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Original poster

Child Genius (C4)

756 replies

TheFirstOfHerName · 20/07/2014 21:02

Anyone planning to watch this?

I was a little like these children; joined Mensa as a child, but used my ability to coast through school/university rather than to achieve anything noteworthy.

DS2 is also of this ilk. We are not doing any of the things these parents are doing, although when opportunities arise through school then obviously we let him participate.

OP posts:
SlightlyJadedJack · 04/08/2014 16:46

Oh thank god, I said precipitation too and thought I was going mad!

Kundry · 04/08/2014 18:30

Am glad Mumsnet agrees it was precipitation Wink I was worried I was losing it.

I think it's interesting that now we are in the final rounds some of the most 'pushed' children have gone out. Rubiyat, Sharon and Eleanor and clearly naturally very gifted and although they do have academic parents who can stretch them, a lot of the energy to learn new things is coming from the child. They also have parents who are generally concerned about their emotional health.

I thought the friendship between Rubiyat and Cuneyd was genuinely touching. It is hard for gifted children to make friends as they meet so few children with similar interests (speaking as a former gifted child myself, my parents despaired of me making any friends at all) and it was nice to see this as an outcome of the competition.

Funnily enough I thought better of Tudor's parents this week. I still think their parenting is awful but within their cultural group it would be typical and by many seen as good parenting. They aren't finding their own way and making a mess like Curtis's mum who seemed to view him as a project, this was almost certainly the way they were brought up and it's their experience of the 'right' way to do it.

fuzzpig · 04/08/2014 19:51

Glad people agree about the precipitation thing... I actually rewound it as I thought I'd misheard!

Original poster
TheFirstOfHerName · 04/08/2014 21:13

YY to precipitation.

OP posts:
thegreylady · 04/08/2014 22:29

I thought it was precipitation too. I'd have struggled with some of those words and I am usually an accurate speller.

2rebecca · 04/08/2014 22:42

Are you not allowed to be gifted and dyslexic? The competition does seem to favour rote learning and memory over everything else.

LRDtheFeministDragon · 05/08/2014 20:23

Well, your IQ will likely be lower if you are dyslexic, and MENSA doesn't like that. It's a pretty narrow way of looking at intelligence.

Anyway, just watched it. I did love Cuneyd's mum's approach - thought that was very sensible. In fact lots of the parents seemed to be being reasonably sensible. I was just furious about Tudor's mum.

She made me cringe, too, because that is exactly what my parents would do - query the judges. Blush It is so embarrassing and as you get older, you find it harder and harder to take. Poor little lad.

Are the questions differentiated by age? It sounded as if they might be to me.

Hakluyt · 05/08/2014 21:27

Rote learning and memory is what Mensa think intelligence is. Repellent organization, repellent channel 4, repellent parents.

queenofthemountain · 06/08/2014 00:09

Aliyahs mum reminded me of the 'evil' mum on Coraline

queenofthemountain · 06/08/2014 00:15

BUT ouryve - the spelling can't be figured out phonetically by UK speakers so its all memory work

No the spellings are figured out largely by the root words on which they are based which is why they ask for definitions

Boleh · 06/08/2014 01:29

A bit harsh to describe Mensa as 'repellant' I haven't watched the program but I was a junior Mensa member and it gave me opportunities I wouldn't otherwise have had (a trip abroad for one) and some contact with people my own age who didn't instantly bully me - quite a relief from school! My 1st boyfriend was a friend of someone I met on one if their trips.
I do wonder a bit why adults stay members as once I went to Uni and could choose my friends (and there were more like minded folks about) I really didn't need it any more. Perhaps others do.
I agree that IQ tests are a bit flakey, they are age adjusted so at 11 I had the kind of level where Mensa actually have to reccomend the parents don't contact the media (which does make me wonder why they are involved in this program! They seemed very against public attention for bright kids when I joined). I was just ahead of my age, these days I get a highish but perfectly normal score depending on the test taken - it was just the age adjustment that made it daft.
Anyway - you've made me want to go and track the program down now! I suspect I'd be as appalled as everyone else on here about the parents.

lowcarbforthewin · 06/08/2014 10:20

This is a rather disturbing article (in the Guardian!!) by Shoshanna.

I've only watched episodes 1 and 3 but this programme disturbed me. I hate these sorts of competitions anyway; why would you want to rate genius? If a 12 year old is outstanding at mathematics, but terrible at other subjects that is of value, likewise if someone is a good all rounder. I hated Tudor's parents, they were abusive in my eyes. Likewise Aaliyah's parents were absolutely terrible. I'm thinking that has been born of Shoshanna's terrible life experiences, but really, they are doing her no favours.

Vivacia · 06/08/2014 10:29

Oh dear. This is all being played out very publicly. I feel bad for her and feel unhappy that I'm part of the problem.

LRDtheFeministDragon · 06/08/2014 10:46

Confused How on earth are you part of the problem? For a three-year-old article?

Hakluyt · 06/08/2014 10:56

"BUT ouryve - the spelling can't be figured out phonetically by UK speakers so its all memory work

No the spellings are figured out largely by the root words on which they are based which is why they ask for definitions"

They are given a list of all the potential words in advance. It's just more rote learning.

Vivacia · 06/08/2014 10:59

Apologies LRD if I came across a bit melodramatic. I just felt a bit of a rubbernecker.

LRDtheFeministDragon · 06/08/2014 11:16

Oh, not at all - I just thought you might've assumed the article was in response to the TV show and written now.

I think, TBH, reading that, she must have gone on the show partly as publicity for herself. Like the other mum of the lad who played piano.

Vivacia · 06/08/2014 11:41

Ah, I see. No, I realised it had been dredged up.

tweetypot · 06/08/2014 11:53

Typical ill-conceived reality TV.

I expected better of Mensa, and thought they would have devised tests to cover all aspects of intelligence - including emotional, musical, artistic, mechanical etc.

The general knowledge round was perhaps the most fair test and even that was inherently flawed.

Hakluyt · 06/08/2014 11:54

"I expected better of Mensa, and thought they would have devised tests to cover all aspects of intelligence - including emotional, musical, artistic, mechanical etc."

Why?

tweetypot · 06/08/2014 11:57

Er, because they were trying to find a child "genius"?

The bulk of the marks are awarded to a child who has excellent short-term memory and/or mental arithmetic skills. Those traits alone do not make a genius.

Hakluyt · 06/08/2014 11:59

But that's what MENSA does. All their tests are like that.

2rebecca · 06/08/2014 11:59

To make it fair everyone should have been given the same GK questions with written papers, but that wouldn't have made for entertaining TV. They should have read out a list of spellings with definitions and had the children write them down.
Once you start giving different people different questions it stops being a fair test.

fuzzpig · 06/08/2014 12:00

Were they really given a list of potential words?! I know they showed some being tested at home from a list (like one girl had a list pinned up in the bathroom) but I assumed that was something the parents had compiled.

I would have thought that given an official list in advance totally defeated the point, and most of them would've got full marks as their memories were good (shown by the fact they got through the first two rounds)

LRDtheFeministDragon · 06/08/2014 12:08

They weren't really trying to find a child genius. They were doing a TV show to big up MENSA and tacked that bit on, surely?