NAGCM Forum on Fast Track Kids - my speech.

I gave a speech, as one member of the panel, at the National Association for Gifted Children, Malaysia (NAGCM) forum, at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) on the 28th April 2012. The forum was entitled: "Fast Track Kids: should acceleration be allowed - for whom and why?"

I was the first speaker, since my speech was designed to introduce the issues. Following me was Ms. Kylie Booker, a gifted education teacher, who is Head of the Middle School at the Australian International School Malaysia. Lastly, Master Lucas Teh spoke, a teenager, who started University, locally, in Malaysia at the age of 15.

The forum was very well received, attracting lots of interested questions from the audience and plenty of interaction with the panel. I do believe it was the most well received forum/talk at NAGCM that I have personally witnessed (and I am not saying that just because I was on the panel!). Seriously, I think the topic "hit a nerve" and was really important to the audience, many of whom were parents of gifted children, or adults who had been gifted children themselves.

The text of my speech has been pasted below. I wrote it late the night before the forum, thinking it would be best to have a prepared speech - so it was written in a very short time frame. Therefore, it might not be perfect - but these are the words I spoke. 

Thank you.

The essential problem of giftedness in the modern world.

by Valentine Cawley

The modern world is all about equal opportunity for all. Too often, this is misunderstood to mean the same opportunity for all. What happens, however, when a child is born, who doesn’t slot into the one size fits all education models, most countries offer? Too often, such a child does not, actually, receive an equal opportunity, because such a child is too often given NO opportunity to reach their potential. So, my basic view is that children should be given opportunities to match their potentials. A child of great potential, should be given a different response to a child of average potential. This is not being unfair. This is actually being fair to the talents of both types of children.

Sadly, however, my view is not one shared by governments around the world. Sadly, in fact, governments are busy ensuring that education comes in one cookie cutter variety that is supposed to suit all. This is most dangerous to gifted children, since it cannot possibly meet their needs.

There is another problem. Every education system has budget limitations. It is difficult for them to meet the full needs of ordinary children – how, then to meet the needs of a few special ones, too? In most cases, this is considered impractical, so nothing is done, at all. The gifted children are left to suffer, often excruciating boredom, in the mainstream. Their talents are ignored and their gifts wasted. Education systems generally judge that it is not possible for them to run multiple systems to respond to multiple types of kid, with different intelligence levels – for the moderately gifted, highly gifted, exceptionally gifted and profoundly gifted are all different from each other in their respective needs and abilities. There is a much greater difference between a profoundly gifted child and a highly gifted child, than between a moderately gifted child and an average child. This is too often forgotten. Yet, those education systems that are aware of it think, like Singapore did for our son, that it is too “resource intensive” to do anything about it.

Yet, there is a cost effective answer to this problem. It is an answer that doesn’t require education authorities to spend a single dollar more, than doing nothing at all. That answer is educational acceleration.

Quite simply, acceleration means allowing a child who is younger than the typical age of a class, to join that class, either for isolated subjects, or a whole year. It can mean as moderate an intervention as skipping a year – or a major one like having a primary school kid in tertiary education. In all cases, there is no real additional cost to the system, for allowing this. Yet, it affords the gifted child an opportunity to study at a more appropriate level. It is, therefore, an ideal basic form of educational intervention in the lives of gifted children. It costs nothing, yet has definite benefits to the children so accelerated. Perhaps for the first time in their educational lives, such children may be exposed to material that is sufficiently challenging to interest them. This is a great boon for children who find age lockstep education interminably boring.

Research by Miraca Gross of the University of New South Wales gifted programme, Gerric, has shown that gifted children who are accelerated are better adjusted socially than gifted children who are held back in age lockstep classes. So, the argument that gifted kids should be held back, for social reasons, doesn’t hold water – in fact, it is dangerously wrong.

So, acceleration is beneficial and free for education systems. But what happens in practice?

I would like at this point, to speak of our own experience of acceleration.

Our son, Ainan showed very early scientific promise. He passed O level Chemistry at 7 years and 1 month. So, we expected that the Singaporean education system would allow him to accelerate. However, the response was not what we expected. Ainan was offered one hour a week at a High School in Singapore, for Chemistry, at a level he had already covered. They wouldn’t offer him the only thing we were asking for, which was practical classes – and they wouldn’t give him more than one hour a week. Eventually we managed to get six practical classes out of them. But that was it.

We asked them if he could audit other courses like Maths, at a higher level, because he had shown interest and it was necessary to balance his Chemistry, but they refused, saying he had only proven himself in Chemistry. They wouldn’t even let him sit on a class.

Note throughout this period we were forced to send him to Primary School, on pain of a fine and imprisonment if we didn’t. This was despite the fact that he found primary school a torture beyond belief, so boring was it for him. Yet, there was nothing we could do.

We asked for permission to home school him – but that permission never came. Every time I wrote to them, they would write back saying “We will revert to you, shortly” – but they never did. Months would pass, and I would write to them again – only to receive the same delay tactic reply. Finally, I got to speak to someone in the Compulsory Education Department, which is an oddly named place, for securing homeschooling permission. She would only say: “I cannot give you an answer”.

It was frustrating. So we began to make our own arrangements. It took us 22 months, from the moment we first started looking for a practical class for him, but we found them at Singapore Polytechnic, under his mentor Dr. Ng Kok Chin, who has since sadly passed away of a brain tumour. It shouldn’t have taken so long – but it was a good experience for Ainan.

Note that the educational system did not and would not make this arrangement for us. We had to make it ourselves and it took 22 months of knocking on doors to make it happen. That is a ridiculous waste of time in a young boy’s life and growth. So, the resistance to acceleration, in Singapore, had a really stultifying effect on Ainan’s growth. They basically held him back for almost two years.

