A contrast of cultures.

Singapore is a strange place. One only discovers how strange, when it is compared to other cultures. Unfortunately, most Singaporeans get little chance to make such a comparison and so, truly, never come to understand their own culture.

Ainan has achieved many things which have never become publicly known. We just haven't mentioned them. Recently, we communicated one of these achievements - a pretty big achievement, actually - to some people we thought should know, since it was relevant to them. One of them was the Principal of his school, another was an institution in Singapore that has contact with Ainan. We also contacted an interested party in Malaysia and another in Australia. What really surprised me, was the difference in responses among these different parties.

Before I tell you what happened, I would like you to consider what you think would a) be the natural response to good news of an unprecedented academic achievement for a young child. b) what was the most likely response by a particular party c) how quickly that response should normally come.

Have you thought about it? Have you come up with answers? Please do not read on until you have.

Right. Are you ready? Well, the Australian University responded in less than TEN minutes, with warm words of congratulation. The Malaysian party responded within a few hours, with effusive congratulations and two pages of advice and leads for further development. The Singaporean institution that Ainan has had contact with, responded, after ONE WEEK, by WITHDRAWING ALL SUPPORT OF AINAN. As for Ainan's Principal - after TWO WEEKS, she has NOT replied AT ALL.

I must confess myself to being rather shocked by this. It is abundantly clear, and could not be more clear, that Singaporean institutions and educational parties, do not wish Ainan to progress. They seem to take news of his progression as BAD NEWS. Their responses are unnatural and unsupportive in the extreme. It defies belief that Ainan's own country should show such a lack of enthusiasm and natural warmth where his progress is concerned - and other countries, such as Australia and Malaysia should respond with congratulations, warmth and offers of further help.

Singapore is a place that does not deserve the excellence of its citizens. For those citizens who are excellent soon discover that other nations are more welcoming of their excellence, than is Singapore. Perhaps that is why Singapore has such great trouble retaining its citizens: they discover, eventually, that the rest of the world appreciates them better than Singapore does. It defies belief that places we have never even been to - such as Australia - should be warmer, more human and more natural in their responses to Ainan - than Singaporean people in authority and educational institutions.

What makes this all the more sad, of course, is that we have tried very hard to remain in Singapore and to make a way for Ainan to progress here. We have been very patient with a system that is pretty inflexible and rather difficult to worth with. We have shown great forebearance with them...yet, when we contrast the degree of local response, with the responses we receive internationally, we can only conclude that there is something wrong with Singapore. The responses here, are unnatural and unhelpful. Singapore is a nation that TALKS about breeding local talent, but what it actually does is IGNORE local talent and IMPORT foreign talent - mainly PRCs. Truly, local talent finds it quite difficult to get access to what is needed to develop optimally. So many barriers exist and are put in the way. The philosophy appears to be that it is easier to bring in "talent" made elsewhere, than to go to all the trouble of properly nurturing it at home.

It is common to hear praise for Singapore's education system - but I find this praise usually comes from people who don't really understand what the education system here is for, or what it does. Very few Singaporeans can understand their own system, because they have no experience of other systems and so have no contrasts to make. Singapore's system is about conformity and efficiency. It is about, not encouraging creative talent to prosper and grow, but about creating predictable cogs in the economic machine. It is not really an education system, it is an ECONOMIC system. Hence, they probably don't think it is worthwhile making Ainan's path ahead as open as possible, because they don't see how he fits into the standard economic model. Indeed, since they can't see where he is going, they would rather bring in a PRC who is already what they want, than to nurture Ainan to become someone who would contribute to society. The same reasoning will be applied to any child who does not seem to fit the economic system. Their value will not be seen.

So, it is that we find that Malaysians and Australians are very quick with their congratulations, warmth, support and advice - whereas Singaporeans either do NOT reply at all - or reply by taking a sanction against Ainan - in this case withdrawing support previously offered. My conclusion is that, if you seek to achieve anything out of the ordinary in Singapore, the system will either ignore you (as Ainan's Principal did) or punish you (as the educational institution did). The last thing you will receive is congratulations or support.

Mind you, it is good to see the truth of the system in action - it tells us, of course, that we are wasting our time with such people and such institutions - and so, of course, we will not waste our time with them, in future.

From our vantage, the future of Singapore is looking pretty mediocre - since excellence is shunned by the system, discouraged and opposed. In a way, it is darkly funny...because publicly the nation's ministers speak of nurturing home grown talent - but privately, what actually happens, is that such talent will find walls everywhere. Singapore is, ultimately, a hypocritical nation: it says one thing and does another. No doubt, this observation doesn't just apply to the field of education - but I make it, initially, as an observation regarding education.

The hardest thing to understand about this behaviour on the part of Singaporean authority figures and institutions is that, if I imagine myself to be them, I cannot see myself ever doing as they are doing. There is no positive motivation, emotion or thought, that would lead to their behaviours. It is only when I start to imagine myself to possess negative motivations, emotions and thoughts, that it becomes possible to imagine making the choices they make. I can only conclude that they are driven by a negative value system that is life denying, growth opposing and, essentially, unethical. The system, here, does not have a good heart. It is not run by good people - because, basically and most obviously, good people don't behave as they are doing. It would not be within the range of behavioural choices of good people, to do as they do. That, in itself, is a startling and rather saddening realization. It is also something that many locals appear to be unaware of - perhaps because they have never been in a position to put the local authorities in a position to reveal themselves for what they are.

