Varsity Newspaper: Unforgotten Words.

Varsity, is an independent student weekly newspaper, of Cambridge University. It has the distinction of being one of but three independent student newspapers in the UK.

Long ago, when I was a student at Cambridge University, I recall reading some quotes, from students about Cambridge. One of those quotes has stuck with me, ever since.

The, sadly anonymous student wit, was quoted to have said, words to the effect:

"Intelligent life in space? I would settle for intelligent life in Cambridge."

Sometimes, I felt like that about Cambridge, too. No doubt that is why I have never forgotten the expressed sentiment.

The funny thing is that that quote from Varsity is one of the few things that has stuck with me, from its pages. One of the others was a story about a former student who committed suicide, quite young, but that is another story...

Perhaps it is the profundity of the particular remarks, or stories, that endures, in my mind - or the ones that capture, aptly, the nature of life and place. All the rest is lost, as, perhaps, deemed inconsequential by my mind and so unworthy of remembrance.

I wonder who that wit in the Varsity newspaper was? Did they go on to have an interesting life? Did they find the intelligent people they sought?

If anyone knows who said that quote, please let me know in the comments below. Thanks.

Please note that the quote above may not have used the exact words of the Varsity wit, but the meaning is the same. That is just how I choose to remember it.

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Quotations of Valentine Cawley.

At various times and places, my words have been quoted, by other people. Sometimes, it is in a newspaper, sometimes in a forum, or elsewhere on the internet. It was a surprise to me, when people began to quote me,(the first time I ever noticed was the quote on examinations, below, in a forum). Then, however, I understood that something I had written or said, had made an impression on people, and so they wished to relay that quote to others.

Sometimes, I know I have been quoted because a searcher arrives on my blog, with an exact quote from me as their search term. In such cases, I assume that I have been quoted by a student writing an essay, or some other such context. Sometimes these quotes are surprisingly long - several lines - which can only be from reading it elsewhere, perhaps lifted and placed in an essay.

The quotation incidents that I have seen, have credited my words to me. However, the ones involving searchers off the net with quotes in their search are most probably uncredited quotes, since they never use my name in the quote search.

So, I have mixed feelings about the quoting. The credited ones are OK and I am happy to see that - but the uncredited ones are, basically, plagiarism. Luckily, the internet is my friend in this respect, since any Professor who checks one of my lifted quotes on the net, will find the original source material - and the true author.

I have listed below some of the quotes that I have come across replicated elsewhere, of my own work. I will add to this list as I note others. If you see any quotes, elsewhere, please let me know in the comment section below, since I am interested tracking the usage of quotations of my writing. It is interesting to see when and where they are used.

Apologies for the title for this blog post. I know it sounds egoistic but actually it is just a title for the search engines, to make this post easy to find. Were it unnecessary to flag it for search engines, I would have chosen something much more modest and discrete to label it. I hope you can understand.

"Being a graduate doesn't mean you are smart, it means that someone else is stupid enough to give you a degree." October 31 2008

“Whenever a teacher takes a stand against plagiarism, the entire school should stand behind him or her.” I wrote this in two newspapers in Malaysia, on the subject of plagiarism, recently.

"Education" might as well be spelt "e-r-a-d-i-c-a-t-i-o-n", where creativity is concerned."

“The role of a family, is to make a world that has never been and never will be again, to sustain people who have never been and never will be again. A family is a pocket universe, and no less important than the universe itself, for being smaller.”

“An examination is all about testing you on someone else's thoughts. Many children become expert on other people's thoughts - but have none of their own. In some way, focusing too much on what other people have thought and written in books seems to inhibit the development of the ability to have your own.”

“Jade Goody is worthy because she is known, but she is not known because she is worthy.” (March 12, 2009) This remark made it to a leading Danish daily newspaper, which translated it into Danish, for its readers and referred to me as "The commentator, Valentine Cawley said...". Their journalist had been reading my blog, in research for his article.

“Giftedness is not a measure of wealth - it is a measure of mind - and great minds may emerge in the most unpromising of circumstances.” (August 7, 2007)

“I have thought of a good quote about modesty, but I think I will keep it to myself.” Quoted in an interview with Time Out magazine, in London, in November 1994.

“A good gentleman never reveals his tailor.” Quoted in The Observer newspaper, UK, November 1994, in reply to a journalist asking who had made Valentine’s 18th century clothes. (This may have been: "A true gentleman never reveals his tailor" - it is a long time now since I first said it.)

At the time of writing, I do not know whether the tendency to quote me will remain sporadic - as it now is - or whether it will gather momentum. I suppose that all depends on whether a subset of people find the remarks of interest enough to let others know about them.

Regarding the "good gentleman" quote above. That was plagiarized by an advertising director in London by the name of Edmundo Arigita. His girlfriend expressed surprise, when she overheard me reflecting on the fact that my quote had been published in the newspaper. She said to her boyfriend, Edmundo: "So THAT is where that came from." Clearly, he had been using the remark - and since he makes adverts for a living, I do wonder whether he stole it for one of them. He tried to shrug it off by saying: "Lots of people say that." Err...no. They didn't say it before I did...which is why the journalist felt it worthy of quoting me, in the Observer newspaper.

