The Prince and the Frog.

A couple of days ago, Tiarnan, three, came across a frog in the garden. He peered down, carefully, at his local resident amphibian.

"I would kiss you," he confided to the listening frog, "but I don't know if you are toxic."

How funny. He must be weighing up all those stories of aristocrats who have been turned into frogs and await a kiss from a handsome soul, to transform them back into a human being.

So, to Tiarnan it was not a frog he met in the garden, but an inconvenienced Princess awaiting her Prince. A pity, then, for the poor Princess that this Prince knew something of frog biology and wasn't overly keen on testing whether she was of a poisonous species or not!

(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.

IMDB is the Internet Movie Database for film and tv professionals. If you would like to look at my IMDb listing for which another fifteen credits are to be uploaded, (which will probably take several months before they are accepted) please go to: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3438598/ As I write, the listing is new and brief - however, by the time you read this it might have a dozen or a score of credits...so please do take a look. My son, Ainan Celeste Cawley, also has an IMDb listing. His is found at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3305973/ My wife, Syahidah Osman Cawley, has a listing as well. Hers is found at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication prohibited. Use Only with Permission. Thank you.)

Tiarnan greets his Daddy.

Tiarnan was being settled down for a nap, today, by his mother, when I entered the room.

He looked up, in apparent fear and said, in alarmed tones: "Here comes a human being!"

His mother looked along his line of sight to see me there. She didn't laugh. She played along with his imagined drama and let it unfold.

I strode towards the bed, in weighty strides, to match the import of his introduction.

As I neared the bed, Tiarnan stood up, stretching himself a little beyond his not very great natural height. Then he declared, as if speaking of something of great power and import: "I am a human being!"

Thus it was that Tiarnan greeted his Daddy, this afternoon. With him around, I sometimes feel I have walked onto the set of a filmic epic in the midst of an important scene - for such is the way he conducts himself, in his everyday life. Though he is very, very small, he manages to be bigger than life. He is quite delightful, in his dramatic ways. Thank you, Tiarnan, for making an ordinary entrance into a room, by this particular father, into something of great moment. Now, sleep well.

(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.)

Of memory power and interest.

There are some people who think that the gift of a child like Ainan consists of nothing more than "memory power" and "interest". They think that to be a prodigious child and achieve at an adult level before the primary years are over, that nothing more is needed than a good memory and a liking for a subject. Clearly, such people are unfamiliar with the requirements of the subject Ainan is dealing with.

To be a chemist, one needs to be competent in spatial skills (the spatial arrangement of molecules is important); verbal skills (lots of complicated words and naming systems); mathematical skills (there are numerical problems to solve); memory skills (yes, there is a lot to know); logical skills (for the problem solving, some types of problem can be quite tricky); conceptual skills (understanding the physical concepts involved in Chemistry). Now, to be competent in Chemistry, a child needs to be good at ALL those areas. Memory, note, is just one of those areas. Of course, an interest in Chemistry is necessary too...but without a good level of native skill in all the areas, the child will not succeed in Chemistry, no matter how "interested" they are, or how good their "memory power" is.

I wonder, sometimes, at the lack of reasoning powers of some people that I have encountered on the internet. They think that the sum total of gifts required to be a young scientist is a good memory and an interest in science. I can tell you now that those two attributes alone will not get anyone very far at all in science. Primarily, science is not about memory, but about REASONING. Without highly developed powers of reason, no child, or adult, can expect to do well in science. Of all possible disciplines, the scientific ones tax reason above all other attributes. It is possible to be a savant, and know everything about a science - but such a person would most probably fail any and all exams that they are asked to do, because savants usually lack the ability to apply their knowledge with reason. Thus, knowledge alone (that is, memory alone) is not the answer. Memory alone, in science, is, in fact, nothing at all. It is basically a textbook - for a book is pure memory - but when is the last time a book passed an exam?

