A culture of perfectionism.

A few days ago, Fintan, seven, came home from school looking a little disconsolate. I thought I knew what might be up.

"How did you do in your maths exam?"

Yes. He had had ANOTHER maths exam: they just love to test the kids, in his school.

"OKAAAAY.", he said, with a mournful expression. Clearly, it had not been at all, "OK".

"What did you get?", I asked, softly.

"99%", he said, sadly, as if the world had just come to an end.

"99?", I asked, surprised to hear such a good mark, in such a sad voice. "That is good, Fintan. I would have been happy, at your age, to have 99."

"I got one WRONG.", he said, becoming most upset at this unaccountable fact.

We ended up having to comfort him. He really couldn't accept that any result less than 100% wasn't a total failure.

This little scene came as as surprise to me, because we, as parents, have never stressed the importance of grades. We have never urged our children to strive for perfection. In fact, as an idea, I don't think too much of it: I prefer to see creativity, than perfection. It is clear, however, that this ideal, that Fintan has imbibed, that exam results must be perfect and that nothing less than 100% will do had to come from somewhere. I can only assume that it the culture of the children and, perhaps, the school, with which he is surrounded. The pressure for 100% must come from there - because it is most certainly not from us.

"You could get 100% next time.", I said to Fintan, finally, offering him future hope for restitution.

"Yes, but I have to wait for JULY for the next exam!"

In a way, that was funny, but I didn't smile. Here was a young boy, pining for an exam, just so he could get 100% in it. In my own life, Fintan is the first student I have ever come across who actually wants an exam to happen sooner.

Fintan slumped off, quite beaten down, by his single lost mark. It was some hours before a semblance of his old exuberant self returned.

The world shouldn't be like this. Little children must not feel that 99% is a failure. I was brought up in a pressured academic environment - but it was never so pressured that anyone who got 99% would feel a "failure". However, my schooling was in the UK: Asia is different. Here, it seems, it is quite possible to feel a failure with a score of "only" 99%.

We shall continue to try to convey to our children the idea that doing well is admirable, but that absolute perfectionism is unnecessary and, perhaps, harmful. There is something very wrong in a child being unhappy with 99% in an exam. It remains to be seen, however, whether we will be able to overcome the prevailing educational culture in Fintan's school, in which such attitudes may seem rational.

Well done, Fintan, on your most recent maths exam: 99% is more than enough to make any parent happy and content at your academic progress.

As an afterthought: perhaps Fintan was so disheartened because in his last exam, he had scored 100%. To my mind, however, both results are essentially the same: a young boy, doing very well, in maths.

I hope Fintan learns to take delight in his successes, by first being able to see them as successes. The danger of perfectionism, is that nothing is ever good enough...and the child will never be happy no matter how well they do. I don't want to see that life for Fintan. I remember that he was very happy at his previous 100% - but it shouldn't take perfection, to make him happy at his work. Such a life, is a very punishing one for any child. So, I will keep a watch on his responses to his successes and try to teach him, just what a success really is: it isn't perfection, as a minimum - success comes a long way before that.

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HELP University College, KL, Malaysia.

It is time to announce it. Ainan has joined HELP University College, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

We spent the last three years trying to secure the right educational opportunities for Ainan, in Singapore. However, it wasn't easy. The "system" was very difficult to work with. It took us, for instance, about 22 months to secure consistent practical Chemistry classes for him, in Singapore, at a Polytechnic there, (which we much appreciate and which helped, at the time. Sadly, though, it wasn't really enough.). That is almost two years completely wasted...two years of frustration, of being stalled, of being thwarted. It is not as if we didn't try to get what he needed in Singapore. We did. However, the system was most modest in its response. The GEP (Gifted Education Programme) arranged for a handful of practical Chemistry classes for him - which we were very grateful for, at the time - but it never led anywhere. There was no ongoing practical Chemistry provision made available for him. We were, at the time, given two excuses for this: "There are no resources available" and "If we do it for him, they will all want it."

The funny thing is, it was never clear who the "they" were, since, in Singapore's history, to date, there has only been one child like Ainan. Presumably, providing Ainan with lab access would suddenly have turned the whole nation into science prodigies by a kind of infective osmosis. How ridiculous.

Anyway, we tried everything we could in Singapore. We even asked to homeschool him, on many occasions, but permission was never granted. (We were always fobbed off with "We will revert to you shortly"...and then we would never hear from them - the Compulsory Education Unit - again.). After three years of it, we quietly gave up and started looking elsewhere for an education for Ainan.