So, sometimes, the quoting is unattributed - as in, theft.

If you come across any quotes of my writing, or spoken word, attributed or unattributed, please let me know.

Thanks.

The New Media and the Old Media.

Much is said of the new media providing an alternative to the old media. Blogs have become a valued alternative to newspapers. Yet, it is not as simple as providing an alternative. An event a few days ago, leads me to think that the new media and the old media are interdependent. They feed off each other.

I noted, a couple of days ago, in my surfing, that a leading Danish daily newspaper had quoted my blog. They termed me a "commentator", and quoted several lines from one of my posts, to provide them with a key insight for their article. In a way, I was impressed with their intellectual courtesy. Instead of just lifting my insight (as some, no doubt, have done), they credited me with my own words and built the latter half of the article around my view.

To me, it seems that the new media (or at least from the evidence of my blog, as an example of it) have come to be sufficiently respected by the old media, that they are now considered a valued SOURCE of material, to be used in traditional articles. This is a healthy development for it increases the diversity of material available for use by the traditional media and should lead to an enriched media, therefore.

As for me, it felt odd to be quoted in a national newspaper, in this way. It made it clear that they thought of me as someone whose words were sufficiently weighty as to be so quoted. Often, I have seen newspapers refer to others, in this manner, by quoting from their work. However, it is a different matter when the one quoted is oneself. It made me realize that my writing is beginning to have an impact. People all over the world are reading it. Some are thinking about it. Others are even writing about it. I am, in a sense, becoming a successful online writer. This is a gratifying development because the online writer (or blogger) has a freedom to write as they please, that no other writers in history have ever had. It is rewarding, to see that my thoughts are sufficiently regarded, in some quarters, to now be used as a source of commentary.

In reality, there is no new media or old media - there is only words and ideas and their transmission. Both "media" are engaged in the same business of transmission of thought. What differs, however, is that the "new media" are much more democratic and open: all have access to them. In this way, they better reflect the ideals of a democratic world. Furthermore, they lower the barriers to entry into public discourse by allowing all a voice. This is a marvellous freedom, which has never truly been before.

By quoting my work, the Danish newspaper did something else. It acknowledged the worth of the new media and the whole blogging enterprise. It said that this new democratic communication mode is worthy of respect. So, though a small thing, in a way - the mere quoting of words from a blog post - it is also much bigger than it seems, for it shows that the new media are truly a form of media that has reached maturity and achieved respect. It is not only a genuine alternative to the old media, but a complement to it too.

For the curious, the passage the Danish newspaper quoted (in translation) was on the subject of modern fame:

"Once a person becomes famous that, in itself, is enough to justify attention directed towards them. Jade Goody is better known than many of much greater merit, but she receives the attention precisely and only because she has already received attention. That is it. There is nothing more to it. Jade Goody is worthy because she is known, but she is not known because she is worthy."

I have highlighted in black, the part of the passage that they focussed most upon.

I should note that this is not the first time that my online writings have been quoted and referenced. Yet, it is the first time that a traditional media outlet has done so, to my knowledge. I found it surprising, actually, because it meant that someone, far away in Denmark, had gone to all the trouble of reading my blog, thinking about it, and building part of an article around it.

I have but one pair of eyes, so if you notice other instances of my work being quoted, I would be interested to hear of it...so please mail me or comment below, if you spot such references.

Thanks.

(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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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.)

On being an academic reference

It has come to my attention, that my blog is now official reading at one school. I find this quite touching - enough to bring a smile, anyway.

One school has listed my blog as part of the term's reading list, relating to intelligence and giftedness, for a course, of some sort. I am in good company on this list, which even includes Wikipedia.

It is surprising how different people react to what is essentially an exercise in communicating my understanding of giftedness, in particular of prodigy. That a school should make my site required reading is not only positive feedback for all my efforts - it is something much more important than that: it is an opportunity to reach out to all the children at that school and broaden their perspective on education, its ways, its effects and, most importantly, its opportunities. I espouse a much wider view of giftedness than many do - and perhaps that might be encouraging to some children whose gifts are not necessarily rewarded by a conventional schooling.

To me a gifted child is any child who is better than is usual - at anything. By "anything", I mean anything. There are so many ways in which a human being can be outstanding - and I believe that all of them have their place, in a better human society. Giftedness should never be viewed as something narrow, something purely academic - for that only captures a minority of those who are exceptional. Giftedness, in its truest sense, is the potential to exceed the norm, in any positive way, in any positive endeavour - or attribute. (Sometimes giftedness doesn't have to be exerted, it just is.) Perhaps I will write more of this idea another time...but for now, I would like to welcome the readers from that school - and any other that chooses to reference my blog. Thanks...don't forget to credit any quotes, though, to their writer. (That is the way things are done.)

(IF you would like to read more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and six months, 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.)