The other thing I observe in some of the comments I receive is that people are no longer familiar with the O level exam. It used to be taken by the upper 20% of students in the UK and all around the world. About twenty years ago, the UK dropped it, in favour of a much easier exam - the GCSE. Now, Ainan took his O level Chemistry when other children were still learning to read. This is not the product of "memory power" and "interest"...for those two characteristics do not satisfy the demands of the O level. Only a comparatively few of the marks go to knowledge alone, most of them go to what would be categorized as REASON. Almost all the children who now take GCSE would fare very badly in O level. Most of them would, in fact, fail. This is because it demands both more knowledge and more reasoning power, than the newer exam.

Since April last year, Ainan has been studying tertiary level Chemistry at Singapore Polytechnic. Again, those who characterize this as "memory power" and "interest" are being rather ignorant. Memory and interest will not even allow a student to grasp what is going on in the classroom. There is a good deal of reason and insight required just to have the faintest idea of what it is all about. Knowledge alone, will not allow anyone to cope with the demands of the situation. This should be obvious to anyone who knows what science is like at a tertiary level.

The real question behind all of this, however, is: why do some people try to characterize the gifts of children like Ainan as nothing more than "memory power" and "interest"?

The answer is probably that they feel threatened by such children and seek to diminish them. They seek to recast them not as gifted and intelligent, but as some variety of automatic recording machine devoid of intelligence. To my mind, that indicates either that the person who so characterizes them is jealous - or that they, themselves, genuinely have no understanding of what the demands of a scientific subject are. So, we are left to conclude that they are either jealous, or ignorant...perhaps both.

It is important to speak out against this characterization of gifted children as little more than pocket tape recorders, because this view of them, diminishes them to such an extent that they are no longer worthy of support or consideration. If such views are allowed sway, then more gifted children will go unsupported and will not receive the resources they need to blossom.

Ainan does have a good memory, but he has a better imagination, a better intuition, a better intelligence, than all the powers of his memory can muster.

Memory is not the answer to genius or giftedness of any kind - but it is a tool that the gifted use. Nikola Tesla was a great genius - but he also had a great visual memory, able to capture things in the finest detail. Mozart was famously able to recall long pieces of music at a single hearing and write them down. Charles Dickens when working as a young journalist, took notes only in his head (if I remember rightly). These three men were all geniuses - and they all had good memories. However, it would be entirely wrong to characterize them as a product of nothing but memory. A good memory was the LEAST of their gifts. It was their REASON and CREATIVITY that made them geniuses. Their memories were just tools to enable the other two faculties to have something to work on.

So, it is with certain gifted children. They have able memories, but these are just tools to allow their other gifts to have something to work with. If you want to know their true gifts - look to their capacities to reason and be creative.

(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.)

The imagination of a child.

Tiarnan, two, is an imaginative child, even as children go, I think.

The other day he reported, in all seriousness, something to his mother: "I saw two cockroaches...five cockroaches. They were brushing their teeth (he paused to let the image sink in), washing their hands (he paused to let the image sink in), having a bubble bath."

Syahidah, a little surprised at this story, checked each fact with him, "You saw cockroaches brushing their teeth?"

"Yes." he said with a certain nod.

"You saw cockroaches washing their hands?"

"Yes." he said with a certain nod.

"You saw cockroaches having a bubble bath."

"Yes. Just now." he said with a certain nod.

Wow. What a wonderful world young children live in - where even the cockroaches maintain the highest standards of hygiene.

I think all of our children display varying degrees of wackiness in their imaginations. It may be that Tiarnan turns out to be the wackiest of all (though he has stiff competition from Fintan, I think).

(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.)

Children at play in the modern world.

When I was a child, we played "Cowboys and Indians". This was because of the cultural background of the time, in which Western films were regularly on TV. The Cowboys were, of course, always the good guys (though I don't think many Indians would have thought so, then or now). We would chase each other around the house, toting cap guns (which I have never seen in Singapore, by the way...are they banned these days?) We would take pot shots at each other, though it did seem awfully hard to convince our opponents (brother "Indians" or brother "Cowboys"), to "die". The bullets seemed to miss a lot - but boy did it create a sulphurous smell around the house.

The other day I had pause to consider how much the world had changed and how much the culture children saw was now so different. No longer are Western films on TV regularly - indeed they are rarely seen, these days, particularly in Singapore (I don't think I have even seen one in the last nine years). However, other things are on TV - like talk of terrorism, Iraq and the Middle East situation. It seems my children have noted this.

