A superhero, on his off-day.

A few weeks ago, Tiarnan, five and Fintan, seven, were having a play acted "fight".

Now, as long term readers will know, Tiarnan is one of the world's youngest "superheroes". He has a liking for imagining himself as some kind of super powered hero and can quite often be found, in his own world, happily playing out some imaginary scenario. Such is his imagination, that he is quite capable of playing out such a scene, alone, accompanied only by his own imaginary adversaries.

On this particular day, he was having a battle with Fintan. To judge the situation, there is something you should know about Fintan: he is very strong for his age, and quite big, too. He is also dextrous, fast, and athletic to the point of being gymnastic. In other words, "fighting" him, is not a good prospect, if you are also a kid.

Tiarnan did his best. He engaged Fintan with absolute passion, focus, intensity and determination. Each "blow" was delivered with vigour and a certain style. Not only had Tiarnan's effort needed to be maximal, but each movement had to have a certain elegance and panache about it. With Tiarnan, the result had to be beautiful to watch, too.

Fintan defended himself, with relative ease. He also counter attacked in a less deliberately stylish manner, which managed to impress nevertheless. There was something masterful about his movements - and Tiarnan was simply unable to best him.

Tiarnan continued to strive his best to win this battle of the mini-Titans. However, he seemed to be becoming aware of the mismatch. This was inconvenient for his superhero self-image, since it was quite impossible for superhero Tiarnan to be beaten by a mere mortal older brother.

He had an explanation and solution, however.

"My powers," he began to announce, most intently, "only work, when I use them."

This declaration was meant, not only for Fintan, who didn't trouble himself to respond - but for his mother who was watching.

Fintan went on to win the encounter, pretty conclusively - but Tiarnan was not disheartened. He had, after all, and rather gentlemanly, elected not to use his powers - so the defeat was actually a demonstration of magnanimous nature.

The play fight came to an end happily. Neither was hurt physically, or psychologically - and both egos remained intact: Fintan's because he had won, Tiarnan's because, of course, he had only let him win!

There is something appealing in Tiarnan's rationalization of his physical power in relation to Fintan. It is actually quite beautiful to see him conceive this excuse and understanding - and to hold on to it, to the extent of seeming to believe in it, at least emotionally. His is the perfect way of seeing the world if you are a small boy - as he is - who wants to feel powerful - as he does.

In Tiarnan's world, he is powerful - and, in a way, he is: for his imagination is such that he is quite able to convince himself that he is such.

I, for one, watching him play, am quite prepared to accept him on his own terms - for he is so intent about it, that to do so, is the only reasonable and fair response.

So, Tiarnan is the superhero of the house, who is so considerate of his brothers that he refrains from using his powers against them. They, in turn, refrain from pointing out that he doesn't have any. It is the ideal arrangement.

(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.htmland here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175

To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, 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 athttp://www.genghiscan.com/

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

A lecturer in waiting.

Presently, we have a guest, in our house. He is a Professor, from Brazil. His primary field is Computer Science, though he writes in several other fields. His presence, in our house, unannounced as it was, has drawn some curiosity from my sons. Tiarnan, five, in particular, is most interested in our guest.

“Mummy,” he began, with a serious question in his studied gaze, “Why is that man, here?”

“He has come to give a talk, to adults.”, she explained, with well chosen words.

He absorbed this odd preoccupation of adults. Ramifications sparkled in his eyes.

“Do you want to give a talk?”, his mummy pursued.

“Yes.” He nodded, with an unexpected enthusiasm.

“What would your talk be about?”

“Why there are so many people in the world.”, he declared, seemingly certain of the answer.

“Why are there so many people in the world?”, prompted his mummy, with a gentle smile.

“It is easy.”, he asserted, with a nod to himself. “It is because it is infinite. When one person dies, another pops out….when one person dies, another pops out…”, he trailed off, the endless series left unsaid.

From his five year old vantage on the world, little Tiarnan had identified the cycle of life, and perceived its potential infinitude. Yet, he was also aware of the mortality of Man. He saw both the infinite and the finite in life. To me, that seems quite a lot for one so young to encompass.

