Child Genius anyone??

[Allthingspretty]

should be interesting

Maybe the knowing stuff will develop into doing stuff as they get older? I wonder if the knowing stuff is just the only way they can measure intelligence at the age they are?

I suppose so. I just know that my ordinarily bright 12 year old could learn all those spellings if the incentive was right! There's no reasoning, or creative thinking called for at all, is there? "Here is a list of words- learn them"

I can't link because of iPhone confusion ..... But you're right Curlew: if you google 7 types of intelligence you'll see knowing facts is just part of being intelligent. Emotional intelligence, spatial awareness, and so on should be as lauded.

Interesting article, not sure I agreed with it all though, maybe we see different things when watching this programme.

But, you would have to be a very pushy parent to even put your child in for child genius of the year. Some of those children were without question hothoused to an inch of their lives, and some of the children will show willingness because they are getting time with a parent and will feel special. Yet we hear of previous genius children who have crashed when they become adults, and that is what I would be worried about, and I still feel that this is more about the parents rather than the children.

Also within that article it is said that these children are autistic, or savants (personal knowledge of that one with my own father), if the parents havent disclosed ASD then a little unfair for a critic to diagnose.

as a parent of a child who is on the spectrum whenever he has shown bad manners, been rude to people I have dealt with it - and whilst it has taken some time, he knows that this is not acceptable. Yes he also has learning difficulties and therefore not in the same bracket as Hugo and the others, but there is no excuse for bad manners

Exactly - a child can be taught not to say things thay may hurt others' feelings. They might not really understand 'why" telling someone the truth as you see it as 'bad' but can learn that this isn't what you do. If a child isn't taught this and endulged (or egged on) then what do you expect?

I don't want to be in their shoes when they are old and dothery and he is considering their care home options.

I suppose so. I just know that my ordinarily bright 12 year old could learn all those spellings if the incentive was right! There's no reasoning, or creative thinking called for at all, is there? "Here is a list of words- learn them"

Yes, I thought this too. That's why I liked Shrinidhi, because she seemed to have a bit more about her than just knowing stuff. She had a genuine love of language, and an enthusiasm that you couldn't create through hot-housing.

He`ll put them in with the common people he looks down on so much no doubt, and his mum will still smile like a sap!

For whomever asked about Hugo's dad, Google shows that he is a Geologist.

I agree Jingsei!

I got 9 for spelling and definitions-not tried the others yet.I am so glad Hugo is out his parents do him no favours.

I thought intelligence was shown in what a person did with their knowledge, not in having the knowledge itself.

True, wasn't Einstein pegged as 'slow' as a child?

Finally caught up with first three episodes and this thread! Please excuse me while I ramble on about my thoughts that are now pretty much irrelevant as we wait for the last episode... :o

Joshua... just wanted to scoop him up and give him a cuddle. 50hrs a week FFS, all those competitions... felt sorry for his little brother, he must have his own interests/talents that there may be no time for if they are always doing chess stuff. :(

Shrinidi... LOVE her! She is so enthusiastic and I reckon she will have the career she wants and be eccentric and happy. Loads of MNers say on threads about books that they love the smell, so that made me :o although I guess current peers may not agree. I wonder if she will go to the (grammar) secondary school I went to (she lives where I grew up) - I'm sure she would make friends there and be happy.

Connor... seemed really sweet but his mum drove me mad, all that laughy laughy oh aren't I terrible I want the glory of a clever child teeheehee double bluffing weirdness! I felt sorry for him when he burst into tears at bedtime.

Longyin... such a well rounded child. He will go far I think. Don't agree with his father's view but glad he seems to be encouraging lots of different avenues and getting plenty of exercise (not something given any thought by my very academic parents ) - and I thought his attitude to failure and moving on was very healthy.

Oscar... I didn't really get much of his personality coming across but maybe that's because he is quiet. Seemed sweet though.

Rosa... seemed so lovely, and my heart broke for her when Hugo messed about . Her mum was really lovely to her. The only thing that made me was when she was being filmed in her room and said something about always finishing what you are studying, always finish your work and THEN you can play, I just wanted to shout NOOOOO, play IS the work of childhood!

Catherine... I loved her. I was totally shocked seeing how her mum spoke about her brother. Disgusted actually. Just because the boy liked the same subject as her he is the favourite it seems. I hope this competition has made the mum see sense, although I feel a lot of damage may have already been done. :(

Leo... exhausting! I love what a voracious reader he is but I think he has been made to feel too superior in his intelligence and that ego will not serve him well.

Hugo... wow. I was really really shocked at how little the parents seemed to attempt to discipline his incredible rudeness and arrogance. I feel sorry for him with the message he is being brought up with. He will be brought down to earth with a painful bump one day and ASC or not his parents are doing him no favours by allowing (and, it seems, encouraging) him to carry on like that and look down on everyone. His parents' attitude when he finally got knocked out was very telling. So bitchy and defensive. I also thought throughout the three episodes that their spiel about not pushing him etc seemed like they were trying too hard to show how awesome and laid back they were. Presumably so when he won they could say how he was even more brilliant he was despite never being pushed. That was just my impression anyway.

...And with that I really should go and make my thoroughly average children some dinner :o

I really want to know who won! I thing that genius comes in lots of forms - an author who writes a life-changing book is a genius, but they may be completely crap with numbers. An engineer who develops some amazing machine that helps the planet, who can't boil an egg or write a letter, or a mathematician who can calculate the GDP x Pi in 30 seconds who can never remember his PIN numbers.

Shrinidi is a genius - scarily so! She is amazing and I want to adopt her. She is so joyful and such a poppet. She doesn't seem to have been hothoused by her family.

Oscar is a lovely child too - such empathy when Longyin got his word wrong ("its ok" - with not a hint of gloating). His mum is a bit, hmmmm 'aren't I marvelous!' But then she is pretty brainy.

Longyin was a nice boy too - happy child. Not sure Connor is a happy child - left to his own devices, I'm sure he is happy but his mum seems to cause unhappiness with her relentless 'he must win we he will crush his opponents or die trying' attitude.

Does anyone else think its humilating for the children to wear their names on a card hanging around their neck? What's wrong with a name badge?

I suppose it has to be big enough for uis folks in telly-land to see (and the questioners).

Invicta, I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought that! All very odd, the whole thing really, however clever my child was I wouldn't want them to go through this sort of competition.

Shrinudee not hot housed?! They moved here from India because if her abilities. I think she is extremely odd

I was also about the huge name thing. It seemed to add to the whole "these kids are here to be paraded and judged" impression of the contest

I think Shrinidi has been as hothoused as any of the others, davros is right, her parents relocated continents for her education.

It's been raised before that C4 could have edited Hugo especially to seem such a brat and I think that's probably correct. But I think it's funny that if Hugo was edited to be the brat, it's just as likely as Shrinidi was edited to be the cute one, Longyin the relatively modest one, and so on. But people don't seem to mind or notice that they could just as easily have been constructed, because they like them.

Remember when they edit they don't edit the actual statements made by the kids, they edit the next shot (usually of the parents) to create the mood they want. So Hugo says something rude - mum tells him off. Post edit, Hugo says something rude - edit to mum smiling coyly at the camera. Hugo's mum has been transformed from a parent educating her son about rudeness to a woman too wet to deal with her own child.

Thanks oldius, what I have been clumsily trying to say you (and Charlie, great clip) have put more articulately.

Good point well made, olidus.

I think it's also important to remember that you'd have to be a deeply vile person to put your child in for a competition like this, never mind be filmed doing it.

Or deeply mistaken.