A few days ago, I saw Ainan, eight, Fintan, five and Tiarnan, two, at play. My attention was drawn by Ainan's words concerning an "IED" he was setting. IED stands for Improvised Explosive Device and is a term that has become familiar since the war in Iraq. I didn't expect to hear talk of it on Ainan's lips. The game seemed very complex and had impenetrable rules that only children could ever understand. I did see, however, that there were good guys and bad guys. No-one wanted to be a bad guy - so Tiarnan ended up being elected the bad guy. He set up camp upstairs and would mount raids from there. The other two plotted down below.

It seemed, after a while, that Tiarnan had been labelled a terrorist and the other two were special forces - though the term wasn't used. Tiarnan made some good moves and had great fun throwing "explosive" devices downstairs - actually anything he could find to hand, some of them unsuitable objects for such a task. To my eyes, he was giving the other two something to worry about, though he was alone in the task. His big mistake came when he took the raid downstairs. Half-way down the stairs, hiding behind some lego, Ainan had set up a surprise for Tiarnan, an "IED" - actually the voicebox from a talking teddy bear. It duly "exploded" taking Tiarnan down. The two "special forces" were duly declared the winners. Tiarnan didn't seem to mind. He had had fun.

Now, what struck me by all of this was that it was a game that could never have occurred in my own era. Children didn't play at terrorists and special forces when I was growing up. The idea of terrorists and special forces had not been implanted in their minds. They were not the stereotypical good guys and bad guys of the era. It is a game, therefore, that could only have occurred in the post 9-11 era. It is a game exclusively of the modern world.

It is sad, in a way, to see two year olds, five year olds and eight year olds, drawn into a game that basically imagines and enacts terrible events that simply should not be. Childhood should be more innocent than to be consumed with enacting the wars of adulthood. However, it isn't. Children have eyes and ears and imbibe the concerns of the adult world. The child's world becomes a little echo of the adult one that is going on, in the "real world" beyond their reach. To see what is really a concern in the world, one need only watch children play - for they will show you the true issues of the modern world. In their play, will the concerns of the time, echo on.

I hope to see a time when children don't play in this way, for then we would be in a time of greater peace, one hopes.

Another strange thought: two of my children were not even born when 9-11 occurred - yet still their games echo the effects of that day. Odd isn't it? Their world has become a reflection of a change they never directly observed. But then, it is not a world I would have liked them to have observed directly.

It is for children to play. It is for us to give them a world in which their play is innocent, because the world is (otherwise it won't 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.

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.)

Tiarnan and the telephone

Yesterday, Tiarnan's mum was out. Tiarnan, twenty-four months, was at home with his brothers and myself.

In fact, mummy was out some time, so Tiarnan began to miss her. However, he had a solution.

Early in the evening, I came into the living room and found Tiarnan on the phone.

He looked up at me, as I gazed down on him and said: "I phoned mummy!"

He seemed most comfortable there on the phone, with it snuggled against his ear. Clearly, it made him feel much better.

"Mummy!" he said, handing me the phone.

I took it from him and set it to my ear. There was nothing but a dial tone.

How sweet. Tiarnan had found comfort from the absence of his mother, by imagining that he had managed to call her on the phone. I knew that this was not possible, however, since Syahidah had just lost her mobile phone: no-one, not even the most resourceful child, could have called her.

I replaced the receiver and sat down beside him, lending my own comforting presence to him - even if I couldn't quite match up to mummy.

It is funny how powerful is the imagination of a young child. Even the image of her, in his mind, and "heard" in his ears, is enough to settle his heart.

Wouldn't it be good if such a thing could work for an adult, too? Sadly, I think, most adults are too stuck in the real world, to take an imagined substitute in its stead. Somewhere along the way, imagination loses much of its power - even in the most imaginative of adults.

The two of us waited for Syahidah to come home. Tiarnan, though, was quite satisfied - after all, he had "spoken" to her, hadn't he?

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and one month, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and seven months, and Tiarnan, two years exactly, 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, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

The imaginative world of a child.

There are many things about fatherhood that fascinate - but one of the greatest is the opportunity to observe - and enter - the imaginative world of a child.

