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The boy who knew too much: a child prodigy

This is the true story of scientific child prodigy, and former baby genius, Ainan Celeste Cawley, written by his father. It is the true story, too, of his gifted brothers and of all the Cawley family. I write also of child prodigy and genius in general: what it is, and how it is so often neglected in the modern world. As a society, we so often fail those we should most hope to see succeed: our gifted children and the gifted adults they become. Site Copyright: Valentine Cawley, 2006 +

Saturday, February 06, 2010

A mathematical wit.

Yesterday, something happened that has never happened to me, before, in my life. It came upon me totally unexpectedly, and was something I could never have imagined happening, in my life. Indeed, even now that it has happened, I find it difficult to believe that such a thing is possible, yet know it was, because I witnessed it.

I was sitting, yesterday, talking to Ainan. Suddenly, as of some inner impulse, he picked up a pencil and started scrawling mathematical symbols, in a book.

It soon became clear that he was scribbling a mathematical proof. I looked carefully at what he wrote, to follow his line of reasoning. Finally, he scribbled his very last symbol and pulled his pencil back from the page. I read what he had written and then, I was ambushed, by an overwhelming sense of the absurdity of what he had done. I laughed explosively, for perhaps twenty long seconds. What he had written was so surprising, yet so obviously true, that I could not help but laugh. Ainan had done something I didn't know was possible: he had made a mathematical proof, HUMOUROUS. I could not have conceived that it was possible for maths to make me laugh - but he had done it. He had written a mathematical joke and proven, beyond doubt, what he had set out to prove, in a way that was outrageously funny.

Now, I know how some of you would like me to share his proof and join in the laughter - but I think I should leave it for him, to share, when he chooses to, in his own way. It was his creation...so I feel I should not write of it, but let him do so, in time.

It was an illuminating moment though. It showed me another side to his thinking. He is able to see humour even in maths. This expands his range of humour further still, since it became clear years ago, that he could make scientific jokes. Now, he had made a mathematical one.

For me, this means that he is thinking very fluidly and seeing possibilities that others might never do. He takes the possibilities and points to their unexpected presence and so creates a moment of insight and a burst of laughter, as one comes to see what he has seen. He is, if you like, a humourist of enlightenment.

My laughter had barely settled, from his mathematical joke, before he made another one: this time, it was the plot of a story he is writing that made me laugh. It was so wonderfully absurd - yet scientifically based - that prolonged laughter was the only viable choice - and I chose it.

I am coming to see that Ainan has a creative insight that opens up many potentials. It takes, I rather think, a significant degree of creativity, originality and insight, to see humour in what to most, are dry topics: science and mathematics. Yet, on Ainan's tongue, they become subject matters of a surreal wit. It is, I must say, quite a revelation.

I have always enjoyed my scientific chats with him. Now, however, I have something else to look forward to: the comic interludes, he sometimes chooses to turn them into.

(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.)

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posted by Valentine Cawley @ 2:19 AM  8 comments

Wednesday, February 03, 2010

The new "average".

Today, I invited Ainan to read an online newspaper article about another child prodigy - this being one who had achieved much, at a very young age, in some cases breaking world records, but who was now a grown adult, living a successful life.

Ainan looked at the article, with, to my amazement, what seemed like growing puzzlement.

After he had read enough to know what it was about, he looked up at me, with a frown.

"Why are you asking me to read this?", he began.

It was not clear to me why he would not know.

"What is special about this person?", he continued, his puzzlement lending his tongue some momentum. "They sound perfectly average to me."

It hit me, then, in an instant. To Ainan, the life story of a child prodigy, filled with what, to others, are amazing feats, is a perfectly ordinary thing. To him, nothing could be more ordinary than growing up as a prodigious child. Nothing a child prodigy did - nothing no child prodigy has ever done - could possibly impress Ainan as being unusual because he, himself, has lived and is living such a life.

It was my turn to wonder. I saw then, how Ainan sees the world. For him, the extraordinary, is "perfectly average" and unworthy of remark or record. I wondered, too, what the ordinary person must seem like to him, when the most extraordinary prodigies, seem "perfectly average", to him. He must, at times, wonder at many of his fellow human beings, wondering why they are the way they are - and how it must be, to be like them. This is a matter, however, which I have never raised with him, since I think it a dangerous topic. But then, again, his little remark, today, told me much of what his perspective must be.

