it is not so. The Bangkok Post is a better read than any Singaporean paper (at least on the samples I read, which are probably average ones). This suggests something interesting. Though literacy is not universal in Thailand, there is a minority whose literacy exceeds that of the typical Singaporean newspaper writer. There is also a minority whose thinking is more insightful than that of a typical Singaporean newspaper writer. The result is that, although less developed and less literate on average, the Thais manage to produce a newspaper of greater excellence than is managed in Singapore.

There is a lesson in this. Singapore's media can do better. If Thailand can do such a good job, with less resources and a lower literacy base, surely Singapore can up its game. We have to wonder, however, why Singapore's newspapers are so indifferent in quality. Perhaps it is policy. Perhaps it is a choice that has been made to produce papers of modest literacy, limited insight and a local perspective. However, having seen what a third world neighbour can do, I am left unsatisfied with Singapore's efforts.

It is time for Singapore to have a media that matches its stature as a developed nation that is officially the tenth most expensive place to live on Earth. Singapore can start by trying to write a paper as good as the Bangkok Post. However, it might take them some time to catch up...

(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.

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