Tiarnan has just had his 2nd birthday (it was yesterday). A week ago, we were visiting a friend's house. The daughter of the house is Fintan's friend.

One of the toys present was a blow up, life-size crocodile. It was green, of course, with white teeth and bulging eyes. It was not life-like to an adult eye.

The larger kids, Fintan and his friend approached the crocodile and sat on it and began to sing: "Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream...if you see a crocodile, don't forget to scream". (They duly screamed).

Tiarnan, seeing that they were quite happy on the crocodile, joined them on its capacious back - and tried to sing along.

A while later, I noted that the crocodile had been moved into the adjacent children's bedroom, where all three kids were now playing. All was well until the elder two left. Tiarnan played happily for a moment or two before he realized that he was alone - well, almost. He started to cry out somewhat nervously, alerting us to his predicament. He was staring at the crocodile blocking the doorway, quite obviously distressed by it. I knew then what had not been clear until that moment: for Tiarnan, the crocodile did not just represent a crocodile - it was a crocodile - with all the dangerous possibilties that one presented.

Syahidah went into the room and rescued him.

Later on, just before we were set to leave, the crocodile had made its way into the living room. Tiarnan was busy drinking a bottle of milk. He noted the crocodile by the tv - and the watchful presence of others - and smiled at it. He approached slowly, holding the bottle of milk out towards it and placed the teat against its teeth, his head nodding in encouragement, urging it to drink. Tiarnan had, it seemed, decided to make friends, with the crocodile. It was very touching to watch. Once he had let the crocodile "drink" for a while, he was much more relaxed around it. No doubt, in his estimation, he had now befriended the two metre beast.

When one reaches a certain age, few adults seem to think in interesting ways. It is probably because their ways are too familiar and too predictable. Children, on the other hand, live in the same world, but see it differently. It is refreshing, therefore, to observe them do, think and feel things, adults simply never would.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and one month, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and six months, and Tiarnan, twenty-three 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, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

The World's Most Exotic Reptile

Fintan, four, is shaping up to be a child with an imagination all of his own. His remarks are so characteristic of him - and of no other - that I long ago started to call them Fintanisms. The same applies to his behaviour.

Two days ago, for reasons known only to himself, Fintan came up behind Tiarnan, twenty months, and gently pushed him to the ground so that he was on all fours, saying: "Run reptile, run!"

Then he paused, momentarily, "Oh no..." I thought, then, in that moment, that he was going to correct his odd description of his younger brother, "crawl."

Hilarious.

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

Childhood imagination and acting on the stage

Yesterday, I had the chance to see Fintan in a stage performance. It was not a theatrical show, as such, but more of a guided theatrical performance, with the help of their teacher.

Seeing Fintan transform from a child into a rocket, then a moon buggy, then an astronaut, and an airplane and back to a child again, told me much about the quality of his inner imaginative life.

Fintan was very committed to each action, each role, each image that he had to portray. He was very expressive, physically, in how he relayed the meaning of what he had been asked to do - and he was very, very enthusiastic. Above all, it was his imagination that was clear from his work. There was great physical detail in his imagining of the roles he was to portray - careful placing of body, arm, hand and face to give just the right meaning to what he intended. There was nothing half-hearted about what he did: it was clear that he both enjoyed it and was good at it.

Other kids of his age showed fair imagination, too (four year olds).

Yet, what was really telling, for me, was what happened next. We waited to see the performance of the five and six year olds. The contrast was clear. The older kids were more capable with words - more at ease with their use - but there was something dreadfully missing. Someone had stolen their imaginations. There was a marked reduction in imaginative power, creative commitment - and, compared to Fintan, detail of performance, in the older kids. I was surprised at this. I had expected to see a steady development of ability - a progression to higher things. But that is not what I could clearly see up on the stage. I saw more use of words and less use of body. I saw a lot of talk at the expense of expressiveness, imagination, creative daring, commitment, enthusiasm, insight and simple stage presence. Fintan showed all of these qualities at four - and his agemates showed more of them than the older kids. It was an odd and unsettling realization. Somehow, it seems, that children lose something as they get older: they lose their "childish" imaginations - but they don't gain anything worthwhile in return. Where the younger kids were fluid and fun, the older kids were stiff and dull. It was sad to see.