As he grows to adulthood, he will have to search far and wide, to find his intellectual counterparts. Hopefully, he will work in some area in which they are concentrated, then it will not be so difficult to find people who can satisfy any need he may have, for intellectual companionship. Yet, it might be a difficult task, in some ways, when the most prodigious are seen as "perfectly average".

There are many challenges for a young prodigy. Today, unknowingly, Ainan identified one of them. Now, of course, I have to think what to do about it. It won't be easy.

(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.)

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posted by Valentine Cawley @ 5:41 PM  42 comments

A love of Art.

Popular Bookstore is a chain present in both Singapore and Malaysia. It tends to stock academic books for schoolchildren and a reasonable - though restricted - range of general reading material. Today, in a Popular Bookstore, in KL, I noted something most telling. I saw a book section I have never seen in the corresponding stores in Singapore. Now can you guess what it was? What kind of section could a Malaysian bookstore have, that its Singaporean counterparts don't have?

Have you had a good think? Well, to my astonishment, today, I saw a "Drawing" section, in the Malaysian Popular Bookstore. That gave me pause, for it was not a small section: it consisted of two whole bookshelves, perhaps three to four metres wide and one and a half metres high, in total, carrying nothing but books on the art of drawing: how to do it, what it is, and how you can learn. There were books on particular types of drawing: portraits, fantasy figures and so on. I was, in an instant, most impressed by what it said of the country I am now living in. It says, quite clearly, that there are enough people in KL interested in learning how to draw, for it to be profitable for a general bookstore like Popular, to carry such specialized titles.

Yet, and this was the most telling part of all, I had never seen a similar section in Singapore's Popular bookstores - though I have been in many of them, many times.

One can conclude from this that Malaysians are rather more artistically inclined, than their Singaporean counterparts, for no bookstore is going to waste shelf space on things which don't sell enough to justify it.

Perhaps, pragmatic Singaporeans don't see the value in art, so much, because they cannot see how it connects to their life value of accumulating money as rapidly as possible. Since art seems distant from this, they are less drawn to it...excuse the pun.

As for me: I like art and artists and think that it is an eminently worthy pursuit, even if it never results in great personal wealth, or even a decent living: it is the art itself that counts.

I find it refreshing that an ordinary bookstore would actually pay such heed to drawing. There is, I think, more depth to this nation, than one might first grasp. No doubt there are more clues out there, waiting to be seen.

I will let you know when I spot one.

(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.)

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posted by Valentine Cawley @ 12:57 AM  7 comments

Monday, February 01, 2010

A need to understand art.

There is, I feel, a need to better understand art and the artist, in Malaysia. I have in mind one particular art - that of film-making. It is clear that, the powers that be, have an incomplete understanding of how this artform is created and what input the director makes. I shall explain.

Recently, Malaysia declared that it was going to change the law of censorship on film-making. In the future, films would no longer be subject to censorship after they were made - ie. which scenes would need to be cut, or altered in some way - no, soon films would be censored BEFORE they were made. I thought this both incredibly dangerous and motivated by a misunderstanding of how films are made.

Firstly, the danger is that films will be prevented from production, or have their scripts so forcibly altered that they lose some essential artistic or creative point that the director and writer were trying to make. This can weaken films considerably and push them over the edge into becoming failures as art, or even as items of commerce: it can destroy a film, to cut it, too much.

Secondly, this new initiative ignores the fact that the director has considerable input as to how a scene is rendered: something that seems offensive to sensitivities at the stage of the script (the new stage at which it would be cut), might, actually, once made, be done with taste and respect for the sensitivities of the public - it might, in actual fact, LOSE ITS OFFENSIVENESS, in the process of being filmed. It is impossible for the film censors to second guess the intention and viewpoint of the director. They cannot determine at the stage of the script whether a particular scene is going to offend or not, until it has actually been filmed and edited for viewing.