That being said, Ainan passed O level Physics and AS level Chemistry in this time, by studying at home.

When Dr. Ng Kok Chin fell ill, Singapore Polytechnic withdrew its support of Ainan. So, it was clear where the support from him had come. Now, Dr. Ng Kok Chin was a Malaysian born Chinese man. That gave us a clue that perhaps Ainan would be better supported in Malaysia. So, we contacted the NAGCM President Zuhairah Ali and asked for her help in securing a University for Ainan. In very short order, she secured Ainan a place and a scholarship at a Malaysian University and we decided to emigrate to support Ainan.

So, here we are now, two years later, and Ainan is enjoying his American Degree Programme at Taylor’s University. Despite Singapore’s belief that he would only be able to handle Chemistry, he has also studied and secured qualifications in Physics, Biology, Economics, Maths, Computer Programming, Computer Animation, English and History as well. So he has become a very well rounded person. In his spare time, he composes music, plays the piano, enjoys computer games, reads humorous books, and most all, plays with his two younger brothers. He is so much richer an individual than Singapore was allowing him to be...and all because we struggled with the system, to secure him educational acceleration.

What would have happened had he not been accelerated?

He would have become completely bored with education, switched off entirely and become a kind of dropout. He would have seemed to have failed – but what really would have happened is that the education system would have failed, not him.

We saved Ainan from this fate, by battling very hard to secure what he needed. Yet, it shouldn’t be a battle. I believe that educational acceleration should be the right of every gifted child who needs it. It should be automatic. It should not need to be fought for. It should be there, for the taking.

Save our gifted kids, from wasting their talents. Allow them to be accelerated appropriately, everywhere in the world. That is the most economical answer as to how to educate gifted kids. Every country can do this, since it costs no more than the education system already spends.

So, I would urge the educational authorities to have a flexible approach to the needs of gifted children and to permit acceleration whenever it is necessary. It costs nothing, yet the pay off can be huge. So, accelerate our gifted kids, please!

Posted by Valentine Cawley

(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/11136175To 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 athttp://www.genghiscan.com/This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.) 

Renewed interest in Ainan.

The past week has seen renewed interest in Ainan from several quarters. Unbidden, we have been contacted by various media, with interview requests. First off, was the commissioning, by the Star, of an article from me, on my personal experience of raising a child prodigy. That appeared in The Star on 25^th April 2012.

Next was a TV interview on the 12 pm and 8 pm news on NTV9 on Saturday, 28^th April 2012. This turned out to be a brief segment just after the major news of the day. They had about an hour of interview material, but they cut it down to a minute or two – so almost everything was left out, which is a pity. Nevertheless, it did manage to address a couple of interesting developments in Ainan’s life, over the past few years. Images were shown of Taylor’s University logos and their American Degree Program, which Ainan is now attending.

On Sunday, 29^th April, 2012 there was a small article in The New Paper, in Singapore about Ainan. This was a group article covering several gifted individuals. The headline title was “Meet the whiz kids”, with the individual title for Ainan’s story being: “Only 12 and he’s in Uni”. This article arose from an email interview, by the journalist Nur Asyiqin Mohamad Salleh, the week before. She asked many questions of both Ainan and myself, and received quite a few pages of answers in reply. In the end, though, the article was a brief one, at just over 140 words. It seems that the editor didn’t want to devote much space to it. However, the article mentioned that Ainan is now studying at Taylor’s University on the American Degree Program and pointed out that he is doing a balanced mixture of science, maths and humanities courses. So, though brief, it got the main message across.

It is interesting to compare the relative interest in Ainan between Malaysia and Singapore. In Malaysia, I was given 1800 words of space to write an article on raising Ainan, in the largest English daily newspaper with over a million readers. It took up three pages of the newspaper, including the front page of the Star 2 section, which consisted of a full page photo of myself and Ainan. We were also highlighted on the news, of the second most popular TV channel. In Singapore, however, we were given a 140 plus word mention, in a relatively small newspaper with a circulation of about a hundred thousand. This pattern of differential interest has held since we left Singapore for Malaysia. Our doing so, two years ago, was mentioned in almost every newspaper in Malaysia, with large articles, some of them front page articles. We were also mentioned on the news on several TV channels, as well as on the radio. It was almost blanket coverage. In Singapore, however, our move was mentioned in just ONE newspaper – a Chinese daily, in a small article. Interestingly, within a few days, the online version of that article was pulled down, as if someone wished to censor mention of it completely.

Ainan was born in Singapore, though his grandmother was born in Malaysia. One would expect, therefore, that Singapore would be very interested in discussing him in their media – however, it is Malaysia that is more interested in doing so. This could be because Ainan is half Malay and Singapore is a Chinese dominated country, that quite often plays quite obvious race politics, though they would deny it. Had Ainan been born half Chinese, I am sure the response to him in Singapore would be more enthusiastic. Anyway, it matters little. We are happy here in Malaysia. We are making progress in our life objectives – parents and children alike – and it is a comfortable country in which to live. So, we have no complaints.

I didn’t expect this recent media interest in Ainan. I cannot say whether there will be any more of it. My policy towards it, is to answer the questions of any inquiring journalist, if their newspaper or magazine seems to have honest intentions, towards the subject. Yet, we are circumspect, too. NTV9 wanted to follow Ainan around for a day, going into his every class and recording everything he did. We turned that down flat, because it would have been far too intrusive and would have made Ainan very uncomfortable – as it would make most people uncomfortable. Ainan is essentially shy. The last thing he needs is to be followed everywhere. So, we didn’t allow it. We gave them, instead, a sit down interview in a quiet lounge, since that is what Ainan was comfortable with. Thus, to those who are critical that we allow media access, I would say this: we are far more discerning about the type of access given and the way it is done, than you might think. At all times, we are careful to ensure that Ainan is comfortable with what is being asked for. We must also be comfortable with it.

