The adult world, from the point of view of a child.

Tiarnan is 7. Though pretty young by most standards, he has clear views on many things. April 2^nd was a case in point.

Tiarnan sidled up to me as I sat at my computer desk.

“Why do some countries like to fight?”, he began, clearly grappling with the sheer puzzle of it.

“Because they think they can get something by fighting.”, I answered, quite simply, while I appraised his reaction.

Tiarnan laughed, without the hint of a delay:  “They will never get anything by fighting.”

“The Americans fought in the Middle East, because they wanted oil.”, I countered, more to expand the conversation, than to contradict his view.

“Why do they want oil?” Tiarnan, began. “They have legs. They can just walk to places.”

There was something in him that was aghast at the whole idea. He seemed to think the Americans were being very silly, indeed.

I thought his understanding was wonderfully apt, so I let the matter stand unanswered.

What strikes me as funny about this is that, from the point of view of a child, the adult world can seem very silly. The things adults do just don’t seem to be rational, when approached with the clarity a bright child is able to bring to the situation. They have a very uncluttered view of the world and see, in some ways, the core that adults learn to overlook. In a way, it is silly that we have built our world to be dependent on artificial transport systems, when we have a natural one at our disposal. It is silly that we design our cities such that long distance driving is required to get everything we need to live, instead of living locally, with all our needs in easy reach – on foot. Modern adults have, in some ways, designed a very silly world in which to live – and a young child can see that. I must say, though, that it is refreshing to hear it said.

Of course, once the world’s oil runs out – which will probably happen without a viable replacement to hand, then the silliness of the world we have built will become clear, not only to our children, but to all. Then, perhaps, we will, indeed, use our legs, to do what they were meant to do: put the world within our reach. It is going to be a sobering shock for most people – yet that is the world that is promised to come, on the basis of one unavoidable fact: our oil reserves are finite and running out fast.

Yet, I can’t help but note that the end of oil is likely to result in behaviour which would meet with Tiarnan’s disapproval: resource wars fought over the remaining crumbs of oil. My little son wouldn’t be impressed.

It is funny to note that if the world were designed by children, it would be both simpler and somehow, potentially, nicer – at least if designed by Tiarnan. His world is a world without war, lived locally at a gentle pace. It is not such a bad place to consider.

Thank you Tiarnan, for showing me your understanding of how the world should be.

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.) 

A child composer’s view on music.

Ainan has a curious view on music. For him, music is not what it is to most people.

A few months ago, he remarked: “Music is a hard science – since every note is affected by the history of all the other notes.”

I found this an interesting remark, in several ways. Firstly, Ainan clearly understands Music to be a Science and not an Art. He comes at it from a scientific perspective and tries to construct his music, as a composer, in a scientific fashion: he brings reason to it, not just taste (though I observe there is plenty of that, too). It is possible that this particular approach to music, will lead to Ainan’s music being different from that produced by those who believe music to be an Art (everyone else). I am curious as to where this unusual outlook on music will lead him. Then again, the second half of his remark, makes it clear that Ainan sees music as a whole: each piece of music is a large scale structure, in which all the component parts – the notes – are influenced by all their fellows and guided thereby. To me, this means that Ainan has a “big picture” outlook on the composition of music, allied to an attention to the smallest detail – how each note is affected by all the other notes. He is simultaneously observing the whole and the parts. This is suggestive, to my mind of a unified form of thinking – one that deploys left and right brain styles, simultaneously.

If anything were to distinguish Ainan from other composers, it would be in the degree of intelligence and insight he brings to bear on his compositions. He thinks very deeply about his music and considers every aspect carefully. Yet, at the same time, he manages to be very spontaneous in that the music emerges from him quite rapidly. His thoughtfulness is not encumbering. It does not stem the flow of music, as it might for some people. It helps him fashion it, as it comes, shape and form it.

Whether Ainan realizes it or not, he is composing with a musical philosophy in mind – which he has nicely encapsulated in that remark. I record this remark, therefore, as an early statement of his outlook on music, so that it might be available in recorded form, for later attention, when the outcome of his musical explorations is clearer, in years to come.

In the meantime, I shall continue to enjoy his ever flowing music, newly conceived in our home, on a daily basis.

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.)