Prophecy in a child's eyes

Not infrequently, Fintan’s thoughts turn to the future. On the matter, he is always sober and ruminative. He peers forward and seeks to imagine what he will find one future day. I usually find his views reasonable and likely. He seems to have a good grasp on what may happen. Is it logic that guides him, or intuition? I rather think it is the latter, from the way he seems to feel out a picture of tomorrow.

Yesterday, Fintan, 9, asked me:

“Do you think technology will keep on getting higher?” He seemed to be holding a hidden thought in his mind, as if he were seeking to measure his own thought, against mine, but was holding it back so that I wouldn’t be influenced by his.

“I think it will get better, yes...what do you think?” I held my thought lightly on my tongue, so that it would not pressure his into conformity.

“I think we will have better technology, but will use less of it.” He almost seemed to see this diminished world, before his inner sight.

“Why? Is that because of energy supply problems?”

“Yes.” He was both matter of fact and certain.

“So, although the technology is available, most people won’t be able to afford the energy for them?”

He just gave an affirmative nod, his silence holding an opinion about this yet to be seen world.

As with many conversations with Fintan, I found his conclusions uncomfortably likely. Whatever reasoning processes he went through, the outcome is quite a convincing possible tomorrow.

It is funny to hear him speak so. He is just 9 years old – and what, one wonders , can a 9 year old know of the world? Well, it seems he knows enough of TODAY, to anticipate a far TOMORROW, by some inner projection. He can see where the world is headed. What is darkly funny, of course, is that many of our leaders, with many more than just 9 years, don’t seem to be able to anticipate outcomes, with the same proficiency. He seems to be thinking more, in this way, than many do.

Is Fintan right? Do we face a diminished tomorrow, in which, although our powers of technology are greater, we simply don’t have the energy to power them, to the ubiquity we would like? Is technology to be rationed to the rich?

If we look around us and see that fossil fuels are running out; Uranium is in short supply, and renewables are just not ready, it does seem clear that Mankind faces an energy crisis in the decades ahead. A 9 year old child can sense this...so why are the world’s leaders not making more of it: why are they not preparing more actively for such a world by investing in alternative ways to power it?

The answer seems clear, my little 9 year old son, has a longer term view than most world leaders. Now, that IS sobering.

I like these chats with Fintan, for he prompts me to reflect on times ahead, some of which I may never see. It is good, though, that he considers the future he may one day live through. I think, he will have prepared himself, mentally, for the challenges ahead, for having modelled them, in advance. There is no better preparation than forethought – and Fintan does plenty of that.

Posted by Valentine Cawley

(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

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/11136175To 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.) 

The beginnings of scientific curiosity.

Children are a distillation of human curiosity. On their tongues may be heard questions that adults would never think to ask, partly because many adults have stopped actively thinking about the world around them: they just take it for granted. Therefore, the most interesting of questions, can often come from the youngest of interrogators.

Recently, Fintan, 9, has displayed a notable increase in the number of scientific questions, he asks. This is not an entirely expected development since his early interests were elsewhere than science.

A couple of weeks ago, at bedtime, Fintan spoke into the darkness, his voice most thoughtful.

“Daddy: can you shoot bullets in space?”

What a wonderful question, I thought, before answering.

“Yes, in fact the bullet in space would go faster and further than in the atmosphere, because there would be no air to slow it down. What I mean is that if you shoot a bullet in the air, it is at its maximum speed as it leaves the gun. Then it begins to slow down owing to friction with the air. In space, it just wouldn’t slow down.”

The silence was ruminative as he listened to me.

“However,” I continued, “that assumes that you are using an explosive for the bullet that doesn’t need oxygen to work. As long as that is so, you can shoot bullets in space.”

I thought this a very interesting moment, for it called to mind the periods of questioning that Ainan went through and Tiarnan is going through – and the flavour of the question is much the same, too. Perhaps, an interest in science might prove to be universal in my children – which makes me wonder whether it is potentially universal in all children. Do parents snuff out an interest in science, by not answering a child’s questions and engaging with them properly? Why is science seemingly a minority interest, when the questions of children can be so scientific, at their core?

I like the style of question that Fintan comes out with. Typically he identifies, in his question, a problem that is not immediately explicable, or sometimes seems contradictory or impossible, at first glance. His mind is attracted by the exceptional and the bizarre, as well as the mysterious in everyday life. This is a valuable kind of thinking since it is often in an interest in such phenomenon that new things will be noticed – if not new to the world, at least new to the child – and in such thinking such thoughts, does a mind grow and does a child’s conception of the world, deepen.

I am left with one thought, though. What would it be like for my children asking so many scientific questions – as they all do or have done – were I a typically scientifically illiterate parent? Were such a circumstance so, I would be unable to answer their questions, their curiosity would go unfed and it is quite possible that their questioning tongues, would eventually fall silent as they learnt, by disappointing experience that it was pointless to ask, or think of such matters, since no enlightenment would ever be forthcoming. In an uneducated household, the scientifically curious child may find their minds stifled. We are fortunate, therefore, that I lived a childhood of scientific curiosity myself – for that experience has better prepared me for the challenge of raising scientifically curious children. Of course, I am not unaware that one circumstance may cause the other: that being disposed to science, may be reflected in one’s genes, and so, too, reflected in the children. Not only that, but one’s interest (an environmental factor), may spark the interest of the children. I think, however, it is more genetic than environmental, since I have never pushed my interests on to my children, but have always waited for them to take the initiative by asking relevant questions: I have let their characters emerge naturally. Thus it is, I see some genetic influences at work, in how their minds are formed and in the ways in which their thoughts are guided to certain kinds of curiosity.

In all, the situation is very rewarding. For I get to have the chance to nurture minds akin to my own, in some way, just as once I attempted to nurture my own mind, largely unaided (since the nature of my interests created an enforced self-reliance on the matter). It is pleasing that, at least, I can be there for my children, when their curiosity strikes.

Carry on questioning, Fintan...and all my boys!

Posted by Valentine Cawley

(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

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/11136175To 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.)