The piece in the Star allowed me to put across some of the key issues relating to raising a prodigiously gifted child and I think that has an important public information role. It is my intention to raise public awareness of the particular problems gifted children face, in securing an appropriate education and upbringing. I am grateful, therefore, for any opportunity to do so.

On Saturday, 28^th April, I was one of the speakers at an NAGCM (National Association for Gifted Children Malaysia) forum on educational acceleration entitled: “Fast Track Kids: should acceleration be allowed, for whom and why?” It went very well and the discussion with the audience was very energetic and interesting – even inspiring. Many matters surrounding educational acceleration were discussed by myself, by Kylie Booker, a gifted education teacher and Head of the Middle School, at the Australian International School Malaysia and by Lucas Teh, who went to a local University aged 15.

There was a journalist in attendance, so I am hoping that there will be an article about the forum and the issues discussed. I will let you know if there is.

Posted by Valentine Cawley

(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/11136175To 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 athttp://www.genghiscan.com/This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.) 

How to help every gifted child in Singapore.

It occurred to me, today, that Ainan has, unwittingly, helped every gifted child in Singapore. He has done so, by leaving the country. I shall explain.

The reason Ainan left Singapore was because Singapore was not supporting his education adequately: we were receiving a lot of delay tactics, and very little real support. By the time we left, there was no support in place at all. Now, obviously, given Ainan's relatively high profile internationally, it is very embarrassing for Singapore that he should leave. Indeed, even the front pages of the Wall Street Journal commented on the situation (even if the front pages of the Straits Times did not). There is considerable "loss of face" for Singapore, in the situation. Yet, this is actually good for Singapore's other gifted children - for it is likely that Singapore's educational institutions will think twice before being difficult and slow to respond to the needs of other gifted children. They will have, in the back of their minds (such as they are), the memory of one very public departure, because of their own previous failings to support a child, properly.

Thus, although it was not our intention to do so, Ainan's public departure from Singapore, for Malaysia (a much more open country, as far as we have presently experienced), is of great help to all other gifted kids in Singapore. I would be very surprised if Singapore did not take greater measures, in future, to provide for its gifted children. Otherwise, it would lose others to Malaysia and other countries, too. Until Ainan's departure, perhaps they were labouring under the delusion that Singapore was so wonderful a place, that no gifted kid would ever think of leaving. Funny enough, though, we are aware of a mathemetically precocious boy, who was also displeased with Singapore's response to his gifts. He left, too, for the United States, long ago. However, his departure did not come to public attention, because he has a low profile, so his decision would have no effect on the way Singapore does things. Ainan's departure, though, is different and likely to have a beneficial effect for all gifted children remaining in Singapore. The MOE and GEP will not be keen to see Ainan's individual decision, become a flood of talented emigrants, turning their backs on a nation that had, in some way, turned its back on them.

Yet, even though it is likely that the MOE will take greater care of its gifted children in future, there are other possible effects of Ainan's departure. His decision to study at a private University in Malaysia, may inspire other Singaporeans to look at Malaysia as a possible source of education for their children. The private sector in Malaysia is, unlike its public counterpart, rather strong and able to offer a wide range of schooling options which are as good as anything Singapore has to offer in its private sector - though much, much cheaper.

Perhaps, therefore, even though Ainan may inspire a better response from the MOE in future, towards its gifted citizens, he may also inspire some of those citizens to head overseas, despite the MOE's best efforts, in search of alternative options.

I wonder, therefore, what effect, on balance, Ainan's educational decision will have? Will the MOE's renewed efforts to retain talent outdo the impulse to look elsewhere for an education? Will more stay as a result of a change in MOE's attitude? Or will more leave, having learnt from Ainan's example?

It is, at this stage, impossible to say what will happen. I will, however, watch the situation closely, for any clues as to what transpires. It occurs to me, though, that whatever the effect of Ainan's move that it does help every child in Singapore. You see, it will probably mean that MOE will make greater efforts for its charges - which is good for all concerned - but it also means that parents will realize that there is an alternative to Singapore's rigidities. So whether they stay or go, Singapore's talents will benefit. They now are aware of more choices and they are also likely to be helped more, (by the MOE). So, either way, the children win.


(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.)

The limits of the world.

What are the limits of the world? How do we perceive them?

Sometimes, when people hear of Ainan and his attributes they just don't believe in them. Their response is often quite strong: "That is impossible!", they seem to be saying and point blank refuse to accept what they are told. To them, the way Ainan is, is beyond the limits of the world. He is an impossibility, for them.

Why do they think this way? I think it is because what they perceive to be limits of the world, are, in fact, limits of themselves. They are not like that. They have no personal experience of being like that. Unconsciously, they think that the human is limited in the same way that they are limited. In other words, they think of themselves as the limit of what can be. It is not within their imagination to conceive of someone more precocious or more capable than themselves.

Of course, not everyone reacts this way to Ainan. Many simply accept him for the way he is, even if a little wonderingly. Others come out with tales of their own gifted childhood and times they, too, were misunderstood. However, it is the Impossibles! that draw my attention and concern. People like that often cause stress and distress for the parents of gifted children. Gifted children are often met with misunderstanding, incomprehension and even, at times, hostility. Part of the reasons for these responses lie in this perception of limits. There is a belief in some people's minds that a child that goes beyond what they, often unconsciously, hold as limits, cannot be real. Some of them are very vociferous in expressing their beliefs to the parents of gifted children (conversations along these lines are not uncommon on parenting and "gifted" message boards). The harm to gifted families is palpable. There is the feeling, among some of them, that they cannot express, in any way, what they are going through, without meeting opposition and hostility and open doubt from some.

