The secret of being good at Science.

Ainan is becoming pithy in his remarks, these days. He has a growing tendency to summarize his thought, in catchy sentences. I see this as an emergent writer, in him, expressing his customary thoughts, in more elegant ways.

A couple of weeks ago, he observed to me:

“In science, the answer is easy, it is the question that is hard.”

I thought this both truthful and well-expressed, for it embodied one of the secrets of being a good scientist: the truly rare ability is not to be able to answer questions put to you, but to be able to ask questions no-one else had thought of doing so. In short, Ainan was noting that the real genius of science, is in the question. Relatively few people understand this. In popular culture it is the kid who has all the answers, who is revered as a “genius”. What they don’t realize is that the real genius is the kid who asks questions no-one else had thought of.

I like the way Ainan is developing. In his early days it did seem that he might end up very focussed on one thing: Chemistry. I thought, at the time, that that would be rather limiting. Yet, now, it seems, he is developing more in the model of my own life: growing in many areas, at once and becoming distinctly multi-talented. This is much more healthy I feel. It will also give him many more options, in life, for what he might choose to do, professionally. I think this is likelier to lead to personal fulfilment, than only have one area to “choose” from.

Ainan’s remark calls to mind when he was between four and six. In this time, he was filled with questions – sometimes unanswerable ones. For me, this avalanche of insightful questions was an irrefutable indicator that a very special thinker was growing behind his curious eyes. As Ainan himself has now noted, it was his QUESTIONS, that I found most startling, not the fact that he was able to answer those put to him. Each question is a creative act, for it involves looking at the world and finding something missing: understanding of some aspect, or phenomenon. To ask the right questions, first one must be able to see the world as it is and note what cannot be immediately explained within common knowledge. In so doing, one finds questions that others had overlooked. Yet, the foundation of this is first to see the world truly as it is and not as it is supposed to be – and that is an art many never master. Perhaps some children are inherently good at it, not yet having been indoctrinated into a particular world view and so more able to see what is truly there and, therefore, to wonder about it, as it is and ask why it should be.

Perhaps to make a good scientist, one just has to preserve the child within and see all as it is, and not as common culture wishes it to be seen.

Posted by Valentine Cawley

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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.) 

The End of the Universe.

Yesterday, Tiarnan, five, asked an unsettling question of his mother.

"What happens after the end of the Universe?", he enquired, with a somewhat serious voice. It clearly bothered him.

Now, his mother, Syahidah is an artist, not a cosmologist, so she didn't really have any ready or satisfying answers. However, his question surprised her for another reason altogether: for she, too, had asked the very same question, as a child of much the same age as Tiarnan. It was almost as if the query was embedded in her DNA and passed on to him, marked "Unanswered concern", for the next generation to solve.

The big question here is why does a five year old ask such a question? We have no TV in the house, only DVDs. He has not been exposed to any programmes on cosmology or astronomy. This question emerges from his own thought, therefore. He has clearly looked at the world and come to the conclusion that, one day, it would end. Then, having so concluded that even the Universe must die one day, he asked the next question: what would follow the death of the Universe?

These seem rather deep and troubling questions for a mere five year old to be asking. At times, it seems that the littlest people have the biggest thoughts, because they trouble themselves to ask the questions, that adults have long ago stopped thinking about. Perhaps it is because children are inexperienced enough to think that, by asking such questions, they might readily find answers, whereas adults develop an instinct for identifying questions that are, to them, unanswerable and so don't even ask them in the first place. All in all, it makes young children, sometimes, more interesting company, than adults - for they have tendency to ask questions that adults would not. Sometimes, even more interestingly, they answer them.

I shall have a chat with Tiarnan about the Universe and try to give him some understanding of the scale of it, the age of it and how much time there is yet to come. I have a feeling though that even these vast spans of time, will not reassure him about his essential point: the Universe, like all that lives, is mortal.

It seems that Tiarnan is not just concerned with death, but with the biggest Death of all - the end of everything. What a big concern, for so little a boy. I am led to wonder if he is going to make a lifelong habit of such questions. I wonder, further, whether he will make a career of answering them.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

A few days ago, Tiarnan, four, looked seriously at his mother. There was a question in his eyes.

"What do you want to be when you grow up, Mummy?"

She could have laughed, but she didn't. The surprise of the question, silenced her, for a moment. Tiarnan leapt into that moment.

"Will you be my mummy?"

"Yes, Tiarnan.", she smiled, the kind of smile that one is generally unaware of - one made whilst focussed on something else: in this case, Tiarnan himself.

"What do you want to be Tiarnan, when you grow up?" she said, not answering his question, but posing her own.

"Carnage!", he said, immediately imagining himself as this powerful superhero - supervillain, actually.

She laughed, because little Tiarnan is about as far as one could imagine from the fearsome Carnage, character. He is Spiderman's most powerful adversary, and has greater strength and reflexes than Spiderman, though without his enhanced senses.

Syahidah didn't know how to take Tiarnan's question, which is why she didn't really answer it, for him. Was it because Tiarnan thinks she looks very young? Is it because she is much smaller than his Daddy, so he might think that she has some "growing up" to do? She didn't know - and has yet to find out. Perhaps that will be the tale of another post.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 6 and Tiarnan, 4, this month, 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.

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 at http://www.genghiscan.com/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)