I have not had the chance to see this comparison in other cultures and races. But it may be general - and if so, it is a worry. Clearly, in this education system at least, the children are rapidly losing the very quality we would most want to see flourish: their creative imaginations. Not that alone, but they are losing it very early on. I saw a marked difference between four year olds and five/six year olds. A decline should not be noticeable over such a short time - but it was. Perhaps we should look for a different place and way to school Fintan - and Tiarnan - before they, too, are rigidified.

Then, again, it may not just be the school. It might be a natural process. Or it could be the whole culture. Whatever is to blame, it is most obvious that young children are losing their imaginations at a very young age.

You may say I didn't see enough children. Well, I did. There were two groups of about fifteen children each. The difference between the typical performance of the four year olds and the typical performance of the five/six year olds was marked. There was no doubt about it.

I really wonder at what schools do for children: do they open their minds up - or close them down?

This experience has really set me to wondering.

(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, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Tale of a cowboy hat

A couple of days ago, my wife, Syahidah, placed a cowboy hat on Fintan's head and left him to his own devices.

Some time later, she saw him running around the house from one room to another.

"Fintan, why are you running around?"

"I am trying to catch my horse...it has run away." he explained.

He continued to run.

Some time later, he was standing still in his room, looking at something that wasn't there.

"What happened?" Syahidah asked him.

"Oh, I shot my horse.", he confided. "First I tied him up, then I shot him."

He was quite satisfied to have solved the problem of the horse that just wouldn't sit still.

It is the imagination of a child that I think is most precious - for in the mind of an imaginative child, anything can be considered and all is possible. Yet, is such imagination common to all children? From observation, I would say not. Some children don't seem to have much of an imagination. Is that the reason most adults lack imagination? Is it because they start out with none...or is it because they lose it as they grow up?

I rather hope Fintan doesn't lose his imagination, but finds a creative application for it, that satisfies him and brings him fulfilment. Right now, it is both fun and fascinating to watch his imagination at work. Long may it be part of him.

(If you would like to learn more of Fintan, three, or his gifted brothers, Ainan Celeste Cawley, seven years and six months, and Tiarnan, sixteen months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.hmtl 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.)

The importance of attribution

I can't help but notice that many people are in the habit of quoting another's thoughts, without attribution. Though most of these people seem to be unaware of it, such a practice is a form of theft, for it deprives the originator of the thought, idea, proposal etc. of the credit for having conceived it.

Part of the education of us all, is coming to understand what others have thought before us, and perhaps understanding why they thought in such a way. It is always enlightening to consider the wisdom of those who were known for their genius.

A few days ago, I was listening to the radio in Singapore, when I heard something that made me most uncomfortable. It appeared to be a slogan for the radio channel that I was listening to. It went like this:

"Imagination is more important than knowledge, so use your imagination..." Listeners were then urged to listen to Lush Radio.

The cheek of what they had done stilled me. Many of you will probably know where their slogan came from: it was a thought of Albert Einstein's that they had corrupted to sell their radio channel to the public. There is a deep irony in claiming that listening to their channel was an act of the imagination - when they had, in fact, shown no imagination themselves, in plagiarizing the famous words of a great man, to promote themselves.

What is so wrong with this? Well, many listeners will not know whence those words came. They will not make the connection to Einstein. This deprives them of a full understanding of what the words mean - for they cannot know the perspective of the first mind to have conceived them. Only through knowing that Einstein coined them, can we have a chance to understand both their import and their meaning. Not that alone, but knowledge of what great minds have thought, is part of human culture - to have the words of such minds, turned into commercial slogans for commercial end, cheapens that culture and makes of it something vacuous. Truly, what they did was morally - and legally wrong. For it is a breach of the moral rights of an author not to attribute a quote - and a breach of copyright to do so. Yet, this was done by an institution in a position of influence and respect: a radio station.

Einstein's remark was made originally in Berlin, in 1929 to the journalist and poet, George Sylvester Viereck who had somehow coaxed an interview from the most reluctant world-famous physicist.

"How," George began, "do you account for your discoveries? Through intuition or inspiration?"