There is a remedy for this: everyone should accept the idea that the limits of the world are greater than the limits of ourselves or of any one person. That another can do something that is inconceivable for ourselves, should not, in itself, make that thing inconceivable. The other person is just different, that is all, and therefore bound by different constraints.

It is true that humans have limits. However, I have learnt that those limits are far less limited than many people suppose. The limits of the human world are great indeed, and stretch far beyond what we are accustomed to think of, as human behaviour. It is possible, indeed, that no-one, who has yet lived, has actually bumped up against the true limits of the human world: not even the fabled such as Leonardo da Vinci.

I wonder what those who doubt the tales of gifted children think of the tales of Leonardo da Vinci? Compared to most gifted children, Leonardo is a demi-god. How much more skepticism would that elicit, in them? Funny enough, I have had searchers arriving on my blog with the words "Did Leonardo da Vinci exist?". Luckily, however, there was a Leonardo da Vinci...and the limits of the human world are greater than many suppose.

(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.)

Superhuman Genius Documentary ITV1 and ITV2

Last night, Ainan, eight, appeared in a documentary on ITV1 in the UK, entitled "Superhuman Genius". He was one of five people featured, including the American savant, Kim Peek, the American child prodigy artist, Akiane, Ben Pridmore, the UK Memory Champion and Ariel Lanyi, an Israeli child prodigy pianist.

The show is being repeated tonight at 9 pm on ITV2, for those able to catch it, in the UK.

I haven't seen the show myself but I understand it showed Ainan at work on Chemistry at Singapore Polytechnic.

Filming the show was an enjoyable experience for Ainan and one that opened him up a bit, I feel. He is unlearning his essential shyness, year by year and experiences like this are a help.

For those able to see the show it just offers a glimpse of Ainan at work - there is a lot more to be told. It is, however, an introduction to him and his work.

So, do tune in to Superhuman Genius, ITV2, if you are in the UK this evening.

(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.)

The best student writer I have seen.

I have written much about the quality - or lack thereof - of writing amongst the students I have taught, over the years. Rarely, have I seen competency in the most basic of all skills: literacy. However, one student comes to mind as coming closest to what I would consider to be a good writer.

I would like you to think about what kind of person you think this student is. Is this student a scholar? Is this student a girl or a boy? Is this student Chinese, Malay or Indian? In fact, is this student local, at all? Picture the student in your mind. Consider whom you think is most likely to be the best writer I have seen since 1999, while working in Singapore.

The writer in question, is an Indonesian boy.

Were you surprised? Did it upset your preconceived views of who is likely to be the best at a literary task?

When I saw this boy's writing, I was surprised by the vision he showed. He seemed to have a very clear idea of what he wished to say. His writing shone with understanding. Each word was well-chosen and added to the picture he wished to portray. There was also great detail in his writing, detail of observation, thought and feeling. Here, I thought, is someone who knows how to write.

There were occasional blemishes in his work: some words were misspelt, for instance - but overall, he showed great ability in expressing himself with words.

He was a foreign student studying in Singapore, in a normal secondary school. He was not a scholar and was not on any special programme for the "best and brightest" - yet his writing was better than any I had seen since my arrival in Singapore. This made me very curious.

I asked him: "Who taught you to write like that?"

"I taught myself.", he said, quietly, without pride and perhaps without awareness of how good he was.

He had taught himself. That warmed me - and surprised me - in equal measure. I have often observed that the best people at any given task, are often self-taught. The genius of a person can only live when the instructor is oneself.

"It's very good.", I observed, with an encouraging smile. He looked down at his work and up at me in a way that made me understand that few, if any, others had said as much. That is a pity, for his work has much promise.

Since I have come to Singapore, I have observed that quite a few Singaporeans look down on their South-East Asian neighbours as somehow "less" than they are. I have always thought this somewhat unwise. Yes, it is true that Singapore is more developed than the neighbouring countries - that it has organized its economy more efficiently and the infrastructure is good - but and this is a BIG but - that doesn't make the people, themselves, any better than those of their neighbours. Singaporeans risk making serious errors of judgement if they think that they are innately superior to their less developed neighbours.

Consider Indonesia, for instance. Many Singaporeans have an Indonesian maid - and quite a few look down on them - and on all other Indonesians, by association. Yet, this is not a very reasoned approach to the situation. Indonesia is a vast country with 235 million people. That means that Indonesia will have more gifted people in its population than Singapore's entire population put together. What that means is that for every ordinary Singaporean of average intelligence, Indonesia would, by force of sheer numbers alone, be able to counter with a gifted person of high intelligence. To a lesser degree, the same argument applies to the other countries in South-East Asia, some of which are also very populous.

Thus, it makes no sense for Singaporeans ever to look down on any other nation - for those nations can outmatch the whole of Singapore, with relative ease, should they wish to try. What impedes them, of course, are infrastructural, political and economic failings. Were these failings ever rectified, it would not be long before Singapore was drowned out by the much larger voices of its larger neighbours.

Yes, some Indonesians are maids. However, one should not forget that others will be as my former student was: the best student writer I had ever met in Singapore. There is a lesson in that, that wise Singaporeans should learn from. The "superiority" of Singapore is a fragile thing and not really founded on a large body of talented people. It could easily decline. Other nations in South-East Asia have many more gifted people to offer than reside in Singapore. In time, they may be afforded a chance to shine in their own countries. When that time comes, Singapore won't seem as bright as it now appears 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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Society's obligation to the gifted

Does society have an obligation to the gifted? I think so. However, I also think that society has an obligation to all its citizens (and non-citizens) alike.

