Child genius???!!!

[Calista]

Just found this post on another website..
What do you think?

I was at Uni when Ruth Lawrence was there (same college) and she always looked so miserable. Never saw her at social stuff. Definitely not the place to be if you're not old enough to drink!

Hatter, I had a very similar 'run in' with a careers officer. I was called in and yelled at because I hadn't applied for a poly as a 'fall back' (her words not mine btw). I explained that there was not point as I had already been offered 2 E grades so a poly couldn't offer lower grades than that. She sneared at me and said 'Well, who would offer you two E's' The answer shut her up! Silly bitch. She used to tell all the boys over 5 foot 10 to join the police!

I was at oxford at the same time as you Yoyo, different college tho. I remember seeing her and her dad on a tandem ffs!

I was never sure if her Dad actually attended lectures/tutorials with her - how inhibiting must that have been? Read an article about her some time ago and she had a baby (babies?) and seemed really happy.

She is a mother and is living, I think, on a kibbutz. She teaches maths. Not only did she get her maths degree, she also go a degree in physics from the then Oxford Polytechnic, at the same time.

so how old would she be now then? I remember reading about her when she was first in the news

According to her cv she was born in 1971

news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/4/newsid_2492000/2492853.stm

for more info

Like jimjams I'd be worried if this was my dd. My own dd is, I think, 'advanced' with her language. At 2 she says incredible things to us and the things she remembers blow us away. But I would never think of her as a 'genius' or as anything other than a child whose chosen to put a lot of energy into language right now.

I remember meeting a little girl who was about 13 months when dd was very small and she was saying things like 'ooh mummy look at those lovely bricks' and 'what's the story ballamory' in a very strange monotone voice. Well it turns out that now at 3.5 she's stopped talking at all and is probably on the autistic spectrum. So it's a mixed blessing if this little child is as the parent describes her to be ...

Part of me thinks it's a load of baloney though ...

It's likely that having an extremely high IQ is as much of a social handicap as having an extremely low one. Anyone too far away from the norm is more likely to have problems.

I think to be as advanced so young is possible, but extremely rare. More likely someone is overstating their childs abilities for whatever reason.

Yoyo you went to the same college as me then (although Ruth Lawrence had left the year before I started after a stint as a tutor). I heard her dad was banned from JCR meetings.... I think she's happy as a mum now (and does a bit of academic work on the side- but not high powered stuff I read somewhere).

Jimjams - off the point of this thread but just wondered when you left? I left in 1990 - were you there when the old bar was still going or did you only experience the posh one? Our paths might have crossed at some point.

Interesting reading your postings. Were you considered very bright as a toddler/child too?

Oh we were there at the same time! (89-92) and oh yes I was in the old bar days Used to love arriving back at 2am thinking "hmm what shall I do now? I know go to the bar". I can't remember when it got that naughty- maybe 91? All got very sensible once taken out of student control (well kind of)

DH was there as well.....

I wasn't considered particularly bright I don't think- don't know to be honest - was never my family's thing. I never considered myself bright - was just good at exams. In fact when the school suggested applying I thought they were joking, hadn't occured to me.

Lots of bar memories flooding back now.

snap about not being considered particuarly bright, jimjams, or considering myself to be. I am really proud of what I've achieved, but in a totally personal way (and in the same way that I'm proud of my family). And my teachers strongly advised me not to apply as they weren't sure I would be able to cope with going through life feeling I was a failure for not getting in!

Jimjams - vv weird as my DH helped to run the bar in its dying days and I'm sure would have served you. God it's a small world.

Oh definitely- was your dh a graduate student? There were 2- one I knew pretty well- and via other people as well - he would remember me (and dh) the other I knew less well, and he wouldn't remember me although would have known me at the time.....

Jimjams - my DH was the miserable b***d (his words) with the short hair.

lol- I know who he is Arts postgrad iirc (English??) . But he won't remember me- I knew the one with long hair well (partly because he was friends with someone in my lab when I was doing my PhD).

So at some stage when you were there the bar must have been run by Phil??? There must be lots of people we both know.

Yep, that's the one! So did you do your PhD there too or was it just a coincidence that you ended up working alomgside Warren's friend?

My DH got his PhD in '96 - the year that our DD1 was born. The free-flowing alcohol in the bar slowed things down a bit methinks.

Don't remember a Phil - I lived out though so visits to bar in college days were few and far between or rather hazy. Do remember a heavy stint in The Eagle and Child followed by some raucous games down there though.

No- went to Japan for a year afterwards then onto York for PhD. I was quite friendly with Warren anyway (as was dh) and then it was just conincidence that his friend was in my lab.

Dh has some bar photos- will have to look and see if your DH is in any. I know there's one of Warren.

Happy days

Come to think of it so have we! We got married in '92 and DH had a bit of a send off in the bar - we've got some inscribed tankards somewhere!