Ainan's first days at HELP University

This week has been a happy one. I have known the happiness of a father seeing his son, happier than he has long been.

After his first day, in class, at HELP University College (Tuesday, 5th January 2009), Ainan came home looking quite upbeat.

"What did you think of your first day?", I asked, hoping for a positive answer.

Ainan paused and looked a little distant, for a moment.

"Nine...", he began, slowly, "Point Five...out of ten."

It was my turn to be upbeat, for that was a very high mark from Ainan.

Before I could ask it, he answered the question I would have posed.

"The classes were much better than anything I have known in school before."

"That's good...so you like it?"

He just nodded, in his minimal way, in which a little gesture, is worth an entire, never uttered, conversation.

This may seem like a subdued exchange but by Ainan's standards, this was a jubilant display. Never have I known him to be so pleased about an educational experience. For him, formal education has always been a disappointment, except for practical classes, in Chemistry. Other than that, he had always found it a matter of personal excruciation.

Long term readers will recall Ainan's incredible disappointment, after his first day in school, in Singapore, several years ago. He returned, very long faced and utterly dejected, at the experience: he had expected so much more, he had expected to LEARN things - but, in Singapore, learning wasn't on the table - the challenge was aimed rather low, for him. They were asking him to do things he had learnt to do a lifetime ago.

So, to understand how pleased I am at Ainan's response to HELP University College, you should hold those two images in your mind: Ainan's utter dejection at his first day in a Singaporean school - and his quiet elation at his first day at HELP University. The former school, he would have rated ZERO out of ten; the latter he rated at 9.5 out of 10. For me, this is likely to be the highlight of my year (well, it would be difficult to top, anyway). You see, it confirms for me what I had long known, in my heart: that if Ainan is given an educational challenge more on his level, that he will come alive and enjoy it. That is, after all, what I tried to tell the Singaporean education system (which consists of people who have ever-moving mouths, but no ears).

I was right. Giving Ainan a more meaty intellectual task, has made him happy. For the FIRST time in his life, he considers school a worthwhile experience.

Thank you, HELP University College, for allowing Ainan to know happiness in his education...and thank you, Malaysia, for being, so far, what Singapore is not. That, by the way, can only be a good thing.

(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.)

Singapore's love of lying.

You can tell how much is wrong with a nation, by how often it lies. So, by that measure, Singapore must be one of the worst nations on Earth...because it tells among the most lies.

This week, Singapore has told a lot of lies about Ainan and about us. This is what they do when someone turns around, as we have and walks out, because the nation has got to be one the most negligent on Earth where its homegrown talents are concerned. We left - and, instead of admitting that their approach, their rather careless approach, was mistaken, they decide to LIE about it.

There are so many lies in the Singaporean papers about Ainan that I don't know where to begin - or when to stop. Also I am tired of reading them, tired of listening to them, tired of being harrassed by them.


One of the more common lies is that we refused the offer of help from the MOE. This is not true. At the time major decisions were made to walk out on the MOE/GEP there was NO offer of help on the table...absolutely NOTHING. What happened is that we walked out because the GEP refused to arrange practical classes for Ainan, in Chemistry; they refused to let him take classes in any other subject at a higher level; they refused to give him maths support to aid his sciences; they refused to offer any more than one hour a week of theory classes at NUS High (which we didn't ask for...he was able to do the theory at home and the classes they offered were, contrary to the lies being told, BELOW HIS ABILITY at the time). We walked out because there was nothing on the table. However, Singapore, with its lying national tongue, is saying that we walked out on an offer of science workshops at the Science Centre. What crap. That offer came about 6 months after we had ceased all contact with the GEP. How could we walk out when we had ALREADY done so??! The offer is not what it seems either. It was an offer for us to PAY FOR classes at PUBLIC workshops that ANYONE could attend. There was nothing special about this offer. Also, it came after we had made arrangements with Singapore Polytechnic to have practical classes there. We were therefore unable to attend the workshops, in any case, because our son's time was already committed. So, the Singaporean media have created this lie that we walked out on help offered by the GEP to make us look difficult, when the facts are that they were OFFERING NOTHING at the time we walked out. That is WHY we walked out. Their account makes no logical sense, because it is a lie.


Another lie was told by Singapore Polytechnic. They said that they had kept to their commitment to us. How funny. Now is the time to tell the story of SP. Ainan went to classes at SP twice a week for a year. He enjoyed them very much and learnt a lot of laboratory chemistry. We were very grateful for the support. However, SP suddenly went silent and no-one answered emails anymore. The classes stopped. Months passed. Finally we contacted someone else and were told that Dr. Ng Kok Chin, Ainan's mentor there had had a stroke and fallen into a coma. He did not recover. After he was out of action, not ONE person at SP was willing to step and take his place and help support Ainan. It was very telling. You see, Dr. Ng Kok Chin is NOT Singaporean, he is a Malaysian Chinese man (and a very nice man too). However, the staff that remained in charge after he had gone, ARE Singaporean. How interesting, then, that none of them was interested in supporting Ainan once Dr. Ng's influence had vanished.