Each of us is born with a certain potential. Some will have more potential than others. A few will have great potential indeed. Yet, the sad truth is that few people reach the fullest of their potential - and this is largely the fault of the societies they are born into. Most societies are rather neglectful of the gifts of their people. Indeed, the more gifted the person, the more neglectful society tends to be. The common feeling is that the "gifted" have enough already and can do without the active support of society. Yet, this is not true, as anyone who has looked closely at the challenges facing the gifted knows. Indeed, the more gifted a child, the more unusual their needs become. So, in that sense, the need of the gifted is greater than that of their more average fellows.

Does any society truly recognize this situation? Well, it is hard to think of one that distinguishes itself in this sphere. There is a lot of room for improvement in every country of the world of which I am aware. The gifted are, by and large, neglected everywhere. Partly, this is the result of political forces: the gifted are the smallest of minorities and so, in terms of sheer numbers, they have little voting power and little democratic weight. It is easy, therefore, to shove their concerns to one side and ignore them, because doing so will never get a politician voted out of office. The ones the politician will pay heed to, therefore are the MAJORITY: the ordinary, ungifted, average voter types. Thus, the needs of the ordinary person will tend to be met, in democratic societies - but the needs of the extraordinary, the unusual, the prodigious and the profound will be ignored. These people, being rare, have no significant weight in society. They are, therefore, invisible to the democratic process.

This is very dangerous. For the very long-term health of each and every society is inextricably tied up with whether or not the most gifted people are able to flourish and make a contribution, in whatever area, to the best of their ability. If they are not, the whole society is weakened. The whole society will, ultimately, fail. So, even though the gifted are small in number, they must NEVER be ignored. To do so, is to ensure, with absolute certainty, the long-term decline of a society. Without the efforts of the gifted, there will be no progress, no advancement, just cultural and scientific stagnation.

So, society has an obligation to the gifted, precisely because it has an obligation to itself. A society must first ensure its own future health. This is actually synonymous with ensuring the future prospects of its gifted minority. Societies which ignore this, will not be societies for long.

(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.)

When "education" becomes abusive.

Very few people understand gifted children. Most teachers don't. Most school authorities don't. Most adults don't. Why is this? Simple: because they weren't gifted themselves. Only the gifted can understand, truly, what it means to be gifted.

This notion of how understanding is circumscribed by likeness of the self to other, also applies to the gradations of giftedness. It takes a moderately gifted person, to understand a moderately gifted other - a highly gifted person to understand a highly gifted other - and so on, all the way through exceptional gift and profound giftedness. Only someone truly of a particular level can truly understand the other, of the same kind.

Why do I say this? Well, I think that the perspective, and experiences of a gifted child have to be felt personally to be truly understood. The difference between living it and reading it is rather like the difference between reading The Lord of the Rings - and actually being Frodo Baggins in Middle Earth with a rather historic ring on your finger. It is impossible for us to truly understand what it is like to be Frodo Baggins - we can only see him as we imagine him to be, from the outside.

Thus is it with the gifted and the education they receive in schools. Those who educate them only know them from the outside - through reading and what they are told in their training. They do not truly know what it is like to be them.

So, it should be no surprise that education is often inappropriate for gifted children of all ilks. The more gifted the child, the more inappropriate it becomes. Yet, it is unlikely in the extreme that the education system will ever acknowledge the inappropriateness. Most education systems live under the delusion that they know best. I have actually heard a representative of our particular education system here, in Singapore, say, in essence, that she knew better than the parents how the child should be educated. Now, there is a delusion for you.

Education often proceeds by diktat: this is the way it is and all must accept it. It is rare for an education system to actually respond to the child's individual needs. Sometimes education systems talk about responding to a child's needs - while actually not doing so. Again, it is part of the incomprehension that comes with not being gifted - yet administering to the gifted.

Ainan is presently not receiving what he needs, educationally, from the system in Singapore. I very much doubt that he ever will be. This arises in the manner described above: those who can never understand, because they have never been like Ainan, make decisions about his needs, which they think should suffice. In our case, they refuse to listen to feedback that their intervention is insufficient: they think they know better.

What is the result? Lack of challenge, boredom, restlessness in the classroom, disenchantment with school, a loss of interest in learning - and general disengagement will all result, to varying degrees, if the child's true needs are not being met. In this situation, the result can only be described as abusive. It is abusive to keep a child in an unstimulating environment. It is abusive to deny a child true opportunities for growth. It is abusive to hold back a child's development all in the name of "we know better". Why do they "know better"? Because they are not bright enough to realize that they don't.

All over the world, hundreds of thousands of gifted children are being abused in this way, by the standardized classroom situation - by the undemanding education designed for those of average ability. As a result, most of the gifted children of the world end up as under-achievers - end-up as much less than they could be. Who is to blame for this? The educational system itself, for not recognizing that a gifted child has very different needs from an average child - and the more gifted they are, the more their needs will differ.

So, when is education abusive? Whenever a gifted child is involved and the individual child's particular academic needs are not met. In every case in which this occurs, the education received is a form of suffering. The education system is abusing the child. That is what education systems do to the best minds in their care. They abuse them with boredom, lack of challenge, frustration of their desires, and denial of opportunity.

In case you are the sort who doesn't care about an issue unless it affects you personally, consider this: if the growth of many gifted children is being stifled, in this way, all over the world, what do you think it does to the future intellectual health of human society? What does it do to the pace of technological and scientific change, to medical advances and cultural complexity and diversity? All these areas are hindered when the growth of those who become their human constituents are themselves hindered in their development. This issue of the abuse of our gifted children by inappropriate eduation affects us all: it is a universal problem that impacts the lives of all who presently live and are yet to live.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and nine months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and two months, and Tiarnan, nineteen 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, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Time Magazine: Failing our geniuses.

"Are we failing our geniuses?" asks a Time Magazine article featured, I am told, on the front cover.

Curiously, I never got to see a copy of this on stands here, in Singapore: perhaps it sold out, as it hit the stands, Singapore being keen on such matters.