Remarkably, Malaysia proved very responsive - and, through the wise advice of Zuhairah Ali, President of the National Association of Gifted Children of Malaysia - Ainan secured places at University Colleges in Malaysia, in a very short time...not much more than a week.

Of all the places on offer, we chose HELP University College, in Kuala Lumpur. It offered the best overall support of Ainan.

At HELP, Ainan will be taking an American Degree Programme - starting immediately. He will take Computer Science options, but also keep up his Chemistry. He will, in addition, be broadening his science foundation by adding A levels in Physics and Maths to his tally, simultaneously. He already has AS Level Chemistry, O level Chemistry and O level Physics, as well as having taught himself some degree of programming skills.

Our thanks to HELP for offering him a place and being so supportive - and to Zuhairah Ali for her speed, efficiency and immense resourcefulness. Thank you.

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

Age limits and educational frustration

Ainan learns his most significant lessons at home. His scientific education has proceeded, from the beginning, at home, without any notable aid from the school system. His only teacher has been me.

Yet, at times I feel that he should have some variety. On seeing an advertisement by the ITE (Institute of Technical Education) offering maths courses for "Under 40 year olds", I duly applied on Ainan's behalf, being fairly sure that, as I am just 40 myself, that my son was assuredly under 40 himself. It was my thinking that he would benefit from having another place at which to learn, other than at home with me and a book.

After a couple of days, I received the reply. It stated that they would be unable to accept Ainan owing to the fact that he was under 16 years of age. As if by magic, a new age limit had been invented specifically to exclude Ainan, it seemed. They had advertised "under 40"...not "over 16".

I was disappointed, but not surprised. The sign of a nation with a future is the ability to make exceptions. We are still waiting for them to make an exception around here.

It looks like most of Ainan's real education will come from himself, myself and a lot of choice books. The institutions that are reputed to be responsible for educating him, don't seem too motivated to do so - at least not according to his needs.

The ITE adminstrator did offer one suggestion: that we seek private tuition. Well, Ainan has never had a private tutor - and the reason is the same reason most children don't have one: the one hundred dollars an hour that is typically charged by such tutors. When I see fees like that I just think of all the books that could be bought instead. Then I can tutor him myself, with a well-stocked library, to boot.

There should be no age limits where education is concerned: only ability limits. If you have the ability, you should have the access. Otherwise, the system is just hampering the development of its most able students. Is that of benefit to the nation?

(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.)

High Five, Tiarnan style

How often have you heard the phrase High Five? How have you responded to it?

Yesterday, Syahidah went: "High five!" to Tiarnan, putting out her hand for him to slap. She is not in the habit of doing this, it just came upon her to do so, in that moment.

He looked at the proffered hand for a smidgeon of a second and shouted, in reply: "High Ten!" and then moved to slap with two hands - and she duly presented both hands to be slapped.

This was funny to the degree that it was both apt and unexpected. Tiarnan, nineteen months, had taken a standard phrase and action and made them his own - with arithmetical correctness thrown in for good measure.

Who needs television when you've got kids? They are far more entertaining than the goggle box.

(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.)

Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss

Some of history's greatest thinkers began life as child prodigies. What is interesting, to me, is that not everyone seems to know this.

Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss was a classic and remarkable case of child prodigy, emerging from an unpromising background. He was born on the 30th April 1777 in Brunswick, Germany. Neither of his parents were educated - indeed, his father was a stone mason. So, the young Gauss was very much on his own, in his early education. Yet, he was not without success. By the age of three he had somehow taught himself reading and arithmetic to a proficient degree.

One day, his father was adding up some figures, on paper, concerning the family finances. The young Gauss, three, peered over at his father's work and pointed out an arithmetical error - which Gauss had checked in his head.

In time, Gauss came to the attention of the Duke of Brunswick and, as was the custom of the day - and a good custom it was too - Gauss was to receive the patronage and support of the Duke of Brunswick, throughout much of his career. The Duke awarded Gauss a fellowship to the Collegium Carolinum, which he attended from 1792 to 1795 and thence he went to the University of Gottingen, which he attended from 1795 to 1798.

It was while at the University that Gauss began the train of mathematical breakthroughs that were to characterize his work and life. In 1796, he proved that any polygon with a number of sides equal to a Fermat prime may be constructed with a compass and straightedge. This was a major mathematical discovery since the problem of construction of such shapes had bedevilled mathematicians since the Ancient Greeks. It took the young Gauss to finally solve it.

