Book Review in the Star

Yesterday saw the publication of my first book review in the Star newspaper. This was on "Steve Jobs - The Man Who Thought Different" by Karen Blumenthal.

The Star newspaper is Malaysia's largest circulation English daily newspaper. Recently, they invited me to write book reviews for them. The review of this Steve Jobs biography is the first fruit of that.

Originally, I wrote a review of about 1,400 words, in which I said fully what I thought. This had to be cut down to 999 words. However, this was further cut before publication, to 856 words. Tellingly, my most critical passages were cut from the piece - the parts in which I was most blunt about Steve Jobs' true character and less flattering side. It seems that the Star didn't want me to express those thoughts so clearly. What remains hints at what has been removed. From my point of view, it is a pity that I wasn't allowed to say what I really thought, because what I had wished to say, needs to be said about Steve Jobs. He wasn't what many people think - although I must say he was very good at personal PR and creating a positive image. The underlying truth was rather different, however.

Please read my review here:

http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2012/7/27/lifebookshelf/11686256&sec=lifebookshelf

Let me know, below what you think of it. I will post the full unedited version soon, to allow you to read my analysis of Steve Jobs' character in full.

Happy reading!

Thank you.

Posted by Valentine Cawley


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What is said and what is done.

There is a difference between what is said and what is done. This is perhaps most noticeable, in some societies, in the utterances and actions of politicians.

A recent example were the parting words of Tharman Shanmugaratnam, the departing Minister of Education, in Singapore. He said: "Treat the brightest kids as the country's precious resources. Groom them, but more importantly, instil humility in them by making them aware of their weaknesses." and "You don't need a whole load of individuals in any society to do something exceptional but we need more of them in Singapore - people who want to break barriers essentially."

I found his words particularly interesting set against what we have seen of the actions and inactions (more to the point) of the education system with regards to our son, Ainan, who shows great scientific gift and promise. Despite his promise, however, it has been hard to secure what we have needed for him, here, in Singapore. If the State's actions were actually consonant with Tharman's words, it would have been easy to get his needs met. Over the past year and a half we found the Gifted Education branch ineffective at best, obstructive at worst. They did not seem to have Ainan's education at heart at all. We were left wondering why they even existed. That is why we gave up on them in the end.

Long-term readers will also know of our difficulties in securing homeschooling permission (still not given). In all, the state response to Ainan has been poor. There is, however, a promising development which I cannot speak of just yet - but it has taken too long to arrange: it should have taken a week, not a year and a half.

I would say, therefore, that Singapore's Ministers say the appropriate things with regards to gifted children - but I would say, from personal experience, that Singapore is not actually doing those things. It talks, but it doesn't act. The result, sadly, for Singapore, is that gifted children leave Singapore because they are unable to find a suitable education here. That is the reality which Tharman's fine words obscures.

If Singapore's inactions costs them a single genius, that is worth more than ten thousand imported scholars from China, in terms of what that one person could really do, given the chance to develop properly. As I have posted, in the past, though, the real focus does not seem to be on grooming local talent - but more on recruiting overseas talent to compensate for the outflow of frustrated local talent, who cannot get what they need here.

I hope that the incoming Education Minister listens to what Tharman has said, and actually makes a system that is truly supportive of the aspirations of its most gifted students. They could start by allowing us to homeschool Ainan.

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