"Both," replied Albert Einstein. "I sometimes feel I am right, but do not know it. When two expeditions of scientists went to test my theory, I was convinced they would confirm my theory. I wasn't surprised when the results confirmed my intuition, but I would have been surprised had I been wrong. I'm enough of an artist to draw freely on imagination, which I think is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world, and all there ever will be to know and understand."

Few Singaporean listeners know whence that quote comes - and that is what allows the radio station to imitate, as it did. That is a pity, for Einstein's words were spoken on a matter of some importance: what leads a genius like him to think and create as he had?

It is saddening to see a radio station trivialize such a man's words. I hope they change their slogan - and perhaps announce who they were quoting.

(If you would like to read about Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and six 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.)

Fintan's world of imagination

It is often instructive to ask a child what something represents - the answer is often surprising.

Yesterday, Fintan, three, was playing with Lego. He had built some kind of platform with complicated protrusions. It was a mysterious object whose purpose was not immediately clear to an observer.

"What are you building?" asked Syahidah, of him.

Without looking up, he said: "My country."

We live in Singapore, where there is much talk of "nation-building" - but this is not quite what they meant. Fintan, however, has bigger dreams, it seems: he is set on building his own nation - at least with Lego.

That night he took two things to bed with him: his favourite "teddy" - actually a cow - and his own "country". Fintan slept with a newly built nation in his bed.

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

Those who will never understand

An imaginative child or adult has a very special gift. It is one that allows the gifted one to alter the world, inside, to see things anew and to envisage what has not been, but might yet be. It is the foundation of all artistic and much scientific creativity: the imagination itself.

Imagination is not equally distributed among the gifted. There are gifted children who don't possess much of it: they are bright but not given to imaginative thought. Then there are imaginative children who rarely stop imagining. In a welcoming world there is room for all types. Yet, there is a problem. The unimaginative can never understand the imaginative. Why do I say this: well, it is obvious that someone who is unimaginative cannot conceive of what an imaginative person is like to be. Why is this? Well, simply because, you guessed it, they lack the imagination to do so!

Why should this be a problem? Well, it can be a big social issue for a child if they are imaginative but living in an unimaginative social context - and this happens more often than you might suppose. For it is clear that the unimaginative children - or adults - around them, might suppose the child somehow to be "ill" because of their propensity to disregard bald reality in preference for something more interesting. Clearly, on a social level this can lead to much misunderstanding and unhappiness, but there is a greater danger. What if such a child encounters an unimaginative "professional" - working in the psychological arena? All sorts of terrible outcomes could result, simply because the "professional" lacks the imagination to truly understand what kind of child - or adult - is before them. There may very well be a tendency to mislabel them - when all that is happening is that the imaginative child - or adult - is being creative with the world, playing with it, seeing it in new ways.

So, if your child is imaginative, be on guard to protect them from the unimaginative responses they might receive: the unimaginative can be directly harmful to the imaginative, especially in terms of social response - and never, ever take them anywhere near a dull, prosaic, unimaginative professional.

This post is an extension and development of a response to Kathy, who posted something under my post about a child's imagination, recently.

Thanks.

A dinosaur in Singapore

Two days ago, Fintan, three, was at the pool with us. He had been in the water for some time, and had come out to talk to us - and ready himself for departure.

Suddenly he looked down at the floor and saw some smudged watermarks. He peered closely then looked up, sure of his find: "Dinosaur footprints!" he declaimed, of the marks on the ground, no doubt imagining the critter having just run around the corner. He looked again, and noting their small size said: "Baby dinosaurs!"

Fintan's world is an imaginative one - and one that I like, thereby. He doesn't just live in Singapore - he lives near the "jungle" - where anything can happen, and many a thing does live. His world is more alive than the real world, more filled with possibility - and it is wonderful to see it. I hope that it is ever that way and that he doesn't become like most adults who exclude the possibility of the fantastic from their minds with dull automaticity. I would like to see him continue on this imaginative path and become a creative adult one day, like many of his relatives. It would, I think, suit him.

I didn't cast doubt, therefore, on his assessment that a baby dinosaur had left those watery footprints, for his view was a better, more interesting one than the truth. His view was one that entertained a possibility that others might not. His view was one that allowed him to imagine a world that was not, but which would be more interesting than the one in which we live.

