Child Genius (C4)

[TheFirstOfHerName]

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.

[Hakluyt]

There's a big difference between letting a talented child follow a genuine dream and putting them through a shoddy media circus to be discussed in the tabloid press.

[SeagullsAndSand]

I don't get the point of it.

I'm all for pushing kids and I push mine.However I don't see the point of CG,what are they getting?No school place or movement in groups at school etc

The fact is an awful lot of kids up and down the land would do just as well if pushed to that level.If all kids had 2 parents at their beck and call,home eding one child I'm sure many would excell,ditto those being tutored 121 for hours every day.

And re the tutoring it all seemed to be rote learning.They all had the same Usborne geog and science books.I guess they'd dolled them all out.Anybody learning a couple of books off by heart could answer rapid fire questions on them.Didn't think the maths was that tricky tbf if you can calculate quickly,many kids can.

One of my 10 year olds could easily do the spelling,maths,memory tests etc with coaching.He's bright(like many in his class)but he ain't no genius.

That said a couple stood out as naturally exceptionally bright and we adored Eleanor.What an utterly gorgeous girl.

[almapudden]

A bit off-topic but I'm sure the Voiceover said the Battle of Stamford Bridge was 9th century. It was in the 11th century! Did anyone else clock that?

[EnglishRose1320]

EvilTwins- my son is 8 and is very sure he wants to go to the local grammar school, he likes to tell people he is going to go to the grammar school and they all ways tell me it's good that he is so confident and ambitious at 8, I don't like to confess that he wants to go so he can get a school bus rather than walk to school!

[fuzzpig]

I rewatched the first episode of the previous series today and Rayyan was in the first episode! Only briefly and I don't think he made it to the final 21 children as I didn't see him in the seats when they had the first rounds. He must've only been 6.

[singersgirl]

I've just watched the first three episodes as I'm suffering from a bad back. So upsetting in so many ways.

I couldn't stand the way the voiceover kept saying things like "the quest to find the cleverest child in Britain..." No! This was a horrible circus performance which wasn't remotely interested in finding 'the cleverest child in Britain' - if it were even possible to identify one child as 'the cleverest'. It was a series of public and uneven tests which prioritised memory and rote learning above all else.

And on top of all the other awfulness, did anyone else notice how the voiceover woman kept mispronouncing the children's names? She did it with Aliyah and Rubaiyat - pronounced their names differently from the way their parents did. Surely they could have taken the trouble to get that right.

I felt guilty for watching.