I understand why the censors might wish to edit at the stage of the script. They might feel it saves everyone time all around. A quick read of the script and they can prevent many days of film making time being wasted filming something which they would cut out, anyway. However, as I have pointed out, it is wrong-headed to jump to conclusions about what a film will look like, once shot, from the very preliminary stage of a script: much happens between script and cinema release, much that can completely change the character of what is seen.

I admit that I am somewhat puzzled that they wish to change a system of post filming, censorship, to one of pre-filming censorship. I am puzzled because it introduces an unnecessary inhibitory force into the film-making. It means that films will be stalled that would not have offended at all, had they actually been made - because the director would have made changes between script and film.

This failing of understanding about how films are made and how fluid the process is, is, no doubt, not restricted to Malaysia, but this is the first time I have personally noted this type of censorship in place. Perhaps it exists elsewhere, but, in reality, it should exist nowhere. It inhibits creativity and cannot be good for the nation of Malaysia, in any way. Yes, it will ensure that offensive films are never made - but, and this is a big but, it will also ensure that films that would NEVER HAVE BEEN offensive, once made, would have cuts made to them, that could be to the detriment of the artistic process and resultant films. This can only harm Malaysian film.

I do not know when these changes are to be implemented - but perhaps a rethink might be in order. Perhaps the fact that directors often make considerable changes from what is written on the page, should be taken into consideration and this new policy scrapped.

Then again, there is another reason why censorship should only come AFTER the film is made. That is because directors DO make considerable changes. Thus, a film which is NOT offensive on the page, could BECOME offensive, in the act of filming. Thus, censoring at the script stage makes NO SENSE AT ALL. It would mean that films that would have been inoffensive, get censored - and films that looked inoffensive on the page, get made and become offensive by the time they reach the screen.

The only time that makes logical sense to exert censorship is after the film has been shot and edited and is ready to present for screening. At this point, the film should be viewed and any sensitive scenes reviewed, cut or edited once more. Any other policy is built on a lack of insight into the film making process.

I hope, therefore, that those in charge of this new initiative will take heed and implement a censorship process that pays heed to the realities of film-making.


(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.)

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posted by Valentine Cawley @ 2:23 PM  0 comments

Sunday, January 31, 2010

On my blogging regularity

Accessing the internet, from Malaysia, has certain quirks. Sometimes, I just can't do it.

I have both a Maxis connection and a Streamyx connection. I must say that, of the two of them, the Maxis connection is better. However, both have a problem. Sometimes common sites display broken links. By this I mean that it is not possible, often for hours or a day or so, at a time, to connect to particular sites. These are sites as well known as yahoo.com and blogspot.com. This means that sometimes, I can't check my mail. It also means that not infrequently, I cannot post to blogger, when I wish to. Thus, please be patient if I haven't blog posted for a while. It could be that I am not able to from my computer. This phenomenon has, in fact, prevented me from posting on several days, now.

So, my intention is to post regularly. However, this may not be possible, at times. So, just check back another time. The post will come eventually.

Thank you.


(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.)

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posted by Valentine Cawley @ 10:12 PM  2 comments

The impossibility of Truth.

It is a very strange thing, to be known, by those we do not know. However, we are. There are many people in the world, who think they know about us. I have seen them comment on blogs and in the odd forum, as if they truly know us. Their words are written with certainty and argued authoritatively. Funny enough, at times, they have even argued with me, against my own view of myself – as if I, of all people, would not be in a position to know my own life, well. The oddest thing about all of this, however, is how often those who write of us are wrong about us – and odder still, just how wrong they are.

There are many reasons why they are wrong. One of the primary reasons is that the Singaporean media has been lying about us. Thus, people living in Singapore, or who read Singapore’s newspapers online, have picked up misinformation calculated, by the state of Singapore, to diminish us, and elevate themselves. It is state propaganda designed to “build the nation” and disparage anyone perceived as a threat – apparently us. Thus, in some cases, it is not the fault of the forum commenters that they are wrong about us – because they have been lied to, and chosen to believe the lies.