Of course, there was another reason why he might think of those somewhat rounded half dried footprints as dinosaurian - for long ago, as I have explained in a previous post, he saw a "baby dinosaur" one day - actually a large lizard. This peopled his world with the possibility that dinosaurs might be just around the corner. He is not at fault for this view - for I introduced the lizard to him as a "baby dinosaur" - for it made perfect a "dinosaur hunt" one day.

Many children believe in fairies and ghosts and the like. I have a son who believes in dinosaurs. Well, at least there are lizards, today - which look awfully like them - and at least they did actually live - one day.

A child's imagination: can it be too much?

Can a child have too much imagination?

This was a question posed as a statement, "child too much imagination", by a searcher who arrived on my blog, recently. I found the outlook that would lead to the search somewhat unsettling. For what kind of parent would think that their child had "too much" imagination? (This assumes it was a parent - it could have been a teacher, of course.) Let us rephrase the question in another way to get a better understanding of it. How does a child benefit from having LESS imagination? Is it better to be unable to see new things in the old? Is it better to be unable to conceive of a new idea? Is it better to be unable to play with that which is not there, physically but only exists in the mind? Is it better to be without the basic capacity to create?

In some way, the searcher believed all these things. In viewing their child as "too imaginative" they were proposing the opposite standpoint as superior - that of the unimaginative child who cannot conceive of the new, who cannot think of that which is not, who cannot, in truth, take the first step towards creating something by imagining.

I would say that a child can never have too much imagination - but I would say that a parent (or a teacher) could have too little.

It is sad to think how that child might be brought up. The instinct to create, to play, to imagine, might be met with great unwelcome - thought of by the parents as somehow a silly thing to do. If the child is at all socially sensitive, they will pick up on this and learn to avoid imaginative play. In time, the capacity to imagine will wither - and that child will become as the parent is: unimaginative, afraid to create, unable to play - and perhaps even disapproving of the imagination. A potentially creative being would have been snuffed out by an incomprehending, unwelcoming parent.

If a child wishes to play in a world all of their own, let them: the capacity to create such a world is the foundation of many adult pursuits of great inherent value - writing, art, science, acting and music are all products of an adult engaged in imaginative play. An adult could not pursue any of these disciplines had they not been free as children to play with their imaginations, exercising them until they become reliable allies in reforming the world, at will.

It might very well be true to say that all geniuses start life as imaginative children. The least they should expect from the world is a parent who allows them the freedom to be imaginative: without that license so much may very well be lost from the world.

So, no matter how "imaginative" a child is, it can never be "too much". To say so, is similar to saying that a child is "too intelligent". Neither statement is ever true. It is impossible to be "too gifted" - no matter what the gift is - for every level of gift has its value - and the greater the gift, the greater its potential value. There is never a point at which a human gift or human quality becomes "too much". To think otherwise is to see value in shackling a human spirit - and that really is "too much".

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Fintanism

Yesterday, Fintan, three, met his aunt Hanisah.

She began with the usual greetings and then, on a random whim, she said to him:

"You are a teenage mutant ninja turtle, Fintan!"

I don't know her reasons for saying this, but it probably because Fintan likes imaginative play.

Unexpectedly, he was a little put out by this.

"I am not a teenage mutant ninja turtle," he began, sharply, "I go to school, you know!"

Here was Fintan-logic at work, splendidly. Since he had never seen the teenage mutant ninja turtles go to school, in the cartoons, he correctly surmised that they didn't go to school. Therefore, since he went to school, he couldn't be a teenage mutant ninja turtle. It was a wonderful moment of a child's perfect but amusingly applied logic. Here was Fintan's disproof of his turtle-dom.

Hanisah, however, decided to continue the game.

"The teenage mutant ninja turtles do go to school, you know." She said, reassuringly.

"Really?", Fintan brightened, at once, "Which one?" He quizzed, at once most alert, for this highly anticipated answer.

This latter question was half-way to asking "Can I go there too?"

Wonderful.

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

More lessons from the classroom: morality

I wrote, recently, of the lack of imagination observable in many young people today. What implications are there for their functioning in the world?

