The value of educational acceleration.

Yesterday, an article I wrote on the value of educational acceleration was published in The Star newspaper, Malaysia. The article, "Adding value to learning ascent" (the paper's title for it), is self-explanatory. I would, however, welcome any thoughts about it below.

Here it is:

http://thestar.com.my/education/story.asp?file=/2012/9/23/education/12045481&sec=education

For those of you who have access to the physical newspaper, the article is listed under Opinion, in the Star Education pull out section.

Please have a read.

Thanks

Posted by Valentine Cawley

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page.

To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here:http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at:http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is athttp://www.genghiscan.com/This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.) 

NAGCM Forum on Fast Track Kids - my speech.

I gave a speech, as one member of the panel, at the National Association for Gifted Children, Malaysia (NAGCM) forum, at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) on the 28th April 2012. The forum was entitled: "Fast Track Kids: should acceleration be allowed - for whom and why?"

I was the first speaker, since my speech was designed to introduce the issues. Following me was Ms. Kylie Booker, a gifted education teacher, who is Head of the Middle School at the Australian International School Malaysia. Lastly, Master Lucas Teh spoke, a teenager, who started University, locally, in Malaysia at the age of 15.

The forum was very well received, attracting lots of interested questions from the audience and plenty of interaction with the panel. I do believe it was the most well received forum/talk at NAGCM that I have personally witnessed (and I am not saying that just because I was on the panel!). Seriously, I think the topic "hit a nerve" and was really important to the audience, many of whom were parents of gifted children, or adults who had been gifted children themselves.

The text of my speech has been pasted below. I wrote it late the night before the forum, thinking it would be best to have a prepared speech - so it was written in a very short time frame. Therefore, it might not be perfect - but these are the words I spoke. 

Thank you.

The essential problem of giftedness in the modern world.

by Valentine Cawley

The modern world is all about equal opportunity for all. Too often, this is misunderstood to mean the same opportunity for all. What happens, however, when a child is born, who doesn’t slot into the one size fits all education models, most countries offer? Too often, such a child does not, actually, receive an equal opportunity, because such a child is too often given NO opportunity to reach their potential. So, my basic view is that children should be given opportunities to match their potentials. A child of great potential, should be given a different response to a child of average potential. This is not being unfair. This is actually being fair to the talents of both types of children.

Sadly, however, my view is not one shared by governments around the world. Sadly, in fact, governments are busy ensuring that education comes in one cookie cutter variety that is supposed to suit all. This is most dangerous to gifted children, since it cannot possibly meet their needs.

There is another problem. Every education system has budget limitations. It is difficult for them to meet the full needs of ordinary children – how, then to meet the needs of a few special ones, too? In most cases, this is considered impractical, so nothing is done, at all. The gifted children are left to suffer, often excruciating boredom, in the mainstream. Their talents are ignored and their gifts wasted. Education systems generally judge that it is not possible for them to run multiple systems to respond to multiple types of kid, with different intelligence levels – for the moderately gifted, highly gifted, exceptionally gifted and profoundly gifted are all different from each other in their respective needs and abilities. There is a much greater difference between a profoundly gifted child and a highly gifted child, than between a moderately gifted child and an average child. This is too often forgotten. Yet, those education systems that are aware of it think, like Singapore did for our son, that it is too “resource intensive” to do anything about it.

Yet, there is a cost effective answer to this problem. It is an answer that doesn’t require education authorities to spend a single dollar more, than doing nothing at all. That answer is educational acceleration.

Quite simply, acceleration means allowing a child who is younger than the typical age of a class, to join that class, either for isolated subjects, or a whole year. It can mean as moderate an intervention as skipping a year – or a major one like having a primary school kid in tertiary education. In all cases, there is no real additional cost to the system, for allowing this. Yet, it affords the gifted child an opportunity to study at a more appropriate level. It is, therefore, an ideal basic form of educational intervention in the lives of gifted children. It costs nothing, yet has definite benefits to the children so accelerated. Perhaps for the first time in their educational lives, such children may be exposed to material that is sufficiently challenging to interest them. This is a great boon for children who find age lockstep education interminably boring.

Research by Miraca Gross of the University of New South Wales gifted programme, Gerric, has shown that gifted children who are accelerated are better adjusted socially than gifted children who are held back in age lockstep classes. So, the argument that gifted kids should be held back, for social reasons, doesn’t hold water – in fact, it is dangerously wrong.

So, acceleration is beneficial and free for education systems. But what happens in practice?

I would like at this point, to speak of our own experience of acceleration.