There are other reasons, too, why people are misinformed about us. One big reason is that many bloggers and forum commenters simply make things up. They lie, from their own motives, about us. They add details which have no correspondence in reality. They make assumptions which are simply not true. They even create arguments to try to prove their erroneous viewpoints, drawing on “evidence” which more often than not, is itself not true, either. Some even lie about knowing us or our family personally – yet reveal themselves to be liars, in this respect, even if anonymous, because their “information” is so far wrong that it could not possibly have come from anyone who genuinely knows us. Once, someone even claimed, online, to have been Ainan’s personal tutor for his Chemistry O level – when, in fact, he has NEVER HAD A TUTOR. It is quite astonishing what some people say.

Basically, there are a lot of liars on the net – and a lot of lies, too. Some of the lies are faithfully retold, by innocent parties, who genuinely believe them to be true. Some lies, however, originate with the commenter and are mischievously invented. Whichever type of lie it is, they are damaging in the sense that they obscure the truth. We become forever less accurately known. Who we really are, becomes successively more obscured, by the fibs floating around. Ultimately, we become lost to view, who we are, forever unknowable by anyone who doesn’t actually know us.

Now, why does this concern me? Well, because I think it important that the public image, reflects an underlying truth. If the public image is commandeered by those with an agenda designed to confuse it, obscure it, or diminish it, then people come to believe that we are, who we are not. This, I think, is perilous. For what would happen, one day, should Ainan continue to be interested in science and should he continue to develop as he is? Well, the time may come when he is a successful, perhaps influential adult scientist. His work might become substantial and respected. He might even become someone of whom a biography might one day be written. That day, is a dangerous day, given the obscuration of the truth on the net. For what would inform that biography? Would the biographer dig back into the internet past and discover a lot of misinformation? It may come to be that lies become committed to paper as biographical history. It may one day be, that those lies become the official record. Ainan’s life might forever be known, by tales first imagined on some blogger’s page, or forum commenters mischievous comment. That would, I feel, be a pity. It would be a great shame if Ainan were one day to be “known” on the basis of officially believed and recognized misinformation. Yet, what can we do to prevent this? It seems that there is little to be done, except what I am doing: telling our tale, daily, on this blog, as it truly is, and not as some people might have you believe it to be. I hope that it is enough. I hope that biographers are wise enough to ignore the nonsense on the net and listen preferentially to those who actually know what they are talking about.

Indeed, the truth is so different at times, from the opinions and views and “facts” voiced on the internet that it seems to me that, at this time, there is only one possible source for a biography that would have any hope of being true – and that is ourselves. Any other source, would just be a compendium of misinformation, mischievous lies, mistaken gossip – and state propaganda. The truth of Ainan would be completely lost beneath the weight of utter nonsense.

Come to think of it, it will probably always be true that the only source of reliable information, will be ourselves. Any source removed from us is, more often than not, either misunderstanding the situation, guessing, or, quite simply, making it all up.

This experience has taught me to be wary of the public information on public figures. I am sure, given our experience, that much of what we think we “know” about public figures is total nonsense. Our understanding of these people, is informed by a lot of misinformation – some deliberate, some otherwise. In fact, I am of the view, now, that we don’t KNOW any of these public figures, at all. We only think we know. Our consumption of the media, has given us the delusion that we think we know these people, that we have some understanding of their lives. However, I am sure that this is not so. They will not be, in any case, as we imagine them to be. Sure, we will know some core events in their lives – but much of what we think we know, will be untrue. Thus, the overall picture of any public figure, will be essentially false.

That is, I think, an important insight. We would all do well, to bear it in mind, whenever we read of a public figure. What we think we know, may actually be nothing more than a myth, spread by the mischievous, or those who have innocently misunderstood. We should, therefore, sift carefully what we read and test it for likelihood, and consistency with all we think we know about that person. There will be some truths in there somewhere. The only problem is that there will be a lot of lies, too. The trick is to distinguish the two, and come to one’s own, genuine understanding of the public figure. Alternatively, we can safely assume that what we read of them, is nothing but amusing fiction and treat it all as a good story.

As for us: I will continue to write this blog and try to put our view across. I can only hope that people are wise enough to realize that our source is the only one that actually knows of what it speaks. Everyone else is largely guessing, making it up or spinning propaganda. At the very best, everyone else’s information is secondhand. At the worst, it is a carefully crafted lie. Personally, I know which source, in the circumstances I would go to. I hope you do, too.

(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.)

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posted by Valentine Cawley @ 12:44 PM  2 comments

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