The weight of school books.

Today, I met Ainan, after a school golf lesson that never was. (The bus was cancelled, at the last minute, leaving the children idling, for a few hours, until their parents came.)

He seemed quite patient about it all. He had got so used to waiting that it took him a second or two before he acknowledged my existence by starting to rise from his chair in the office. It was as if he wasn't sure I had really arrived: was I just a mirage of expectation?

Anyway, he hefted his bag over one shoulder, at which I noted its seeming inertia and then he proceeded to attempt to put the other strap on the other shoulder.

"I'll take that." I indicated the bag.

He looked doubtful. "It's heavy.", he said, in warning.

I thought this sweet, funny and sad. It was sweet that he should think of his Dad carrying such a "heavy" weight, funny that he should think it would be heavy for me and sad that he should be so burdened, with such a mass in the first place.

"It won't be heavy for me." I assured him, sure of myself.

I grasped it in one hand and noted something surprising: it truly was heavy - even for me. I heaved it over my shoulder, finally understanding that he meant heavy not only in a relative sense (because he is so slight) but heavy in an absolute sense (because it was heavy enough to irritate me).

I don't know how he manages to carry such a heavy bag day in, day out. It really is too much. I found myself switching it from shoulder to shoulder every ten or fifteen minutes as we walked about the shops later.

There has to be a better way than this - and there is. Why can't there be lockers for every student so that they can leave most of their books at school? It would be a simple matter and would require only that the school invest in them. As far as I know, there are no such lockers. At least, Ainan has never mentioned them to me and he doesn't appear to use one.

Were individual lockers to be available for all then most books could be left at school each day and only those required for home that evening need be taken home. It would certainly make for a lighter load.

I rather hope my suggestion is taken up on a nationwide basis. It is time to give the children rather less to carry. No doubt it would prevent a lot of long-term health issues too. Carrying such heavy weights doesn't seem like a good idea for such slight bodies.

(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.)

Giftedness and the assumption of provision

I read comments on gifted issues around the internet and what strikes me most is how much sheer ignorance there is in the words of many of the commenters.

The commenters are often scornful and skeptical of the issues parents of gifted children face. They doubt that the gifted parents could possibly face the difficulties they encounter in getting provision for their gifted children. Their assumption is that the gifted child, if actually gifted, would receive automatic provision. Yet, as any parent of a truly gifted child knows, this is simply not so. Provision has to be fought for, on a daily basis. Most educational systems specialize in IGNORING the needs of gifted children. I know of nowhere in the world where suitable provision is automatic. Yet, skeptics assume that this is so. They assume that any parent of a gifted child who is encountering difficulties in finding educational provision for their child is only doing so because their child cannot be gifted. How ridiculous. The true state of affairs is that the needs of gifted children are commonly ignored the world over. Neglect of the needs of gifted children is the norm. Provision is the exception.

I puzzle why people who evidently have no real experience of the situations they comment on - ie. the issues facing gifted children and their parents - actually feel able to comment on the issues such parents and children face. It does not help the situation and only, in fact, makes the situation far worse. It creates a misunderstanding of the true situation. The reasoning is rather like that of viewing starving children in Africa and observing that: "If they have no food, it is because they are not hungry." The thinking is that, if they were hungry, they would automatically be given food. This is, of course, nonsense. Children starve all over the world because of genuine hunger. So, too, do gifted children "starve" intellectually, from lack of provision, despite their hunger for educational opportunity.

To see a child without food and say they cannot be hungry, despite their evident starvation is absolute foolishness. So, too, is it to see a gifted child without educational provision and to claim that they cannot be in need of such an education, simply because they don't have it.

What is interesting is that many of these negative comments on sites around the world, are written by people who appear to be in anger. It would appear that the giftedness of the children concerned inspires jealousy and rage in them.

The big question, then is, why do the site moderators allow the comments to be posted in the first place? Perhaps they have bought into the arguments given and have no understanding of the true issues involved. I rather hope that is not the case.

Many gifted children, the world over, do not have adequate educational provision. The more gifted they are, the less adequate the provision. This is the true situation. It is about time everyone knew it - and acted upon it.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and no months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and five months, and Tiarnan, twenty-two 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.)