Well, one implication came to light today in another brief conversation, I am aware of:

Teacher: "What would you do if you found a wallet in the street?"

Student, from mainland China (the same one as in the earlier posting):

"I have never found a wallet."

End of both thought and conversation.

This particular student has displayed a lack of imagination in many contexts, in the past, however, the implication that he was unable to consider a moral situation - because he lacked imagination - is a new observation. It is shocking to realize that the lack of imagination means he is not able to consider his own responses in situations he has never been in. Fundamentally, therefore, it means that he cannot know himself. Lack of imagination is, therefore, a kind of pervasive mental disability whose wide-ranging effects are little appreciated. We think of it in terms of not being creative - but it is much more than that. Without imagination a child is not fully human, and lacks the mental resources to understand themselves. Imagination is a key aspect of what it means to be a fully alive, thinking being.

Any education that imperils imagination, imperils the very future of Man. A world without imagination, is a world in which people cannot even understand themselves - never mind the world they live in.

Is this young man - for he is eighteen or nineteen years old - unable to imagine because of some native deficiency - or is it because of the way he was educated in mainland China? In some way, I hope that it is a deficiency, for if it is his education then the implication is clear: there may be over a billion like him, all having received such a debilitating education. I don't know which it is - but I can tell you this: I have seen this lack of imagination in many others of his origin. I do not know the cause - whether it be innate or environmental. The question may be essentially undecidable without doing an experiment that would, itself, be questionable.

I will keep you posted on more observations of this phenomenon, as and when they arise.

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

Fintan, the natural actor

Fintan, three, likes to dress up. He is our local "super-hero". Sometimes he is a Power Ranger, sometimes he is Superman, which is his favourite.

A couple of months ago, he was dressed as Superman, in our locality. We had just been shopping and were walking across the playground. There were many parents, maids and children there. Little children remarked on the advent of Superman. The adults, though, were funny: several of them cried out - "Superman! Hello!" or a variant. What impressed me was Fintan's reaction. He just gave a little nod to acknowledge them, as if it were his due, to be so called.

I understood then, that Fintan was very much an inhabitant of the role, as any good - or natural - actor should be. In donning the cape and elastic clothing of our superhuman hero, he had also adopted the belief that in some way he was Superman.

The nod was so natural, that he gave in acceptance of their comment, so appropriate, that all thought of laughter was stilled in me. Imagination like that requires respect - and is so often lost as a child proceeds through childhood into adolescence.

I hope Fintan, three, retains this imaginative quality - and makes use of it in an interesting manner.

Fintan the fashion designer, inventor of clothes

Fintan, three, is an interesting boy. He is strongly built, and even stronger than he looks, yet he has an aesthetic eye, responding with enthusiasm to that which is beautiful in his environment. Perhaps he will be a kind of artist one day.

On Sunday, we went to the beach...the East Coast, to be precise. This might sound like a bit of a journey, but on an island like Singapore, it is not far to go.

The beach was well-provisioned with restaurants and we chose to eat at an Indian restaurant there.

The most interesting part of the meal was not the food, but Fintan. The aircon in the venue was rather aggressive so it was a little too cold. Fintan had a solution. He took a beach towel from the back of his brother's stroller and wrapped it about himself and his upper body in the fashion of a toga. He had never seen a toga, but he could see how to turn a towel into a toga by appropriate wrapping and a single knot. I don't know how old the original inventor of a toga had been...but Fintan recreated it, at three, in a time of need.

Thus we ate the Indian meal accompanied by our young improvised Roman, throughout. The odd thing is, it suited him, his robust body looking well by association with all the Roman images we have seen of statues in the past. I think he would make a good Emperor. A pity there are no more empires in need of an imperial gaze. Ah well...

One thing should be noted. Fintan is very fashion conscious. He chooses the colour and design of his clothes very carefully and will not be seen to wear clothes that don't fit his aesthetic - indeed he gets upset if there is nothing to match his inner requirement. In the light of this, it is very telling that Fintan looked good in his toga, after he had made it. It indicates, to me, that he was able to imagine the end result and so proceed to his desired end: an aesthetic look. He has been aware of his clothing and appearance since very young - his first year.

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