To put it most simply. It is the most natural thing in the world to congratulate a young child on an unprecedented achievement. It is the response one would expect, automatically, from 100% of people who were not mentally impaired and unable to understand the situation. In Ainan's case, it was the response of both the Malaysian and the Australian party. However, it was not the response of the Singaporean parties. Their responses were silence and punishment, respectively. It is in this strange contrast of responses that Singapore reveals the true nature of its culture and its educational system. I think it speaks most clearly.

(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.)

"Too many gifted students in the world".

A searcher reached my site today with the terms: "Are there too many gifted students because of pushy parents?". The surfer was from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. I thought their question, of the internet, eminently revealing of all too common attitudes that need to be countered.

Firstly, there is the idea that giftedness is somehow created by "pushy" parents. Personally, I think this is an impossibility. The idea that one could "push" an otherwise ordinary child into becoming gifted is quite extraordinary. It would be a bit like saying that if you dunk your child's head under water long enough they will be able to breathe it. It is really quite silly.

Gifted children are the way they are, largely because of their fortuitous inheritance. The correlation between the IQ of the parents and their children (when they become adults) has been established to be 0.8. This is a very high correlation. It is actually cruel to think that one could "push" a child without such a lucky inheritance into performing as a gifted child can. No measure of demands from the parents are going to raise the ordinary child's IQ above the magical 130 IQ threshold that commonly defines "giftedness".

Then there is another assumption in their search terms that I take issue with: the idea that there are "too many" gifted students. What does this mean? This person seems to think that the world is better off without intelligent children...they seem to hold the view that intelligence is something to be minimized and contained, not encouraged and expanded. To say that a society has "too many" gifted students is a bit like saying that it has "too much money"...for gifted people comprise the intellectual wealth of a nation.

The IQ threshold of 130 that defines the "moderately gifted" is met by one child in 44 in a society with an IQ mean of 100. This means that in a Singaporean class of about 40 students there will be, on average, one moderately gifted child. Is that too many? Would it be worse for the nation were there two such students, or five in the class? I cannot think of any way in which the nation would be worse off, were that so.

Obviously, higher levels of giftedness are much rarer. The profoundly gifted (IQs of 180 or more) are usually thought of as literally one in a million. Would the world be a worse place were they one in 100,000? I cannot believe so. Were they more common, the rate at which uncommonly difficult problems in science and other disciplines were solved, would only increase. Surely, that would be better for the world as a whole.

Giftedness is present in all societies of the world. Yet, it is odd to observe, that it is misunderstood in all of those societies, too. In some societies, it is marginalized, disapproved of, disparaged, in some quarters. This is most peculiar - for the gifted among us, have, historically as a group, built most of the culture, science and technology on which human civilization rests. Are such people to be disregarded or shunned?

Sometimes giftedness is disconcerting for the less well endowed. They feel comfortable in a world filled with people as ordinary as they are. Yet, what they fail to realize is that such a world would be a very much more limited world. Science would come to a halt. Technology would remain static. Doctors would not be sufficiently competent at their jobs to save lives. Books would not be written and libraries would go unfilled. In fact, all the civilized world that we know, would cease to be. Perhaps, were this situation so, people would appreciate what the gifted among them have contributed. Perhaps, only then, would they welcome them (though too late, for they will have gone).

The welcome or otherwise, of the gifted, should not be determined by the ordinary among us, with a "democratic" agenda, of all having to be alike. The welcome should be determined by the gifted themselves. The prevailing culture should be one that affords opportunity to all who are gifted, to fully become what they may be and contribute what they may do. Such a culture does not include the idea of "too many gifted" people - nor the idea of the "pushy parents created them". Such a culture accepts gifted people for what they are - and is happy to have them.

The question is: which cultures are such cultures? My surfer suggests that Australia may not be one of them. How are gifted people welcomed (or otherwise) in your culture? What are the prevailing attitudes to them? Are they seen as "geeks" or "nerds"? Are they marginalized? Are they shunned? Or are they welcomed and valued? I would welcome your comments, views and observations from wherever you are in the world. 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.

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication prohibited. Use Only with Permission. Thank you.)

A misplaced sense of entitlement.

Courtesy is a two-way thing - but, oddly, many people seem to think of it as one way only: from others, to them.

Last week, I sat on the bus. When I got on, there were still more seats than people, so I sat on the outside of a double seat, with the inner seat left empty (since I don't like to be trapped inside, when I need to leave).

A few stops later, there were more people than seats, so I rose from my seat, and asked all those standing nearby if they would like to sit down. No-one did. Some shook their heads, others just didn't answer me. So I sat down again.

A few stops later, another group of people got on. A Caucasian woman, whose hair was dyed blonde and whose years were a handful more than mine, spoke in an Australian accent: "Can I sit in there?"

"Yes, of course." I answered, and rose to let her in.

