Child Genius anyone??

[Allthingspretty]

should be interesting

Nope- I think I'll stick with vile.

Are the parents making money out of the programme?

pussycat probably not, just a chance to show off their fantastically above average child.
lisad hmmm, normal eh. He is the most bloody irritating child I have ever seen. One of ds friends is like that with birds.

He came across really well in that clip though. I totally understand the wish to make him more 'normal' but it somewhat contradicts some of the behaviour shown on the series - the not picking him up on rudeness, and the whole "fuck the swots" thing. The former could just be manipulative editing, but the latter, where they picked up what his dad said... hmm.

I am being assessed for AS myself BTW. Huge problems with social interaction, picking up cues etc, but I try really really hard not to come across as rude. It's exhausting!

I get the impression that Shrinidhi is off the charts. You don't really see much of her family beyong her mum looking on with an expression of, what, miscomprehension? She isn't grinning like a cheshire cat, air punching or seen drilling her to within an inch of her life. The kid seems to pop off the the library to choose her books and happily gets on with it. She seems to have a vast memory and adores words.

Her parents may have moved here for a better education for her, but I have known people from India, Pakistan, Singapore, Malaysia, Iran all do the same thing, as there was a time when the english education system was thought of as a world beater. I'm not sure if her family are academics or steetcleaners.

DS has started beating us at all board and card games. He is 8 and I put it down to my advanced age/onset of senility. This is tiring enough, without having a little genius on our hands!

I still maintain that with this show it is all in the edit, for the likeable and well rounded characters as much as the unlikeable and unruly ones.

I agree about the editing- but they still agreed to take part, didn't they? That makes them vile beyond endurance,

I read in the Guardian than Shrinidhi's parents almost pulled out when they realised the Child Genius thing was a competition, and then again when they realised it was being filmed for a documentary. I want to know what changed their minds and made them stick with it!

Vileness.

Smooth talking on the part of the producer. I'm not sure these parents are actually vile. Misguided, maybe.

If they didn't know it was a competition, AND they didn't know it was being filmed for a documentary, what did they think it was?

I agree she seemed like the most natural 'genius' out of all of them. Maybe that is because once the child has been taught to read (if indeed they needed teaching at all) there is little else for the parent to do apart from facilitate access to books. Whereas with maths, there needs to be more input in terms of arranging exams, tutors/resources etc.

perhaps they thought their daughter might enjoy the experience?

with a gifted mathematician you dont have to go down the whole tutor/exam route. there are lots of resources out there that you can point a child at and let them find their own way through, especially if there is an adult that they can approach with questions.

Yes but I meant the maths geniuses in the show specifically, who have been doing exams and eg they showed Oscar sitting down going through maths questions with his mum, so in that sense it appeared different to Shrinidhi who could pretty much just curl up with a beloved book etc (apart from needing a scrabble opponent I guess :))

I am wondering though what they (S's parents) thought the enjoyable experience WAS if not a competition and/or documentary filming? Maybe the adverts made it seem more like a research project or summer school for gifted kids type thing.

(it wouldn't surprise me if the ads were somewhat misleading, anyway)

I thought Hugo's parents were pretty awful from episode 1. His mother's comment about him playing an instrument so that when he was older he could play in an orchestra alongside girls and at least get a shag out of it was weird. I agree that the programme has probably been edited to show Hugo in a bad light but his parents have come out of it badly and that can't be blamed on editing.

fair enough fuzzpig :)

Just finished watching episode 3. I stick to "vile" to describe the parents.

I suppose it would be boring telly if everyone came across as nice and sane but then, with some of the raw material they've had to work with...!

There is the 'what then' question. What after the kids get to the final or win? Does MENSA support them/their families in any way?

Chopchop I'm glad I am not the only one to find the shag comment weird. I was I can't imagine saying that about my own child. I am overly sensitive to that kind of thing though due to past issues. But still.

I watched the three previous series and wonder what the previous participants are up to these days. This series is vastly different though, there was no competition element before - though many of them did have their IQs tested by Joan Freeman so I suppose they could be compared that way.

Is the last one on tonight or tomorrow? I'll have to avoid this thread in case of spoilers as I watch it on 4od.

I really don't know what I'd do if my DCs were incredibly intelligent. It would be really hard to know how far to encourage/push so they reached their potential but they were still happy and free to choose their own path. I was a very intelligent, but very unhappy, child. All I really want for my own DCs is to be happy, but then I also don't want them to suffer from not having opportunities which hard work will give them. Tricky isn't it. But neither of my DCs seem to have inherited my or DH's raw brain power (DH and I were both very precocious, not that it's got us anywhere as we both had abusive childhoods). Sorry, rambling now.

So far they've only tested memory- not any sort of applied intelligence or reasoning. But that's MENSA for you!

They did logic puzzles and mental arithmetic which aren't a test of memory.

I think MENSA need a rethink on how they measure intelligence. All the things they are testing for are things computers can do. Memory, logic, maths, spelling. Increasingly, should we not be more interested in what humans can do differently, creative problem solving, EI etc?