Our son, Ainan showed very early scientific promise. He passed O level Chemistry at 7 years and 1 month. So, we expected that the Singaporean education system would allow him to accelerate. However, the response was not what we expected. Ainan was offered one hour a week at a High School in Singapore, for Chemistry, at a level he had already covered. They wouldn’t offer him the only thing we were asking for, which was practical classes – and they wouldn’t give him more than one hour a week. Eventually we managed to get six practical classes out of them. But that was it.

We asked them if he could audit other courses like Maths, at a higher level, because he had shown interest and it was necessary to balance his Chemistry, but they refused, saying he had only proven himself in Chemistry. They wouldn’t even let him sit on a class.

Note throughout this period we were forced to send him to Primary School, on pain of a fine and imprisonment if we didn’t. This was despite the fact that he found primary school a torture beyond belief, so boring was it for him. Yet, there was nothing we could do.

We asked for permission to home school him – but that permission never came. Every time I wrote to them, they would write back saying “We will revert to you, shortly” – but they never did. Months would pass, and I would write to them again – only to receive the same delay tactic reply. Finally, I got to speak to someone in the Compulsory Education Department, which is an oddly named place, for securing homeschooling permission. She would only say: “I cannot give you an answer”.

It was frustrating. So we began to make our own arrangements. It took us 22 months, from the moment we first started looking for a practical class for him, but we found them at Singapore Polytechnic, under his mentor Dr. Ng Kok Chin, who has since sadly passed away of a brain tumour. It shouldn’t have taken so long – but it was a good experience for Ainan.

Note that the educational system did not and would not make this arrangement for us. We had to make it ourselves and it took 22 months of knocking on doors to make it happen. That is a ridiculous waste of time in a young boy’s life and growth. So, the resistance to acceleration, in Singapore, had a really stultifying effect on Ainan’s growth. They basically held him back for almost two years.

That being said, Ainan passed O level Physics and AS level Chemistry in this time, by studying at home.

When Dr. Ng Kok Chin fell ill, Singapore Polytechnic withdrew its support of Ainan. So, it was clear where the support from him had come. Now, Dr. Ng Kok Chin was a Malaysian born Chinese man. That gave us a clue that perhaps Ainan would be better supported in Malaysia. So, we contacted the NAGCM President Zuhairah Ali and asked for her help in securing a University for Ainan. In very short order, she secured Ainan a place and a scholarship at a Malaysian University and we decided to emigrate to support Ainan.

So, here we are now, two years later, and Ainan is enjoying his American Degree Programme at Taylor’s University. Despite Singapore’s belief that he would only be able to handle Chemistry, he has also studied and secured qualifications in Physics, Biology, Economics, Maths, Computer Programming, Computer Animation, English and History as well. So he has become a very well rounded person. In his spare time, he composes music, plays the piano, enjoys computer games, reads humorous books, and most all, plays with his two younger brothers. He is so much richer an individual than Singapore was allowing him to be...and all because we struggled with the system, to secure him educational acceleration.

What would have happened had he not been accelerated?

He would have become completely bored with education, switched off entirely and become a kind of dropout. He would have seemed to have failed – but what really would have happened is that the education system would have failed, not him.

We saved Ainan from this fate, by battling very hard to secure what he needed. Yet, it shouldn’t be a battle. I believe that educational acceleration should be the right of every gifted child who needs it. It should be automatic. It should not need to be fought for. It should be there, for the taking.

Save our gifted kids, from wasting their talents. Allow them to be accelerated appropriately, everywhere in the world. That is the most economical answer as to how to educate gifted kids. Every country can do this, since it costs no more than the education system already spends.

So, I would urge the educational authorities to have a flexible approach to the needs of gifted children and to permit acceleration whenever it is necessary. It costs nothing, yet the pay off can be huge. So, accelerate our gifted kids, please!

Posted by Valentine Cawley

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page.

To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here:http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at:http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is athttp://www.genghiscan.com/This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.) 

NUS High School: the rarity of acceleration.

I have learnt that academic acceleration is practised rarely in Singapore. That is why I had got the impression that it isn't practised at all: one simply did not hear of cases - and what one did hear was that: "Education must be age appropriate."

At the National University of Singapore (NUS) High School for Mathematics and Science there are about six hundred and sixty students, presently, if I recall our conversation with the Principal correctly. Out of those students, only ten are accelerated. All the others are in the year according to their age. That was not a misprint: 10 are accelerated.

Yet, what does this mean? You see, the academic standard required, at any given age, at NUS High is greater than that of other "High Schools", according to the Principal. So, in the sense of the standard of work at a given age, ALL the students at NUS High are accelerated. However, only those ten are officially age accelerated on top of the higher demands of the school.

Ainan would be the only student of his age (seven) to be in the school. As posted on another occasion, it was clear from staff reactions that no other primary school pupils are at NUS High at present.