It is interesting that he is developing an historical perspective on the world – in the sense that he is intuiting how things got the way they are. He is identifying causes in the world, of the way the world is.

Sometimes, perhaps, we forget or overlook, how much the little people in our lives, see into the depths of the world. It leads me to wonder what they understand, but never speak of. Of that, of course, I can only guess. The best that can be done, to see the world as they do, is just to listen carefully to them – and that is just what I do.

(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.htmland here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175

To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, 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 athttp://www.genghiscan.com/

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

A gourmet rabbit.

As long term readers will know, we recently added two rabbits to our family. One is a golden rabbit called Sushi. The other is a grey, very fluffy rabbit called Mochi. Aptly, they are both named after Japanese foods, given the behaviour I am about to describe.

I had the pleasure of observing them as two very young rabbits, on one of their first experiences of the outside world. We had placed them in the garden, under the watchful gaze of all, since we also have cats, who might think two baby rabbits were somehow meant for them, in an unpleasant sort of way (for the rabbits, anyway). Both were very excited to see the grass beneath their feet. Up until then, food had arrived at our hands, in limited quantities: now the very ground beneath their feet sprouted edible goodies. It was fun to see them hop around excitedly, perhaps quite not able to believe that the world, the very world could be constructed of food, as it was, for them.

Mochi's behaviour was most interesting. She wandered about the garden, seeking different varieties of plants. Once she had found a new variety, she would nibble on it, experimentally and come to some inner assessment of its worth. Sometimes she nibbled more enthusiastically, after the first nibble, at other times, she seemed fairly neutral towards the plant. Once she had tasted a plant, she would then hop away in search of another variety. It was quite clear what she was doing. She was on a conscious, deliberate survey of the food options in her environment: she was tasting each and every variety of plant she could find.

She was particular fond of a type of small white flower - name unknown to me. To this she, in fact, returned more than once. It was the only plant, on this particular trip into the garden, that she returned to. With all others, she nibbled, then moved on.

On subsequent adventures in the garden, Mochi would return to where her favourite plants grew and nibble on them. She had come to an understanding of where in the garden the best pickings grew. There was nothing random in her food search: she always seemed to know what she liked to eat. It is notable that she takes the trouble to pick out favourite plants, from among all the alternatives

From this behaviour, it can be seen, that even a rabbit can be a bit of a gourmet. Our rabbits, in particular Mochi, have very individual tastes in food and go out of their way to meet those tastes. In a garden filled with different plants, they don't just nibble the ones at their feet, when placed in the garden - but go hopping off in search of particular treats - at least, they always seem to end up nibbling on these more unusual plants, in preference to more abundant, more readily available ones. Conscious choices seem to be being made.

It has been fun, so far, having rabbits in the house. More than that, however, it has been illuminating. I have come to better appreciate the intelligence of these seemingly simple animals. I think Man rather overestimates our place in the world. Yes, we have language and technology - but even quite humble animals have a degree of intelligence that too many overlook. They are not dumb creatures - they are just not as able as Humanity as a whole. That, however, does not make them unimpressive.

I recommend, to anyone, to have a pet or two in the house. The children will learn a lot - but so will you. The lessons you learn might surprise you and prompt you to reassess a number of your basic assumptions about the world's animals.

(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.htmland here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175

To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, 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 athttp://www.genghiscan.com/

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

Lucas Ordoñez, GT5, and the power of video games.

Video games may be much more powerful than many people realize, for training skill sets in people. Lucas Ordoñez is an eye opening example. Recently, Lucas Ordoñez and his team, including Franck Mailleux and Soheil Ayari came 2nd place in the Le Mans 24 hour endurance race. Now, you may be wondering why I regard it as newsworthy that someone should come second in a race. Well, it is quite simple. Lucas Ordoñez is not a trained racing driver. In fact, Lucas Ordoñez’ primary experience of racing comes from sitting at home with his Playstation 3, playing Gran Turismo 5. Lucas Ordoñez is a computer games player.

