The influence of school on children.

School has many and various influences on children, quite obviously. Some of those influences are quite unexpected.

A couple of days ago, Fintan was looking a bit downcast.

He approached his mother.

"What can I do to make lots of money?" He began, intensely. "What am I GOOD at?", he inquired, emphatically.

Syahidah was quite startled to see the weight of the world on her son's shoulders so. It seemed that he had been listening to the talk of his fellow students in kindergarten - and their topic of conversation had been money and its making - at least, that is the only way we can think of, to explain his sudden interest in the issue of money, when he is just five years old.

It is very telling that the values of the society that we live in - Singapore - are imparted to the children, so young. It shocks me somewhat that at just five years old, Fintan should already have picked up on the Singaporean obsession with making as much money as possible. It seemed out-of-place on his tongue - most disconcerting, in fact, to hear him say such a thing. A child should not be concerned about the world of finance: that should be a distant matter that they will grow into as adults. Unfortunately, in Singapore, money appears to be something spoken of in kindergarten, as the little kids echo their parents' conversations and concerns.

I find it most odd, however.

(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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