A world of unrealized potential

Have you ever paused to consider how much unrealized potential there is, in the world? Many gifted people never fully express what they are capable of. Indeed, I believe that more of the world’s potential, in human ability, is forever unexpressed, rather than realized. Many people, for a start, never discover their greatest talents: they do not have the opportunity to explore those hidden areas, as they grow up, and never come to understand how gifted they would be, in them, if only they had tried. Others know full well what they are good at, but the nature of the world itself frustrates them, from expressing their skills. Great actors never get to act much, because they lack connections, lack understanding of the industry, or are lost in the vast hordes of others trying to act, too. The same applies to writers, artists, musicians and the like: many are unable to navigate their way to success, through lack of access to the right arenas that would allow them to show what they can do.

Then there are those who have to sideline their core creative talents to make a living, to support themselves and their families. They are thus forced to live frustrated unfulfilled lives, in order just to survive. Often, their talents are never realized.

There are those, too, who have many talents and have to choose which ones to attend to. In such cases, the quantum of unrealized talent may be many times the quantum of realized talent. The only theoretical solution to such a problem would be for people to live extended lives, to allow the time for all talents to be developed and addressed. That, however, is not presently possible, so such multi-talented individuals shall continue to live partially frustrated lives.

Then there are those brought up in poverty, or in countries whose infrastructure is too rudimentary to offer them the opportunities they need to be exposed to what would naturally interest them. It is almost certain that such people will never realize their innate gifts.

The world does not lack talent or potential. However, it does lack the universal access to the tools and setting that would allow those talents to flourish. As a result, most of the world’s talent is never expressed and never leads to any concrete result (I believe). Thus, it is clear, that simply by making the means to express such talents more readily accessible, to more people, would result in a kind of renaissance, throughout the world. By simply allowing more people to become what they could be, we could build a better world for us all.

So, if you can help someone, somewhere, realize the talents within them, then why not do so: every talent that you help flourish, will add, in some way, to the beauty that is human life, human culture and human society.

(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/11136175

To 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 at http://www.genghiscan.com/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)

"Equality" can be a dangerous idea.

My title might have startled some, alarmed others. However, its meaning is not immediately apparent. I agree, in principle, with equality of a kind – it is just equality of another kind, that I disagree, rather fundamentally, with. I shall, of course, explain and you would do well to wait until that explanation is over, before concluding what I mean by “Equality can be a dangerous idea”.

On Monday, I met a Professor in education, who had some rather unexpected beliefs. Though these were not religious beliefs, he clearly held them as strongly as any worshipper could.

He had asked me what I did.

“I am doing psychology research. One of my primary interests is giftedness.”

My last word seemed as a goad to him. He became immediately energized.

“ALL people should be EQUAL,” he expounded vehemently, his face filled with a somewhat disquieting fervor. “There should be no separate group of SUPERBEINGS. You know, “NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND” and all that”.

This was a very odd thing to say, considering that we stood in a conference room in which the question of how to education gifted science students had been addressed, all morning. Here was a man who didn’t even believe in giftedness…so why was he here?

His eyes scrutinized me, in challenge.

“Is there a lot of research into giftedness?”, he said, with the hint of a sneer at the thought.

“There is now.”, I said, confidently, which seemed to bother him somewhat.

“Don’t you encounter skepticism?”, he pursued, with a little smile that was a lot like something else.

“Scepticism?”, I asked, puzzled, for I was genuinely so. “Why should I encounter skepticism? I never encounter it.” Except, of course, for today, at this very minute, from this man and his silent, female colleague, who clearly agreed with him.
That thought was clearly in his doubting eyes.

It was obvious to me that this “Professor” didn’t understand gifted children at all. It was a mystery to me how he had endured so long in education, and yet managed to remain in denial about them. I resolved to enlighten him…simply, for I did not detect, before me, much evidence of any “giftedness” of his own.

“Imagine that a child has a ratio IQ of 200, and yet they are 9 years old and are placed in a classroom of agemates. Mentally, the child is an adult, even if physically he or she is a 9 year old. That is just like placing an adult in a classroom with young kids. Can you understand how bored they would be?”

He smirked, the smirk of the incorrigibly ignorant.

“It seems we have different views.”

His body language indicated that the conversation was at an end.

Later, I reflected on the enigma, to me, of how a man could hold such views, lifelong, in his field. He was not a young man: his hair was grey, his face was lined. He could not be any younger than late fifties and was probably in his sixties. He was an educator, yet did not grasp one of the most important issues in education: the realization of the gifted.

It was clear that he had misunderstood what true equality was all about. For him, equality was “equality of outcome”. He wanted all people to achieve the same results. He wanted all people to have the same ability. He had not, however, seen the essential contradiction of this. Equality of outcome is not possible unless there is inequality of opportunity. For outcomes to be equal, then two things must happen: the lower a child’s native ability, the more educational help, they must receive. So, too, the higher the child’s native ability, the less help and the more HINDRANCE they must receive. The only way to achieve equal outcomes is to facilitate the naturally dull and oppose the naturally bright. So, the only way to achieve equality of outcome, is through INEQUALITY of opportunity. The brighter a student, the less opportunity for growth they must receive, in a nation that seeks equality of outcome. This “Professor” was too dim, himself, to see the essential injustice, indeed, madness of such an approach. The very notion cast aside all ideals of fairness and human rights.

For him, “No child left behind”, meant “No child must get ahead.” They are not the same intention at all. The former is meant to raise up the performance of the lowest ability – but the latter, which he was espousing, was that no one bright should flourish. It is the most toxic idea, I have ever heard expressed by a educator, in all my years. If widely held, this idea has the power to destroy a nation, indeed, the world. Were it universally held, that equality of outcome should be the goal, then all that was great about mankind would never get the chance to become…we would become a static, stagnant, unprogressive culture, without new ideas, new technologies, new art. Nothing great would be allowed to be. That is the inevitable consequence of the wholesale application of this Professor’s poisonous outlook.

Equality of opportunity should be the goal. That is all should have equal chances to maximize their abilities. That means that gifted education should be given as much weight, in all societies, as “special education” for the mentally disabled. Only then will there be true educational equality, in the world.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 6 and Tiarnan, 4, this month, 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.

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 at http://www.genghiscan.com/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)