She sat in silence. She didn't thank me.

Unperturbed I confided: "I did ask everyone nearby if they wanted to sit, but no-one did."

She looked out of the window, as if I did not exist.

I shut up.

I went into a reverie, to pass the time and find interest in my thoughts.

After a while, a voice penetrated my thoughts: "Would anyone like to give me a seat?"

The voice was strident, insistent and, again, that of an Australian woman.

She spoke awfully near me, so I looked up. There was a dark-haired Australian woman in her thirties looking down on me. At first, I wondered why she did so, but then I saw her bump: she was pregnant.

I was being asked to give up my seat. I looked briefly at the Australian woman next to me, to whom I had already given a seat. She looked away and out of the window, as if I didn't exist.

"Yes, of course." I said - and rose to let her in.

This new, pregnant Australian woman sat in silence. She didn't thank me, either.

Thus, I stood, without a seat, in the aisle, which was quite an accomplishment since ten minutes before I had had two seats all to myself.

Neither woman looked at me. They behaved as if I didn't exist.

I appraised these Australian women, as if for clues as to their surprising rudeness. Both of them expected courtesy from others - indeed, DEMANDED it - but neither of them was prepared to be courteous to others, in response. Both had secured a seat from me - yet neither had thanked me for doing so. I thought this more than a little rude. It seemed ignorant, too.

I still had the tone of voice of the pregnant woman echoing in my mind: it was such a demanding voice, a voice that said: "It is my RIGHT to have a seat! Now MOVE!" The odd thing is, she had never considered that other people have feelings and they, too, are worthy of respect.

Looking back on it, I think that neither Australian woman deserved a seat. The proper response to them, had I had full knowledge of their characters would have been to have said: "No!". I should then have done as they had done: look out of the window as if they did not exist.

Yet, I had not known. I gave both of them the common level of courtesy and helpfulness I give to all people. That is my way. Yet, sometimes, it seems the wrong thing to do - because sometimes that courtesy is punished by those who receive it. I rather wish I had full knowledge of people so I would know to whom to show respect and courtesy and whom to snub.

I learnt something from the encounter, though. I had experienced discourtesy from Singaporeans on many occasions - but this was my first encounter with Australian rudeness. Perhaps discourtesy is not just a local problem, then, but is fast becoming a global one. Either that, or these two ladies have adopted ways that fit in around here, a little too well.

If I had been that pregnant woman, I would have begun my request with a polite: "Excuse me..." and adopted a gentle, enquiring tone, rather than the demanding one that had been hers.

I know that, in general, pregnant women should be given a seat because the extra burden of the baby places a strain on their backs...however, I have just had a funny thought: does a sixty kilo pregnant woman (as I adjudged her to be), find greater difficulty standing for long periods than a 106 kg man (me)? I have nearly double the weight she needs to support, so there could be an argument there that the greater strain would be my own...

I raise the matter above in jest - but it does have a serious point: there may be other people with just as much, or perhaps, more need for a seat than even a pregnant woman. In this light, any pregnant woman should at least say "Thank you." when someone provides them with a seat. After all, someone has elected to give up their own comfort to make them more comfortable.

As for the Australian women: they have succeeded in lowering my expectations of what Australia might be like to visit (I have yet to go). I wonder if they are all as rude, there, as these two were to me?

Share your experiences please.

(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.)

Are gifted children offensive?

"Are gifted children too offensive?" These were the search words of a net searcher from Australia, a few days ago. In itself, it was one of the most offensive searches I have seen in a long time.

Australia is a country that has coined a phrase called the "tall poppies syndrome". This expresses the observation that, in certain quarters of the country, it has been traditional to cut down the "tall poppies". That means to attack the gifted among them. I understand that this is not the universal treatment of the gifted in Australia - for there are some programmes that address their needs - but the very fact that a culture actually has a phrase for this phenomenon is not actually a good sign - except of one thing, of course: that the society is open enough about its own nature to actually have labelled the situation. That, at least, is a step forward. In some societies, there is no name for it - but they do it anyway.

Clearly, though, this tendency still exists in Australia - otherwise the searcher above would never have searched as they have.

Let us look at what the searcher is actually saying. They are saying that gifted people offend them. How could this be? How can the possession of merit be, in any way, offensive? Only dark emotions could lead someone to be offended by giftedness. Jealousy, envy, spite and rage - these emotions are the ones that lead someone to be offended by the gifted. The question is which is more beneficial for society: giftedness - or jealousy, envy, spite and rage? Which do we want to encourage? Do we want to encourage the gifted in our society - or do we want to encourage those filled with dark emotions? Only one choice leads to a better world.

We all need to understand what is happening with regards to the gifted - how they are welcomed and how they are not. It is an issue for us all - because a society that enables its most gifted to flourish is a society that will flourish as a whole. Anyone who fails to see that, is unable to see the big picture. It should matter to all of us, if the gifted are not nurtured - for in failing to do so, the society as a whole is being undermined. Societies that do not nurture their gifted will inevitably fail to thrive. That is obvious.

(If you would like to read about Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and no months, or Tiarnan seventeen 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, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted children and gifted adults, in general. Thanks.)