Admission to University seems to have electrified Gauss into creative action. The construction problem was solved on March 30, 1796. A few days later, on April 8th, he proved the Quadratic Reciprocity law, which allowed one to determine the solvability of any quadratic function in modular arithmetic.

Modular arithmetic? Oh, he invented that, too. Then he came up with the Prime Number Theorem about the distribution of primes amongst all integers, on May 31st. On July 1oth he discovered that any positive integer is the sum of, at most, three triangular numbers. On October 1st, he published some work on the number of solutions of polynomials with coefficients in finite fields.

This outburst of creativity was not a solitary occurrence in Gauss' life. He went on to make lifelong contributions in many fields. I wrote in detail of that one year to give you some idea of what he was capable of. In 1799, he proved the fundamental theorem of algebra. In 1801, he published his book on number theory, Disquisitiones Arithmeticae, a magnum opus which he had actually completed at the age of 21, though he delayed publishing (this was a chronic tendency of his, failing to publish until, in his perfectionism, he was satisfied with his work. Had he published all that was later to be found in his notebooks, it is estimated that he would have advanced mathematics fifty years, single-handedly. However, in delaying publication, other mathematicians often got to publish Gaussian results before he did, though he had reached the same conclusions decades ahead of them).

In that same year, 1801, Giuseppe Piazzi discovered the planetoid Ceres. He tracked it for a few months, across three degrees of sky, but was unable to locate it again. (It had been lost behind the glare of the sun.) The astronomers of the time were unable to calculate an orbit sufficiently well on so little information to be able to predict the path of an object. Gauss, however, just 23 at the time, took on the project. In three months of work, he revolutionized how orbital calculations were performed, devising an approach which still stands as the foundation of such calculations today. He accurately stated where the object could be expected to be seen in the night sky - and Ceres was duly found again. This single piece of work catapulted Gauss to fame - and was later key in securing him the lifelong position of astronomer at Gottingen.

Gauss' achievement with Ceres puzzled many, for it seemed a feat beyond possibility. He was asked how he had done such an intricate calculation. He replied: "I used logarithms." When asked how he had looked up so many logarithms in so short a time, he dumbfounded them, by saying: "Who needs to look them up? I calculated them in my head."

Thus Gauss carried into his adult life the childhood ability as a mental calculator that he had shown at the age of three.

Gauss put his mental calculation to another practical use through performing a geodesic survey of the state of Hanover. In so doing, he developed what we know today as the Normal Distribution - or more properly, Gaussian distribution.

In the 1820s he collaborated with the physicist Wilhelm Weber and contributed much to the areas of optics, acoustics, mechanics and magnetism. Indeed, in 1833 he invented the telegraph, which was to later revolutionize communications that century.

Subsequent to his death on February 23rd, 1855, his brain was taken from his skull and weighed. It was, perhaps not surprisingly, significantly heavier than usual, at 1,492 grams and, the examiner stated that it was "highly and deeply convoluted". It was theorized that this unusual manifestation of the brain accounted for his genius.

Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss, began life as a self-educated child prodigy, born of uneducated parents, who could not, therefore, assist him but, by the end of his days, he was accounted, by many, as "the greatest mathematician since antiquity".

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

Giftedness and "palm-reading"

There is a tradition in Europe of palm reading, whereby by a woman (usually) gazes into one's hand and tells of one's life, past, present and future.

Personally, I have never had any doubt that it was doubtful, however, a recent piece of research has thrown up an interesting correlation between the form of the hand and the form of the brain, above it.

It has been observed that there is a strong inverse correlation between the ratio of the index finger to the ring finger and a talent for maths. By this I mean that a SHORT index finger in relation to the ring finger, indicates a brain well-equipped for maths. On the other hand, a hand in which the ratio of index finger to ring finger is about one (they are of similar length) indicates more of a verbally inclined brain.

What is the cause of this relationship? Testosterone. Lots of it, in the womb, makes your index finger short and your brain biased towards visuo-spatial/mathematical tasks. Little of it, and relatively more estrogen, allows the brain to progress towards a verbal type brain.

Usually, this means that a boy will have the maths bias and a girl the verbal bias - but this is by no means universal. There are maths woman and verbal men - as shown by their hands.

So, is your child a maths child or a verbal child? To find out how their brain is actually biased all you have to do is look at their hands and see how long or short the index and ring fingers are. It is that simple.

(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.)