It is time to uninvent the gun.

It is time to uninvent the gun. No other invention has led to the death of more people than this simple device. If I had the power to remove one thought from the mind of Humanity, it would be the concept of the gun.

Today, a 17 year old teenage gunman opened fire on kids at his former high school, in Winnenden, 20 km north-east of Stuttgart. He managed to kill 15 people, including three teachers, before he was slain by police. This is the worst such shooting in Germany since 2002 when a 19 year old, Robert Steinhaeuser, did something very similar by shooting 12 teachers, two students, a secretary and a police officer before turning the gun on himself. This happened at Gutenberg high school in Erfurt. (Apparently, the young gun club member had been expelled from school for forging a doctor's note: his response was to kill as many people as he could.)

Now, neither of these events would have been possible if the gun had never been invented. Quite simply, a teenage boy with a knife, for instance, no matter how determined he is, is far less deadly than the same boy with a firearm. People can run from a knife, they can't run from a bullet.

The US, of course, is famous for its shootings. In fact, the school shooting is as American as the hamburger: what, in fact, would America be without its school shootings? There is seriousness, in my comedy, sadly - for such events are far too common in America. The reason, of course, is quite obvious: Americans have easy access to guns, so an American with a grudge becomes a school shooter/restaurant rampager/car jacker, all too quickly. What would be a minor altercation in a non gun-owning society, becomes mass murder in a gun owning one.

Singapore recently had its taste of sudden, unexpected violence when David Hartanto Widjaja, allegedly attacked his supervising professor with a knife, then, again allegedly, killed himself. Had David Hartanto Widjaja had access to an automatic weapon the headline might have gone a little bit like this: "Indonesian Chinese boy kills 25 at NTU." Thankfully, access to guns is strictly controlled in Singapore, making such a headline, in Singapore, extremely unlikely. However, I should point out that the David Hartanto Widjaja situation indicates that the ONLY reason Singapore does not have headlines like that, is because the students are not armed. Were Singapore's students as likely to be armed as Americans (or Germans), then, I am sure, that Singapore would have its own long list of school shootings.

The recipe for school shootings is a simple one and Singapore has all the ingredients except one: the guns. All you have to do is put students under tremendous pressure to succeed; make school quite hellish and cold; be just a little inhuman to the student body and keep this up for a decade and a half. Many students, under such conditions, will crack. Those that crack while holding a gun in their hands will take down half their college faculty with them. The only thing saving Singapore from a great shortage of professors is the absence of guns.

The solution, of course, is very simple: take the guns away. Societies that don't have guns, don't have mass shootings. It is terribly obvious. Any society that allows ownership of guns is one that has to accept that the presence of guns will lead to sudden, unexpected large scale violence that can kill many people. Often those people will be schoolchildren.

We can't uninvent the gun, pity though it is. However, we can remove guns from society. It would, I think, be a much better world if every nation on Earth took away the guns. Once the guns are gone, murder rates will fall and every nation will be spared terrible tragedies like the one that unfolded in Germany today.

Many people tend to leap to defend guns, once someone suggests their removal. We have to look, however, at the motives of such people: usually they haven't thought broadly about the situation. All they are thinking is: "I want a gun, to protect myself from the other guy who has a gun." Well, they never seem to consider that nobody having a gun, is better than everybody having a gun. People can't shoot you with their bare hands.

A completely disarmed world, is a much safer world, than a completely armed world. America has shown us what an (almost) completely armed society is like: a stupendous murder rate and mass murders with unrelenting frequency. Societies that traditionally do not have guns, tend also to have relative freedom from murder.

It is time for people to work together to achieve safer societies. All that has to be done is that everyone should agree that there will be no guns. Then take them away. Those that retain them need only be punished with the utmost severity to eliminate guns, entirely, over time.

The alternative, of course, is to invite headlines of the kind we have been speaking of. So choose: no news to report, or sensational headlines - which is it to be?

(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.

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What does "Early College" mean?

Everywhere, the world over, educational systems and standards differ. This makes it very difficult to understand what one nation's educational accomplishments mean without some research.

In America, there is a phenomenon known as "Early College". This is where a child aged under 18 goes to a "College" where the usual age of admission is 18. The procedure is undertaken not infrequently to address the educational needs of gifted children, showing precocity, who might otherwise become bored, disheartened and otherwise switched off, by an unchallenging education, at school. This seems like a good idea, therefore: but what does it mean? What is College?

Every country above the most primitive level, has Universities. Yet, not all Universities are the same. In particular, there is a divide between what an American University is and does - and what Universities in the rest of the world tend to be about - and provide.

