Intelligence in a rabbit.

Yes. That title is “for real”.

Tiarnan’s 5th birthday was on Thursday. He requested two gifts, in particular: Little Big Planet 2, a PS3 game and a baby rabbit. His rabbit was most prompt, arriving, in secret, the day before, and being hidden away in an unfrequented part of the house, so that Tiarnan wouldn’t see it.

On his birthday morning, we led Tiarnan to the cage, where his bunny looked out inquisitively on the world. Tiarnan’s delighted grin was something to behold. He was quite overcome with the sweetness of his new pet. That morning, something strange happened: none of my three sons wanted to play with the PS3 – all of them clustered around the rabbit, playing with it, stroking it, feeding it, chasing it about and generally have a great time becoming acquainted with the newest member of the household.

Ainan was the one who noticed the rabbit’s interesting behaviour. Mochi, as the rabbit is known, by some, conceived a plan of escape from his cage. She quite clearly seemed to think that if only she could stretch high enough, she would be able to climb out of the top of the cage. So, that is what she did. She leant up against the wall of the cage, with her front paws and stretched upwards, seeking a way out. It didn’t work. She couldn’t stretch high enough. Then, she did something most surprising. She hopped over to the dish in which her feed had been placed and climbed up into it. You see, the dish is raised above the level of the rest of the cage. Then she tried stretching again, her paws against the side of the cage, to see if she could reach up and out of the cage. However, again, she was too short and her plan failed.

Ainan was most impressed by this, for though Mochi is but a baby rabbit, quite clearly she was doing some thinking. She had conceived a plan, had an idea and understanding of her world – and had tried it out. So, though most unexpected though it is to see any kind of intelligence in a rabbit, quite clearly they are not as dumb as most people think. Beneath that cute exterior there is, at least, some rudimentary thinking going on.

Mochi has been most entertaining for the boys these past couple of days. The morning now, has become a ritual greeting time, for the boys to sit down and play with their rabbit. On her part, Mochi insists on being entertaining and being quite capable of surprising or funny actions. We tried, for instance, to put a harness on her. However, her response, was to run away as fast as possible, straining against the harness, until it slipped over her and set her free. So, that escape plan worked at least.

For me, the most warming part of all of this, is to see that the boys prefer to play with a baby rabbit than their PS3. Maybe modern electronic toys are not as all consuming as most people think. Maybe it is just that kids are not often given more attractive alternatives. Our sons, at least, prefer cuddly biology, to blaring electronics. It is a good discovery to make.

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page. To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 4, this month, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here: http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at: http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is at http://www.genghiscan.com/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)

The essence of Life.

About a week ago, Fintan came to his mother in a ruminative mood. His eyes were filled with ponderings.

“Which,” he began, seriously, “is more important: the brain, or the Heart?”

His mother, Syahidah, understood him to mean not the heart which pumps, but the Heart which feels.

“Well,” she began, considering his question carefully, “that depends.”

He understood what she meant, but wasn’t satisfied with such an open answer.

“Which,” he continued, seeking certainty, “makes the decisions, which tells you what to do?”

“The brain makes the decisions,” she said, softly, looking into his ever gentle eyes, “but the Heart will tell you if it is right or wrong.”

He gathered her words into himself and found them good. He smiled his understanding. It seemed that his Heart told him, they were right.

He wandered off, happily and his mother gazed after him, pondering his thoughtfulness, and the characteristic nature of his questions.

As Fintan grows, he deepens. He seems to consider matters which many children would just ignore. Often, his questions are about his place in the world, or the nature of the world and its people. He is, in short, considering life, its meaning, and its truth. Personally, I find this heartening, for it seems likely to me that he will try to live his life with wisdom, seeking a meaningful path through it, instead of skating on the superficial surface of society, weighed down by the unsatisfying values of the world around him. Fintan will, I rather think, come to decide what his own values are – and what, indeed, it means for something to be valuable. There is the likelihood, therefore, that he will live a life that is true to himself, and, indeed, culture a self, which is true to his own innate nature, rather than live a life driven by external values and, therefore, becoming a person deformed by those inappropriate “values”.

In short, Fintan is, I think, destined to be Fintan as he should be. That, I rather think, is a good outcome for any life: that we should become the selves we should have been. I hope he achieves this goal – and that all my children do, too. That, by the way, is what I have tried to do with my life. It is the best way to live.

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page. To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 4, this month, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here: http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at: http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is at http://www.genghiscan.com/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)

Malice on the internet.

The internet is a malicious place, in many ways, for malicious people thrive in its apparent anonymity. However, they are not as anonymous as they think they are. Perhaps if they were aware of this they would act less often on their malice.