By the way, Ainan did NOT apply for admission to either NTU or NUS. Neither is, in our opinion, suitable, since both specialize in being uncreative. We sounded out NUS three years ago, about how Ainan could be admitted, and they said they would never accept Ainan unless he took three A levels in one session. NTU said he was too small for lab classes (all we ever asked about). We never asked NTU about admission. So, the Singaporean papers are lying about this one, too.

There is much I could say, but it would make a long and probably boring post. Let just this be said, however: almost all that has been said about Ainan and our conduct with respect to the MOE and his education is UNTRUE, in the Singaporean media. The truth is very simple: the MOE was unwilling to help Ainan in any concrete way, so we gave up on them. That is all. All their self-justifying lies are just attempts to save face and discredit us. Singapore totally neglected Ainan...but that is OK, because the rest of the world won't.

There are two main reasons why we left Singapore. Firstly, by suddenly dropping support of Ainan, Singapore Polytechnic left us with no educational intervention for Ainan at all. Thus, we had no further reason to stay in Singapore and much cause to leave. Secondly, the Singaporean media, in the shape of the New Paper, had begun to tell many lies about the MOE and us, and Ainan's schools and us. We felt we could no longer stay in a country that was actively trying to discredit us and diminish us in the media. So, we left.

Had Singapore Polytechnic not dropped all support of Ainan, without notice or explanation (they refused to answer emails about why they had done it...they just ignored us) and if the Singaporean media had been honest about us and the MOE, we would still be in Singapore.

So, one can only conclude that Singapore values its right to lie and save face, more than it does the need to retain homegrown talent. So, too, we can conclude that there is no genuine interest in educating Singaporeans to the best of their ability, within the education system (otherwise SP would not have vanished, so unexpectedly).

We are, however, happy to have left. So far, Malaysia looks a much better place to be, in every way but one. The only blemish is that the public transport system is rudimentary. Apart from that, as far as I can see, Malaysia is a much superior place to live, than Singapore.

So, Singapore, please keep on lying - and your citizens will keep on leaving. Well done on persuading us to leave. We are happier for it. Our lives have improved so much, I don't even know how to tell you. 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.)

HELP University College, KL, Malaysia.

It is time to announce it. Ainan has joined HELP University College, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

We spent the last three years trying to secure the right educational opportunities for Ainan, in Singapore. However, it wasn't easy. The "system" was very difficult to work with. It took us, for instance, about 22 months to secure consistent practical Chemistry classes for him, in Singapore, at a Polytechnic there, (which we much appreciate and which helped, at the time. Sadly, though, it wasn't really enough.). That is almost two years completely wasted...two years of frustration, of being stalled, of being thwarted. It is not as if we didn't try to get what he needed in Singapore. We did. However, the system was most modest in its response. The GEP (Gifted Education Programme) arranged for a handful of practical Chemistry classes for him - which we were very grateful for, at the time - but it never led anywhere. There was no ongoing practical Chemistry provision made available for him. We were, at the time, given two excuses for this: "There are no resources available" and "If we do it for him, they will all want it."

The funny thing is, it was never clear who the "they" were, since, in Singapore's history, to date, there has only been one child like Ainan. Presumably, providing Ainan with lab access would suddenly have turned the whole nation into science prodigies by a kind of infective osmosis. How ridiculous.

Anyway, we tried everything we could in Singapore. We even asked to homeschool him, on many occasions, but permission was never granted. (We were always fobbed off with "We will revert to you shortly"...and then we would never hear from them - the Compulsory Education Unit - again.). After three years of it, we quietly gave up and started looking elsewhere for an education for Ainan.

Remarkably, Malaysia proved very responsive - and, through the wise advice of Zuhairah Ali, President of the National Association of Gifted Children of Malaysia - Ainan secured places at University Colleges in Malaysia, in a very short time...not much more than a week.

Of all the places on offer, we chose HELP University College, in Kuala Lumpur. It offered the best overall support of Ainan.

At HELP, Ainan will be taking an American Degree Programme - starting immediately. He will take Computer Science options, but also keep up his Chemistry. He will, in addition, be broadening his science foundation by adding A levels in Physics and Maths to his tally, simultaneously. He already has AS Level Chemistry, O level Chemistry and O level Physics, as well as having taught himself some degree of programming skills.

Our thanks to HELP for offering him a place and being so supportive - and to Zuhairah Ali for her speed, efficiency and immense resourcefulness. 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.)