I will let you know more, when I do. Thanks.

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

The NUS High School meeting.

I met with the Principal of NUS High School, yesterday.

The meeting was several hours long and covered many areas. Ainan and my wife were both present. Apart from ascertaining Ainan's understanding of Chemistry and ability to learn science in general, through questions and posers, in areas old and areas new - including Physics (which he solved, without prior knowledge, thankfully), we discussed much of what could and could not be done for Ainan.

There is much I cannot say, at this stage, for I do not want to prejudice matters moving forward. Yet I do wish to raise certain concerns. Firstly, they have never had a child of Ainan's age before - and do not have any prior experience with this degree of precocity. He gave examples of highly precocious children who have begun to deal with material of a comparable level, from the maths discipline (they have no other scientific prodigies, at all) - but these were all twelve or thirteen years old, or more. Ainan is almost twice as precocious as the next most precocious children, therefore.

Throughout the discussions with the Gifted Education Branch the word "flexibility" has been used, and another phrase: "No barriers". I felt, in the meeting, that the Principal was not entirely comfortable with these requirements. He spoke, instead, of "no exemptions", "no exceptions", and said things like: "If we do that for one, they will all want it". His reasoning was not, therefore, consonant with what I had been led to expect was the procedure. There are, therefore, tensions in the system over how to handle a child such as Ainan. There is little or no experience of children like Ainan - and little or no willingness to make the range of accommodations that would be necessary to create an ideal situation.

I got the impression that it was very much that Ainan was expected to adjust himself to fit in, and that adjustments would not be made to fit him, better. The system would not alter: the occupant of the system must. This attitude does not take into account his age.

So, although as you may have read in the previous posts the NUS High School presents opportunities to secure a degree, and a broad education, it also presents problems that will need to be overcome.

He expressed doubts about Ainan using the labs. He made it clear that he wanted Ainan to "go slow". He spoke of a six year course. All of these things do not take into account Ainan's individuality or his particular ability to learn very fast. The picture he mapped out for Ainan, basically does not seem to understand the degree of precocity exhibited or its full implications for an appropriate education.

The most worrying thing he said was that: "I don't want his chemistry to get too far ahead of the other things." This shows a particular failure to understand the nature of prodigy - who always have a very strong peak, along with whatever other talents they have. He seemed to be saying that it was better to impede his progress in Chemistry than let it race ahead of everything. That is not the right thing to do at all. What would be better is to give him opportunities to bring everything else up to the standard of his Chemistry - which could be done in a few months, with access to good teachers. I suggested it. His response: "I don't have the resources...and I have six hundred other students, too." The implication was clear: why should I do that for him, and not for them?

He made it clear that no individualization would occur to accommodate the presence of Ainan, despite the fact that he would be about half the age of their youngest students.

He did judge, though, at the end, that Ainan was the best scientific mind he had ever met for a Primary student, there being no other in his knowledge, as precocious. Perhaps he should think on that, for a while, and understand that, as I said to him at the end: "An exceptional situation requires an exceptional response." I wasn't sure he liked the sound of that. It was something he could agree with, I think, logically, but not temperamentally.

However, the meeting was a productive one. I got to understand more of what was on offer: to gain an initial perception of the problems and possibilities it presented. None of the problems are insurmoutable - if there is the will to overcome them. My main remnant worry is that I am not sure that that will is there. The possibilities, however, if the problems are overcome, are great. Ainan could finally have access to the educational opportunities he needs.

NUS High School, Singapore: what is it?

NUS High School, Singapore is rather different from what I had understood. It is not just a High School, but a closet University, too.

Let me explain. NUS High School for Maths and Science (to give it, its proper title) was established by the National University of Singapore (NUS), to foster excellence in maths and science and to cater for the best students in the country, in these areas. It provides a wide, modular curriculum covering Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Art, History, Geography, Music, Astronomy, Robotics, Languages and other subjects, too. The student is required to pick and choose within credit requirements in each area. As I understand it, this is probably why it is called a "High School" - for modular credit based systems are an American standard, as I understand it (correct me if I am wrong). As students progress through what is normally a six year course, the preponderance of maths and science grows, and that of humanities diminishes. In this, it is unlike a traditional American High School, in that the outcome is predetermined, to a degree: the assumption is a specialization in science, and this is built into the structure of the place.

Yet, there are differences between this school and a traditional American High School. NUS High School acts as a junior department of the National University of Singapore, itself. It does this through a facility that I was unaware of until the interview, today (which I should discuss in a different post). NUS High School allows its pupils to take modules from the National University of Singapore, itself. These modules can be used in two ways: one, is as credit towards the NUS High School Diploma; the other is as credit towards...you guessed it...a B.Sc (Bachelor of Science) Degree from the National University of Singapore (NUS).