I found this a remarkable case, for what it says about the effects of video games/computer games on our children. It is clear that they are certainly learning something whilst playing them. It would be wise, perhaps, to look, therefore, at which games they are playing. Lucas Ordoñez became an expert racing driver, without even setting foot in a racing car, simply by playing Gran Turismo 5, or GT5. What, however, is becoming of children who play Call of Duty, or other warfare simulators? Are they becoming more efficient killers? Perhaps a child who plays such games, would grow up to be a better soldier.

There seems to me, to be an opportunity for enlightening games, that would entrain positive skills in our children. I am not so familiar with the available games to know whether such games exist – but it would be good if our games actually taught them something worth learning. They certainly taught Lucas Ordoñez how to drive.

(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.htmland here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175

To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, 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 athttp://www.genghiscan.com/

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

Are there real child prodigies?

This question was asked by a searcher from Texas, Dallas. Funnily enough, that search brought him to my entry on “Does Ainan Cawley exist?”, which was a search by another searcher who doubted the reality of child prodigies.

Now, I am going to make an assumption about why this question was asked. I put it down to the influence of television and film. In Hollywood, so many varieties of “hero” are deployed in films, that, perhaps for an uninformed viewer, it can become difficult to distinguish a cape wearing “superhero” – obviously fictional – from a child prodigy – which they may also categorize, therefore, as another variety of fictional hero. It may be that the effect of television by promoting such characters as “Dougie Howser”, for instance, is to undermine the very believability, in the public eye, of the notion of a child prodigy. The prodigy becomes nothing more real than any other fictional “superhero”.

There are real child prodigies. Though, there may not be a child as qualified as a doctor, as young as Dougie Howser – simply because it takes too many years to pass through all the hoops, even for the very brightest. There are also child prodigy musicians, in the real world, not just “August Rush” who, in some ways, is less impressive than a real prodigy, like Mozart.

The problem with film is that it can make a true story of a prodigy’s life, seem fictional. So often is the plot of a prodigy’s arc of life used in film, that when it happens in the real world, it can seem too “pat” to people. The public can, as this searcher has, react as if the true story were just another fictional example.

The other problem is that prodigies in fiction are much more common than they are in real life. Thus, the fictional prodigies can set up the expectation that there is a prodigy around every corner. Perhaps my Texan searcher was expressing doubt based on the observation that there WERE’NT prodigies around every corner. Perhaps the dearth of real world prodigies made them think that prodigies didn’t exist at all, outside of film.

If prodigies appeared in film, with the same frequency as they appear in real life, one might reasonably expect to see one prodigy per century of Hollywood output, or so. Thus, it can be seen that the situation in Hollywood films with respect to prodigies is absurd. The films create the expectation of an abundance of one of the rarest manifestations of the human mind. When that expectation is not met, it is understandable that people begin to doubt the phenomenon of prodigy. However, it would be more rational to doubt the phenomenon of Hollywood as a source of reliable information about the world.

The situation of prodigies, is a difficult one in many ways. The problems of adjustment and finding a suitable environment for the child are immense. I am not sure it helps, to have Hollywood creating a false impression of the numbers of such prodigious children in the world. For one thing, if people come to believe that they are plentiful the tendency might be to neglect those prodigies they do come across, for people might think that such children are actually fairly “ordinary”!

Then again, Hollywood is at least making people aware of the concept of prodigy, if to an unhelpful degree and in a misleading fashion. However, the “education” received from Hollywood distorts every phenomenon it touches – prodigy included – so that the nature of the truth in the real world, is obscured. The answer, here, of course, would be to look beyond Hollywood at more reliable forms of media, such as newspapers, to gather information about the phenomenon of prodigy – or, indeed, any other matter on which Hollywood touches. The problem, of course, is that films and tv are so easy to imbibe and that newspapers take more of an effort to consume. Thus it is, as reading declines, the power of Hollywood to form people’s minds grows, to the point at which, perhaps, their “understanding” of the world, becomes something almost entirely ficitional: they no longer know what is real, and what is not. They no longer have the capacity to decide whether the matters addressed in Hollywood have real world counterparts or not.

Child prodigies are real. What is not realistic, is Hollywood’s portrayal of them. It is worrying that, in the modern world, people are losing their ability to come to this realization.

(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.htmland here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175

To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, 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 athttp://www.genghiscan.com/

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