In many countries, University is meant for an elite: it is not meant for all. In America, "College" is a much more common experience than it is for the nationals of many other countries. There is a reason for this. In most Western countries, a first degree is used for professional education. In America, a first degree is usually used for general education. What this means is that American Universities are actually doing what is done in secondary school/high school in Europe and all those countries that follow a European style of education (which includes Australia and parts of Asia, and even Africa, as I understand it).

In England, general education is completed, normally, at the age of 16. This is a typical age around the world for general education to have been completed. Then specialist education begins. In America, general education is completed by taking a four year degree: thus it is complete at the age of 22. This means that there is a very important difference between American and European education systems that must be understood if the two are to be compared. An American with a first degree has just completed their general education. A European with a first degree, has, in many cases, completed their professional education, AND their general education.

So, how may we compare the American system to the rest of the world? Well, the website of the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland, compares requirements for admission to a medical degree, by applicants from different countries of the world. Distilling the essence of what it says is simple. A school leaver from secondary school/high school, aged 18, from anywhere in the world is, in theory, ready to start a medical degree in Ireland (if they are of good grades etc.). Yet, for an American applicant, A BACHELOR'S DEGREE is required for Admission to the normal program. Otherwise candidates have to undergo a special extended program longer than the usual degree.

This site equates an American Bachelor's degree as being equivalent to a high school education in the developed world - or in fact less. It states that an American Bachelor's degree is comparable to Year 11 of the Australian education system: that is, the age of attainment reached at the age of 17, by an Australian "high school" student.

Thus, back to my first question: what does Early College mean, in the American context? It means a high school educational opportunity, in the context of almost all the developed world. It does not mean "University-level" when compared to those who follow a European model.

As I have noted before, in other posts, this difference between the American system and the rest of the world, is due to the emphasis on breadth, at the expense of depth, in the American education sytem up to and including a Bachelor's degree. Most of the rest of the world looks into subjects at depth, much earlier on in a student's education.

This analysis of education systems helps us understand an interesting cultural observation. There are quite a few American kids in Early College, if internet boards are anything to go by. There are virtually none in University in the rest of the world. The reason for this is now clear: like is not being compared with like. An American student in Early College is studying material that a sixteen year old would study in High School/Secondary School in the rest-of-the-world system. Thus to compare like with like, we must look for rest-of-the-world students who have been accelerated to the later stages of High School/Secondary School. We do, in fact, find such students - although they are rare. (I do not have access to numerical data, but I have read of a few cases, in my lifetime). Furthermore, we also find some children who ARE in University while quite young - but these are few, in the rest-of-the-world. They are studying a Bachelor's degree in the main: this is equivalent to an American Doctoral degree.

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

Comparative education: Singapore "High Schools"

In America, "High School" has a certain meaning and a certain range of connotations. Americans know what High School is: they have been there and have gathered together certain impressions and assumptions. This understanding, however, will lead to misunderstanding of the present situation.

You see, Singapore is influenced by its colonial origins. Its education is largely patterned on the UK model of O levels, A levels and specialized single subject degrees. This is not the American system. Therefore, when I used the term "High School" yesterday, it had a different meaning from what an American would understand a High School to be. Secondary Schools in Singapore, as they are more commonly known, follow a narrower base of subjects, at a higher level than any given age in the American system. What this means is that, by the end of secondary education in Singapore (a stage normally called Junior College here), a student will have reached a higher standard than would be attained in a US High School. However, it should be remembered that this higher benchmark would be in a narrower range of subjects than in the US.

For reasons I do not yet fully know, the school which is being considered for Ainan: The National University of Singapore High School for Maths and Science, otherwise known as the NUS High School for Maths and Science, is called a High School. That is odd in the Singapore landscape: for other schools do not have this title. I will learn why on Friday, I suppose.

Anyway, given the influence of the UK system on the educational practices of Singapore, this NUS High School will reach higher standards than an American High School would, at the same age. Thus it is not a comparable situation. The level of demand on Ainan, seven, would be higher than if he were in an American High School. In Singapore, students take A levels at eighteen. As I have noted before, it was said of this exam, when I was a child, that the standard was so high that it was like taking an American college degree. That is the context in which NUS High School is embedded.

I will learn more tomorrow of what the place is about. One thing should be noted, however: NUS High School is a specialist centre for the mathematically and scientifically gifted. Therefore, Ainan would be among many gifted students - who are more than twice his age. That should be an interesting experience. I hope it is a good one, and that they welcome him. We will see.

(If you would like to read more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, seven years and three months, a scientific child prodigy, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, three, and Tiarnan, thirteen months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, IQ, intelligence, child genius, adult genius, baby genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)