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.)

Leonardo's view of Humanity

Yesterday, someone from America made the funniest search I have ever seen. He or she searched with the words: "Why did Leonardo da Vinci think people existed?" This is a reversal of the question posed by one of my posts: Did Leonardo da Vinci exist? Clearly they knew of the post and were responding to it in the most hilarious of ways...yet, I thought about their words - and they have a point.

What would Leonardo da Vinci have thought of the common man, he encountered? What would he have made of the gulf in ability between himself and others? I don't think his views on the matter have been recorded but his case points up the problems the extremely gifted have of relating to others in the world. What could Leonardo da Vinci have found to interest him in the conversation of a typical person of his time? Nothing at all, I would suppose. However, he was fortunate to be famous and well-regarded for this would have given him access to other famous and well-regarded people. He knew, for instance, the King of France - no slouch himself, one would think - and many other brilliant people - so he would have found interesting minds to engage with, because of his social position. Yet, the problem of the common man would have remained. What would Leonardo have thought of their inability compared to him? The comical searcher was not only making a funny search, but making a funny point - if Leonardo was so special that others might doubt the truth of his existence, because he just seems so unlikely, we have to remember that he would have thought of himself as normal - and the others as somehow lacking (from his point of view). Perhaps, indeed, he had puzzled at this disparity - and wondered at the existence of such a difference.

All gifted children and adult must come to terms with this difference between themselves and others. Perhaps the best adjustment is just to accept others as they are - without bemoaning their lack of certain abilities the gifted one might possess. There are other reasons to find someone of interest apart from the quality of their mind. They might be sweet-natured or pleasant to be with. They might be considerate or kind, good or loyal. They might have any number of qualities to be admired that do not depend on raw intelligence. Perhaps it is in these ways that Leonardo adjusted to the world. It is in these ways that any gifted child - or adult - however gifted, can also make an adjustment to the world and its people and come to accept them for what they are.

Yet, I can't help but feel that it must have been difficult, in some ways, to be Leonardo da Vinci.

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