Anyway, it is good to see a mainstream, mass circulation magazine, like Time Magazine, give attention to an issue that is often ignored by media: are we doing enough for our gifted children?

The answer, from the article, seems to be a resounding "no". It looks in particular at the situation on the ground in America and it doesn't seem all that encouraging.

Typically, since the 1980s in America, grade-skipping has been discouraged. This has led to a couple of decades of frustration for gifted children across the USA, being forced to receive "education" alongside their age-mates. The article urges grade-skipping as a sensible means to address the issue of the bored, frustrated gifted children in our midst.

In short, the article proposes some of the things I have been writing about for the past year - but it is good to see them get a wider airing in a major publication: perhaps the coverage will help gifted children across the US get what they need.

As an example of what can be done for the most gifted of children, the Davidson Academy in Reno, Nevada is featured. This Academy was set-up by the billionaire Davidsons to offer a free education to exceptional children that allows them to accelerate as they please. According to the article, people are moving from all over the US - and indeed from outside the US - to Reno, just so that their kids can attend the school.

The Time Magazine article appeals, however, for a broader solution to the problem, rather than a Davidson style approach - and suggests that grade-skipping should be allowed, generally, once more, as once it was.

To read the article, click here:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1653653,00.html

I am grateful to my blog reader who pointed my way to the article. I would not otherwise have known of it. Thanks.

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

The gifted and the standardized classroom

In most parts of the world - the modern world, at least - education is all about standardization. The same "education" is given to all, irrespective of their actual need. Paradoxically, this emphasis on the "same for all" leads to a situation where many are ill-served by it.

Those who have some degree of impairment are lost in a standard classroom. Oddly, this situation is recognized and appreciated and those who are "left of the bell curve" usually receive some special attention.

In some classrooms, there will be a child unlike the others. They are usually quieter. Often, they are a little dreamy. Their work may be erratic - capable of perfection, but often showing signs of disinterest. Teachers often don't like them. This is frequently a "gifted child". So, this, then, is another constituency to be given special treatment? In an ideal world, yes - but in the real world, no. Usually, such children are neglected, and ignored, in various ways.

A large part of the problem is that the teachers misunderstand such gifted children. They think that the gifted child should hand in perfect work, all the time, must be top of the class, in all things - and must show rabid enthusiasm for all things "School". Then, just then, might they accept that a gifted child is, in fact, gifted - and needing special attention.

What the teacher sees instead is something more commonly like: "Oh he/she has such an attitude problem...they don't do their work, they look out of the window, all the time...I can never get his/her attention..." To such a teacher, the gifted child, is, in fact, a lazy or uncooperative child: they don't see the giftedness, they just see the failure to conform to their requirements.

This is the core of the problem and the core of the misunderstanding. The teacher ascribes to the gifted student character flaws that do not exist in the student. The teacher then takes an active dislike to the student, which causes a general, further deterioration in the quality of interaction with the gifted student. What is actually happening is that the gifted student has been placed in an unchallenging class. The student is being bathed daily in what, to them, seems like utter idiocy. The triviality and superficiality of the classroom instruction is such that they endure the profoundest boredom while sitting through class after class of totally empty nonsense. That is the perspective of the gifted child - or one gifted enough to feel this disparity so strongly. A gifted child in a normal classroom may feel rather like an adult going back to primary school: it would be really, really difficult to maintain one's attention for long, in such a situation. In the long term, it would be impossible to do anything but what a gifted child, in a standardized classroom, often does: sits quietly staring out of a window, ignoring the teacher, refusing to do the homework and generally trying to tune out of the dreadful experience.

It is easy for a teacher to fail to understand this. Instead, they look at such a student and get angry at them. So, what, then, does the gifted student think: "Not only is my teacher boring...but angry, too...what a nightmare!" This leads, of course, to a further lack of co-operation from the student - and a further escalation in dislike from the teacher...and so on.

The teacher may be a good teacher to normal children. This does not make them a good teacher to gifted children. The teacher may be an interesting teacher for normal children. This does not make them an interesting teacher for gifted children. The teacher should not take this personally. Yes, they are boring the gifted child - but that doesn't mean that they are intrinsically boring to the average child. So, the teacher should not be affronted (as, surprisingly, many of them are affronted by such a gifted child) - but should understand the situation. There is a mismatch between the gifted child and the standardized classroom. The only remedy is to remove the gifted child from the standardized class and place them in a more challenging one. The simplest way of doing this is to allow the gifted child to skip a few grades - or many - as the case may be. Alternatively, the school must provide individuated instruction - but so few will do that for a small, gifted minority.

Education may be standardized - but people are not. Just as education systems recognize the needs of the mentally challenged (with such initiatives as No Child Left Behind), so too, should they recognize the needs of the mentally gifted. Sadly, they don't. Tellingly, some countries which speak loudly of serving the needs of gifted students, in actual fact provide a completely inadequate response to them. They should know who they are, so I won't name them. I just want to see them start to actually do what they speak of. Then, we might have a world in which gifted children are allowed to thrive.

(If you would like to read of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and eight months, and his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and one month, and 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.)

The dilemma of the gifted child

The dilemma of the gifted child - at least for those who are more than moderately gifted - is whether to go to school or not. I will explain.

Today, I asked Ainan, 7, whether he learnt more at home, or at school.

He answered without hesitation: "At home."

Now, that is odd when you reflect on what school is supposed to be for. Ainan learns little at school: most of what he knows has been acquired via private, solitary study and reflection - or by interaction with his parents. Little of what he has learnt is owed to schooling. What, then, is school for?

School's primary stated purpose - that of education and the imparting of knowledge - fails where gifted children are concerned. Quite simply, many gifted children learn little in schools that do not meet their pace or academic needs. Such children often end up teaching themselves. That is not how it should be - but it is the way it is.

