Where things come from.

Today, Tiarnan, five, asked one of his quintessential Tiarnanisms. I use the term to capture the distinct way he thinks about the world.

His mother had just been cooking. Tiarnan looked across at the sum of her work and enquired:

“Mummy made the soup...but who made God?”

His mother had no answer but a captivated smile. Once again, Tiarnan had asked a question that I doubt any other person has framed, in exactly the same way, ever at all.

Tiarnan is much troubled by the question of God, at present. His elder brother, Fintan, eight, has been heard to complain:

“Mummy: Tiarnan won’t leave me in peace, in the bathroom: he is always asking me about God!”

Tiarnan has come to see the question of who made God, as a bit of a problem. He understands the idea of a being that makes all things...but then, he is led, ineluctably, to the question of how the maker made themselves – or who made the maker. Like a good little scientist, he has seen the logical problem in the God Solution, to the origin of the Universe – and it concerns him.

Now, I could sit him down and tell him of my own thoughts on the matter. However, I don’t think I will. I believe that it is better for him to ponder this question on his own and come up with his own thoughts on it. Besides, telling him my thoughts, would only deprive him of the pleasure and reward of thinking it through himself. So, I will let him ponder – and enjoy the reports of his thoughts, as they fall off his tongue, at random intervals, in the times to come. It is better that way. Childhood is more entertaining, when left to the children, to think through.

Posted by Valentine Cawley

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Akiane Kramarik: a child prodigy artist?

Is Akiane Kramarik a child prodigy artist? For those who know of Akiane Kramarik – and that probably includes almost everyone who has ever searched for my page (because she has been around for a very long time and word tends to get around) – you would know that she has a reputation as a child prodigy artist. You may even have seen Akiane’s CNN interview with Glenn Beck. So, why do I ask this question, then?

Well, it is, as usual, simple. You see I have noted various debates about her on the internet. Some voices speak of her with awe, others speak of her in a knocking fashion – usually because she is religious and believes passionately in God (strange that, in the modern world, someone can be knocked for what they used to be praised for). A few, however, question whether she is a “genius” – they say that her style is not that of a “genius”. They seem to be arguing that she is not a child prodigy, because her work does not manifest what, to them, is “genius”.

The debate is, I feel, based on a misunderstanding of what Akiane is and what she is doing. She showed, from a very early age, a high degree of technical skill in the making of fine art paintings. There was a very high degree of precocity in these works, such that they appeared to have been made by the steady hand and eye of a much older, more experienced artist. It is this quality of work that leads to the description of her as a child prodigy. You see, a child prodigy is any child, under 11, or so, displaying an adult degree of skill, in a domain normally reserved for adults. By this criteria, Akiane (variously also known as Akiane Kramarik, Akaine, Aki Anna, Akiana, Akiane Anna, on the internet: no doubt there are other permutations, too), is definitely a child prodigy. She may well be a genius, too. She may well turn out to be an influential and capable artist who leads the world in a new style, one day – for then she would be known as a genius, too – but, right now, she is correctly described as a child prodigy artist – or a child art prodigy, depending on which way you look at it.

The fact is, her childhood works, while of primary school age, show an uncanny facility that can only be described as prodigious. She is of a lonely breed, child prodigy artists being one of the rarest kinds of prodigy (along with child prodigy scientists, like Ainan). Akiane is a competent artist, in technical terms, compared to artists of any age. That is what qualifies her as a child prodigy artist. She does not need to be a genius, also, to win that title. (Though she may turn out to be a genius, too – time will tell.) I think it is time the internet arguers accepted Akiane Kramarik for what she is: an artist – and a child prodigy.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and ten months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and three months, and Tiarnan, twenty 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, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)