A couple of months ago, one of my email accounts was flooded overnight, with junk emails. Suddenly, an account which basically got no junk email, was utterly inundated with it, making the account effectively useless. Who had done this very immature thing? Who, out in the whole wide world, disliked me enough to trouble themselves to sign me up for a huge load of stupid websites? For a long time, I was befuddled as to who could have done this. Then, however, I had an idea. I am not going to tell you the idea, but the upshot of it is, I got a hold of the IP address of just who had registered me for this skip load of rubbish.

The IP address, of my “anonymous” persecutor, turned out to be: 71.85.194.29.

A search on this IP reveals that the perpetrator is registered to an organization called Charter Communications, operating out of Fallon, Missouri.

Now, that struck me as very odd. You see, I recognized that address as being from a regular reader of my blog. It seems that this reader is not a fan, but a kind of fiend. They are those who lurk, on my blog, not to enjoy reading it, but to enjoy hating it. I am familiar with the kind, they are what you might call, “anti-fans”.

Presently, I am considering writing a letter to the organization in question, pointing out the behaviour of one of their employees. It is conceivable that this might lead to disciplinary action against them. Any responsible employer would not approve of their conduct, after all. It is possible, therefore, that my “anonymous” attacker, might come to receive some kind of punishment. Now, wouldn’t that be poetic?

So, if you are considering doing some harm to someone on the internet, consider this: your “anonymity” is an illusion and everything you do is trackable on the net. Should you harm another, it is quite likely you will be discovered and face retribution of some kind. So, please, don’t do on the net, anything you wouldn’t be prepared to do, to someone’s face, in the real world. Not only would you be harming your victim, but ultimately, you are going to be harming yourself. It is possible, for instance, that my persecutor, might be out of a job soon. If so, they have no-one to blame but themselves.

Now, excuse me, I have a letter to write…

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page. To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html
and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 4, this month, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here: http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at: http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is at http://www.genghiscan.com/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)

Julia Gabriel Centre and age discrimination.

A few months ago, we enquired at the Julia Gabriel centre, here in Kuala Lumpur, as to whether our son, Tiarnan, four, could join a drama class. Now, those of who have read much of this blog, will know that Tiarnan is rather partial, instinctively, to the ways of an actor: he is a boy of much imagination, given to constructing alternate realities to play in. He has also been on TV, in a reality show, so he is comfortable before a camera. We thought, therefore, that he would benefit from a drama class. However, it was not to be.

The teacher at the Julia Gabriel centre was teaching a class of five year olds, supposedly introducing them to drama. Guess what she said on hearing that four year old Tiarnan was set to join the class? We had told them that he was bright, verbal and given to acting and that he had been on TV. So, just have a guess at what her response was.

Well, she refused to allow him to join the class, saying: “I wouldn’t know how to teach a four year old.”

Err…how dumb, for a teacher to say that, I thought. The only differences between Tiarnan at four and most children at five, is that Tiarnan is brighter, more verbal, more imaginative, more attentive and EASIER to teach. Apparently, this “teacher” didn’t know that there is a lot of individual variability between children and that age is not an effective guide as to behaviour or ability.

This response of the teacher, however, taught us something. It taught us that she would not be a suitable teacher for our son, anyway. No-one who knew so little about children as to dismiss a four year old, because they were not five, is just not suited to teaching our children anyway – or anyone’s children for that matter. Thus, when Tiarnan turns five, we would be unlikely to seek drama classes for him at the Julia Gabriel centre because he would probably end up in a class taught by just this particular dumb teacher. That would, most probably, be a waste of time.

This incident brought home to me, however, just how common the stereotyping of children by age is – and just how little understanding there is among, even teachers, about the intellectual variability of children. Age lockstep education is ALWAYS a bad idea, since it ALWAYS leads to underchallenged – or overchallenged children. The only type of education that makes sense, is education by ability, not by age. Sadly, the whole world’s education is done by age stereotyping, with very few exceptions.

Anyone who knew Tiarnan would know how dumb that teacher was to turn him down, without even meeting him, when he was more than capable of doing her class. Just this type of educational injustice is occurring all over the world, to millions of children, even as I write.

Let education be by ability and interest – and let age be nothing more than what it is: a number that increases in proportion to our time on this Earth – and nothing more.

Rather ridiculously, we were unable to find a drama class for Tiarnan, at four, anywhere in KL, that we knew of. Does the education system think that he learns more by NOT attending a class to match his interest? That is the effect of age discrimination. Perhaps, there would be wisdom in a law to ban age discrimination in education, just like there are laws in many parts of the world, to ban age discrimination in the work place. We would then see a world in which children ended up classes suited to their abilities, and not their ages and social stereotypes. I hope, one day, to see such a world. Tiarnan would be happier in such a world too.

We may have some time to wait…

Catching up with comments.

Sorry to all who have commented in the past three days or so: I have been too busy to address the comments so none have been posted, until now. All the comments for "Straight Grandmother", Talia and "Futureisnow2030", have been posted. I shall endeavour in the next hour or two, to answer all of them - so if they don't have answers, from me, now, they should soon do so. Please be patient.

Thank you for your understanding.