The only other purpose of school is the social one - that of providing friends of a similar age for the gifted child. Yet, this too, may fail in the case of a gifted child. Yes, the friends will be of a similar age - but, it is usually the case that few of these friends will be able to provide intellectual stimulation for the gifted child - they will not be able to relate at the gifted child's level - though the gifted child may learn to relate to them on another level.

So, this is the dilemma of the gifted child: to go to school and learn little, but have friends of the same age - or to stay at home, learn much but have lesser access (in many cases) to friends of the same age. Neither situation is perfect - but, the latter certainly has greater potential, than many schools have, for meeting the needs of a gifted child. Social situations are easier to provide, than it is to transform a school into a welcoming intellectual environment, for the gifted child.

Every parent of a gifted child has to make a decision between conventional schooling or homeschooling. The decision is not easy - for though better in certain ways, the demands of homeschooling can be great on the parent new to it.

Yet, into the mix must always be placed the observation of my son, Ainan, above - at least for him - home is where most learning takes place. Though it shouldn't be the case, it is the case - and that is something I need to think about in the months and years ahead. Perhaps you do, too.

(If you would like to read more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and eight months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and eight months, and 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, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, gifted children and gifted adults in general. 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.)

NUS High: is education appropriate?

Can standardized education ever meet the needs of a gifted child? (Especially a prodigious one?)

I wonder at this because of Ainan's experience of NUS High. It has taken a long time to go from initial approach to actual attendance at NUS High. The journey has required many different administrative hurdles to be overcome - and, at no stage, could it be regarded as a straightforward matter. Yet, now that Ainan, 7, is attending the National University of Singapore High School for Maths and Science, I note a danger that I had not given enough thought to before. This is the danger that the school might not provide for his needed level of stimulation and education.

This might seem a strange thought for anyone who doesn't know Ainan - surely, you will ask, NUS High School for Maths and Science, should be enough of a stimulus for him, considering that he is only 7. This is not necessarily so. Ainan is studying A level Chemistry at home (and reading sometimes at a higher level still). For comparison's sake, it should be noted that A level is equivalent to a US College Degree, in academic demand.

The classes at NUS High, so far, have not been at the level that Ainan requires to extend his boundaries. He has been recapping material already known. In his first class, for instance, he learnt one new thing. That was a good start: one new thing, in two hours of class work is better than nothing. In his second class, however, he learnt nothing new at all. In the space of two hours, nothing new was covered: he was familiar with it all.

There are more dangers in this than might be immediately evident. With a gifted child, one grave danger is that of boredom. If no new material is presented, or the material presented is new, but trivially simple for the child, then the gifted child will switch off after awhile and become bored. In due course, the gifted child may lose interest in the school and in education itself. All this may result if the student is under-challenged by a course. This is what Ainan is now at risk for. The classes do not cover new material (only one new item has been introduced so far in Ainan's first week), and engage him at a level, at which, he is not charting new territories. I worry about this because I know Ainan. There is one sure way to switch him off - and that is repetition. If you repeat work he has already familiarized himself with - unless you are expanding on the material in some way/adding something new, as well - you will lose him and he will become bored.

Any gifted child may respond in this way to a standardized school experience. Such lessons do not usually adjust for the presence of the gifted child and may not extend the child's knowledge at all. In all such situations, little is learnt and there is the danger that the child may give up on learning, in such an environment. I would say that a gifted child should never be exposed to unchallenging classes and should never be asked to repeat material already known.

It may be that a school is the wrong place for a gifted child - particularly a prodigy - for school will only ever cater for the middle of the road: the mainstream of the pupil body. At NUS High School for Maths and Science, that mainstream consists of mathematically and scientifically gifted children - but there are different levels and needs of such gifted children. Some will need more than others. These children will not be catered for by a system that is aimed - and must necessarily be aimed - at the middle of the pack, if it is to work as a classroom at all.

Perhaps later classes will develop the subject in more depth. Perhaps in time Ainan will be introduced to new material and his interest will be stimulated, awakened and rewarded. This is, however, only a hope of a father who has long sought to find the right educational situation for his prodigious child. What I see, now, however, is a course that is not challenging Ainan, at present. This may change - and I hope it does. I would like to see him extend his boundaries and learn new things. That is, after all, the whole point of an education. At present, however, even in such a seemingly appropriate environment, I don't see it happening just yet. Perhaps it will change. Perhaps they will adjust to fit his needs better. I hope so - but I don't know so. It is just a father's hope. I just hope I don't hope in vain.

(If you would like to read more of 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 adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Prodigies and their parents

It is remarkable how many people are willing to form an opinion on something, without knowing anything about it. Such is the case in the matter of prodigy. So many people have an opinion on it, but so few have actual experience of it. Had they experience of it, they would not think as they do and speak as they have - for experience would show them the error of their thinking.

Why do I write? Well, there are some remarkably ill-informed articles on the internet - actually from mainstream media. One article I came across (which I am not going to give a link to, so as not to further its readership), expresses the view that parents of prodigies push their children into being prodigious. Now, anyone who has actually ever been a parent would know that that is absolutely impossible. It cannot be achieved. No amount of determination on the part of a parent is going to turn a typical child into a prodigy. It simply cannot be done. Prodigious accomplishment requires so much native gift of such a refined nature that it cannot be inculcated by the effort of parental will. It is either there, or it isn't. Prodigy is rather like savant, in this respect. In neither case is it possible to create the state of mind that is prodigy or savant, by effort of will, or hard work. Either the child is a savant, or a prodigy, or the child is not. Anyone who had ever become acquainted with either type of child, personally, would know the impossibility of manufacturing that state of mind. It simply cannot be done.