This option of taking modules from the University is not restricted in scope, at all. In fact, ANY module at the National University of Singapore, may be taken while a person is a student at NUS High School. This means that a student of NUS High can build up credits towards a Degree at the National University of Singapore, as much as they like. Indeed, there is only one thing that I was informed of that prevents dual graduation (that is simultaneous graduation from the High School and the University): there is presently a blanket one year minimum residential requirement, for all students, at the National University of Singapore. That could be a stumbling block: how would Ainan cope with living in University residences, as a child, among adults? There could be all sorts of problems there. I can only hope for an exception on that one, I think.

So, there is a seamless transition between NUS High School and the National University of Singapore: they are, in essence, part of the same greater organization. This is news to me. I had not known that they were one in anything other than name.

Thus, on taking up a place at NUS High, Ainan, seven, would, in due course, be able to take University courses, in a modular fashion, towards his first degree. This gives me hope that arrangements can be made for him to study new material at his level, which would further his interest and understanding.

Perhaps everything will work out.

(If you would like to read more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and three months, and 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 child prodigy, gifted education, IQ, intelligence, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Comparative education: Singapore "High Schools"

In America, "High School" has a certain meaning and a certain range of connotations. Americans know what High School is: they have been there and have gathered together certain impressions and assumptions. This understanding, however, will lead to misunderstanding of the present situation.

You see, Singapore is influenced by its colonial origins. Its education is largely patterned on the UK model of O levels, A levels and specialized single subject degrees. This is not the American system. Therefore, when I used the term "High School" yesterday, it had a different meaning from what an American would understand a High School to be. Secondary Schools in Singapore, as they are more commonly known, follow a narrower base of subjects, at a higher level than any given age in the American system. What this means is that, by the end of secondary education in Singapore (a stage normally called Junior College here), a student will have reached a higher standard than would be attained in a US High School. However, it should be remembered that this higher benchmark would be in a narrower range of subjects than in the US.

For reasons I do not yet fully know, the school which is being considered for Ainan: The National University of Singapore High School for Maths and Science, otherwise known as the NUS High School for Maths and Science, is called a High School. That is odd in the Singapore landscape: for other schools do not have this title. I will learn why on Friday, I suppose.

Anyway, given the influence of the UK system on the educational practices of Singapore, this NUS High School will reach higher standards than an American High School would, at the same age. Thus it is not a comparable situation. The level of demand on Ainan, seven, would be higher than if he were in an American High School. In Singapore, students take A levels at eighteen. As I have noted before, it was said of this exam, when I was a child, that the standard was so high that it was like taking an American college degree. That is the context in which NUS High School is embedded.

I will learn more tomorrow of what the place is about. One thing should be noted, however: NUS High School is a specialist centre for the mathematically and scientifically gifted. Therefore, Ainan would be among many gifted students - who are more than twice his age. That should be an interesting experience. I hope it is a good one, and that they welcome him. We will see.

(If you would like to read more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, seven years and three months, a scientific child prodigy, 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, child prodigy, IQ, intelligence, child genius, adult genius, baby genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

"Radical acceleration", that isn't.

Here is the latest in the Gifted Education Programme saga, that has been unfolding on these pages.

The Gifted Education Branch now wishes to "radically accelerate" Ainan, my scientific child prodigy son, aged seven years and three months. He is presently in Primary 2, which is his age class. However, the decision has been made to "twin" him with a high school for science.

There are two high schools under consideration and the decision will be made based on timetabling. One of the schools specializes in science and maths and would, I think, be the best choice, from that point of view. We will see.

I have one concern though. Although it may seem to be "radical acceleration" to place a seven year old in high school, it wouldn't actually be acceleration at all - but a kind of deceleration. You see, Ainan has already studied the curriculum that he would be required to study at the high school. Thus he would be covering again what he already knows. I puzzle at this. I raised the matter with the Gifted Education Branch Officer and was told that: "Gifted education is not just about content, there are other factors..." she then went on to say something that completely eluded my comprehension and thus recall. I am accustomed to this in speaking with her - because there is something in me that only accepts statements that are reasonable. Apparently, content of the lessons is not the primary consideration with "radical acceleration".

I think they are being conservative, in a way, because of his age. He would be among people more than twice his age...and I think they feel that that is enough of a gap to begin with. So, they have decided upon this strange kind of social acceleration/academic deceleration as a first step. I am not sure it is the best one. I told them that Ainan would be bored with repeating a curriculum he has already covered...but this remark, as usual, was not entirely absorbed. There is hope though: once he has begun to accelerate, perhaps he will be allowed to move to a level that actually offers him something new, in due course. Whatever level that might be.