What is Beauty? (Again)

I tried to post on Beauty, yesterday, but today I observe that no post appeared. How uncanny. No record of it appears on my saved posts, either.

It seems that such a question cannot be asked on a blogger console.

I will, therefore, tell the tale again.

Two days ago, we went to Fort Canning Park, in Singapore. This is a converted military fort with all the old fortifications in place, but now purposeless. It provides a very interesting and architecturally stimulating environment with, as you might expect from a fortified hill, good views and pleasant walks.

That, however, was not the highlight of my day which provoked me to write.

I had given a bottle of water to Tiarnan, 21 months, who ran off with it to drink in peace. After a minute or so, he sat down on the grass, legs splayed in a V and continued to quaff his drink. Suddenly, without any warning, he tipped the whole bottle of water over his head - then laughed loudly, freely, purely, as the water coursed over his head, down his face and onto his clothes.

It was a beautiful moment seeing him revel so in the sensations the water created. Perhaps he just wanted to feel what the water would be like on him, in that moment. Or perhaps he was just hot, on this typical Singapore day, in which the heat never relents. Whichever it was, his freedom in simply tipping a load of water over himself and laughter at the feeling, was most sweet to see.

He stood up then, his wet clothes clinging to him, along with sand and soil from the ground and ran over to me.

He couldn't have been happier - and neither could I.

Beauty is many things. For me, this is Beauty. Perhaps, if you are a parent, you too will share this view.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and eleven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and four months, and Tiarnan, twenty-one 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, 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.)

Tiarnan and the Piano

Yesterday, when I called home, I heard someone in the background on the piano. It was not an entirely disorderly attempt to coax music from it. Keys were sounded in sequence, from various parts of the keyboard, there was an effort at rhythm at times - and there was a sense of someone seeking the Mystery behind the piano.

"Can you hear Tiarnan on the piano?", asked Syahidah, my wife.

I could, and I listened for awhile. What was clear was that individual keys were being pressed in sequence - and not just whole areas of keys being depressed at once.

"He is sitting on the bench," she continued, "and you should see his face!"

"Concentrated is he?"

"Yes."

I imagined that look in my mind: a look he shared with his brothers when they got something into their heads to interest them. It was like Fintan when he drew art: an intense absorption in the task, to the exclusion of all else. Tiarnan was trying to work out how to play the piano, simply by experimenting with it.

Now, Tiarnan has just turned fifteen months old - and this playing with the piano reminded me of another time, over three months ago.

That time he wanted to go up on the bench, but didn't find it as easy as he did, this time, on his own. So I had helped him up onto it. Then he had picked at the keyboard, key by key, listening to each sound, sometimes depressing the key several times in a row as he appreciated each note. He hadn't just bashed at it: he had systematically studied what sounds it made, whether those sounds were reproducible - and listened to them individually. It was quite a surprising set of actions for a first contact with a piano. He had not proceeded randomly, but had approached it with order in mind - and the need to understand the range of sounds on offer, one by one.

Then, too, he had been very absorbed in the task and very keen to hear each note and understand what it meant to him. When it came time to do something else, he hadn't wished to be dragged away.

Watching him interact with the piano in this way, spontaneously, without guidance, makes me wonder at how much children determine their own path and their own interests. I really am coming to think that the most healthy upbringing is one guided by the child's natural choices and inclinations. Tiarnan seems to be making a choice of music as one of his interests since he seeks out the piano, himself and tries to make music out of it.

The first time I heard him on the piano, he sought to experience individual notes; this time he appeared to be trying patterns, of some kind - trying to make music.

At some point, we are going to have to give him a formal chance to learn the piano, it seems.

The importance of play for children

In browsing on the internet, I have come across several sites that list incredibly packed timetables for children. I found these really surprising. You see, I never make a timetable for my children: I let them, largely speaking, do as they please.

My toddler, Tiarnan, ten months investigates every nook and cranny of our house. Fintan plays with his brothers and his toys. Ainan chooses either to play with them, or to indulge himself in mental games: drawing molecules, inventing reactions, writing little books, inventing devices. For Ainan this is play - it is what he chooses to do. Never did I require of him that he do these things. He spontaneously does these things of his own accord. The idea that one might timetable a day packed with intellectual activities for one's children is a strange one to me - for it takes away the fun of discovery. Children are able to discover their interests and their world, by themselves, if you let them. From what I have seen in my children, their gifts and talents will emerge naturally as they engage with the world.

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

At no stage did either of Ainan's parents sit down and say: "You are going to be scientist...here, do this." He naturally chose to do things that lead us to observe that he IS a scientist. All that Ainan is, is emerging naturally from Ainan. I don't think that any other way would be anything but forced and false, resulting in a child at odd's with its own essential nature.

The child knows what the child is: let the child become that, then.

(If you would like to read more of my scientific child prodigy son, Ainan Celeste Cawley and his gifted brothers, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of child prodigy, child genius, savant, the creatively gifted, adult genius, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks)

Molecular designer: a chemical genius at work

Ainan Celeste Cawley is seven years old and two weeks, yet last week, he sat himself down and designed his own homologous series of chemicals. This is a series of chemicals with shared characteristics, and which vary across the series in an orderly fashion. He had a particular purpose in mind for these chemicals, which I am not going to divulge - each would perform the stated purpose.

He drew the chemical molecular structure on A4 paper and showed how the members of the series varied across the series by drawing several examples of his series.

It is clear to me that his chemicals would work in the prescribed way: they would perform the function he desired. The structures, too, were correct.

It seems to me an unusual demonstration of the scientific imagination for a seven year old, just turned, to be designing his own chemicals. His creations are viable chemical entities that would have the properties he intends. He often draws chemicals and has been doing so this past year. Yet, this was the first time, I saw him draw an homologous series.

I do not know what he will become - but I can say what he is: a boy who plays with science, as others do with toys, a boy whose ideas are functional aspects of chemical reality, a boy who does what only an adult scientist might be expected to do - to look for new answers to problems, as he has done in this series.

He has many interests. Perhaps one of his interests foreshadows what he will become. If he becomes a designer of molecules, this post would have pinned down the time in which it began.

Happy thinking Ainan!

(If you would like to read more about Ainan Celeste Cawley, my scientific child prodigy son, aged seven years and two weeks, or his gifted brothers, then please go to:
http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)