Despite this self-evident fact that prodigy is a special developmental state that cannot be reproduced at will, there are journalists who insist on pushing the view that the parent of such a child has somehow pushed their child into that state. That is a really unhelpful view - for it furthers the misunderstanding that such parents face daily.

Prodigy is an emergent property of the child. It comes from the child. It does not come from without the child. The parent, observing the emerging prodigiousness of the child, has a great responsibility to ensure that that child receives the opportunities appropriate to their gift. This can be rather difficult. It is common for the parent to be met with incredulity and incomprehension when they try to explain their child's needs. Such stonewalling by the academic and social environment can only be worsened by those who retail the view that the child has been pushed into prodigiousness. It is a very damaging lie promulgated by people who know nothing of prodigy, personally.

The growth potential of a prodigy is immense. If they are supported the potential results of their intellectual growth can be very significant indeed. Many intellectual giants began life as prodigies. Such children need every support they can get: they do not need to be told that they are the result of "pushy parents". This is simply not so.

Sure, there are pushy parents in this world - but they don't create prodigies by being pushy. Pushy parents will create stressed children upon whom too high expectations have been laid. That, however, is a different issue. The parent of a prodigy is a different case. That is the parent of a child with very special abilities and very special needs. Such parents should be supported in their efforts to support their child - not thwarted by a society that doesn't understand.

If you are the parent of a prodigious child, you will often receive incomprehension over the origin of your child's gifts. Many will think of you as a "pushy parent". Know this, however: anyone who has experience of such children will know otherwise - that the child is prodigious, because that is the nature of the child. So, not everyone will misunderstand. Any parent of such a child will know the truth. Anyone who reads the words of such a parent - like me - will also know the truth. In time, perhaps, it will be common knowledge - and that will be a great day for prodigies and their parents.

(If you would like to read of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and no months, and 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.)

Genetic discrimination against the gifted

Racism is discrimination based on genetics. It is almost universally decried and fought against. Discrimination against the disabled is also, often, based on genetics - and universally fought against. Giftedness is genetically determined, and often the subject of discrimination - but who fights against that? Virtually no-one. "Giftism", as I have coined it, is both common and not thought of as a real issue. It is OK in many societies to be hostile towards the gifted; to deny them appropriate educational opportunity and generally deny them receiving what they need to receive - by simply ignoring them.

The gifted child is often resented by other children - and socially isolated as a result. That is a form of discrimination. Most schools who saw a child of minority race being shunned would get the school together and give them a talk about it - and try to persuade them to be more inclusive. No such talk will ever occur to protect gifted children from ill-treatment. Their situation is simply not recognized - or if it is, no-one, who has the power to do something about it, cares enough to act.

Discrimination of all kinds must be opposed in a civilized world. If your nation does not oppose discrimination against the gifted - then it is not yet fully civilized: there is at least one more step to take.

It is not just the intellectually gifted who receive this directed envy of their fellows. Children - and adults - gifted in other ways also receive it.

Brad Pitt, of all people, made a relevant comment on the issue, by being quoted as saying:

"I am one of those people you hate because of genetics."

So, even, the famous among us, feel it: the hate of others, simply because of who we are.

Really, everyone, everywhere, who understands this issue should do what they can to oppose it and make this world a more civilized, inclusive, place.

(If you would like to read about Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and six months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, three, and Tiarnan, sixteen 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 adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Understanding the gifted child

Do adults understand gifted children? I have reason to doubt that they do so. Many adults interpret gifted children as they would an adult - but this leads to a failure to understand the dimension of a child's gifts, even if the child compares well to an adult.

Why do I say this? Well, because from what I have gathered on the net, there are adults who are dismissive of the achievements of gifted young children because they expect an educated adult to be able to do the same thing! The thinking that informs such a viewpoint constitutes a special class of mindlessness, for it shows no imaginative understanding of the child's perspective at all.

Let me give you an example. Say you have a baby. This baby has perhaps recently learned to walk and is less than a year old. You note that this baby has a strange habit of touching objects and saying a particular sound to itself, as it touches the first object, a different sound as it touches the second object and so on. It does this strange procedure with many different kinds of objects, but the sequence of sounds is always the same. After a while, you come to understand that the baby is counting and has, in fact, invented its own number system. Yet, you are further puzzled, because the baby is so young that it never occurred to you to try to teach it about numbers and it has never heard counting. So, this baby has invented counting for itself. To those who understand gifted children, this would indicate a truly astonishing degree of native mathematical gift and could foretell a great mathematical mind to come. Yet, to those class of people who like to attack and diminish gifted children (and they do exist - though they are characteristically ungifted adults, themselves - and so come from a position of not understanding what gifted children are, never having been one): this is dismissed by such words as: "Sure anyone can count."

Yes, this is true. Anyone can count - but how many people could have INVENTED COUNTING?
For that is what our baby example has done: it has invented counting. The dimension of this achievement is truly huge. Yet, many adults would fail to understand this, because they impose their understandings of an adult on the child. That is not how to understand a gifted child. One must look at the world from their perspective and see what they know and what they are proceeding to think, based on their known knowledge base. If a child is demonstrating the capacity to imagine areas of thought which are new to them - even if known to adults - then that child is showing great gift. Such children may have the capacity to think of entirely new ideas, in the course of their lives - and make a creative contribution to the world. For it is the same way of thinking that leads to new ideas, that led them to discover known ones, from the much lesser knowledge that they possess (which does not include the proposition they have come up with).

So, to understand a gifted child, imagine the world from their perspective - for then you will be able to truly see the dimension of their giftedness. It is only a foolish adult who fails to do this. Such an adult will never see gifted children for what they are: gifted.

(If you would like to read about Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and six months, and his gifted brothers Fintan, three, and Tiarnan, sixteen 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.)