___WEDNESDAY___CH 4___UPDATE___"CHILD GENIUS"___UPDATE___CH 4___

[RTKangaMummy]

WEDNESDAY

CHANNEL 4

AN UPDATE ON THE CHILDREN FROM LAST YEAR

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Documentary
Child Genius Wednesday 16 April
9:00pm - 10:00pm
Channel 4
1/2
The subtitle of this series about megabrained children is "young and gifted", but by the end you half-wonder if it should be "young and cursed". We're catching up with kids we met in the last series - chess champ Peter (11), who wears a "genius in training" T-shirt, Adam (eight), who dissects rats in the kitchen, and Mikhail (five), who as Britain's youngest Mensa member has appeared on Oprah and Countdown. We also meet Georgia, who toppled Mikhail as Britain's youngest Mensa member. At two, she was measured with an IQ of 152 - impressive given that, being a toddler, she fell asleep halfway through the test. Her mother notes that "a lot of the pictures we take of Georgia have this white light around her . . ." That's the thing: inevitably, parents become caught up in making their gifted children into mini-celebrities, especially when TV crews get involved. It makes for fascinating TV; whether it's great for the pressure-cooker kids is another matter.

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I watched the first one and was sickened how some of these children are hot housed by their parents. They may be bright children but they are having their childhood destroyed by parents that are pushing them too much. I'm not surprised most of them were miserable. My ds is gifted. He knows he's a child though and has fun. There's a balance and these parents don't have a clue.

some of these parents are dreadful but it will be interesting to see how the children are a year later

Depressed, anxious children probably.

maybe

There are kids like this at ds's school. Not particularly bright, parents from hell. They look so miserable. It's sad.

However, I do think that children that are gifted academically rather than with football are seen in a bad way

If you have the next Beckham you are told to push and get them playing footy as much as possible

BUT if you have a chess champion then you are seen as a pushy mum and dad

When you have a bright child it can be hard not to push them though. My ds turns into a little monster when he's bored. I was always telling his teacher that the work was too easy for him, I was and still am a pushy parent but I hope that I balance the fun childhood that every child should have with the learning that he needs to stop him becoming bored and disruptive. Some go over the top though.

I wonder if the family who had a party to celebrate the grammar school entrance will be on there. Or was it the 11+ results? I forget now. Anyway, I seem to remember there being some sort of scandal attached to them.

yes it would be interesting whatt happened there

TONIGHT

here s some info

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I guess no one is interested in this

weird cos I thought you guys would be

That would be the Grafton-Clarkes you mean? The ones who walked out on their first families.

Remember the thread from last year where the poor dd from the first family wondered if she hadn't been smart enough for her mother or something. Truly heartbreaking stuff.

Perhaps the parents suddenly had a guilty conscience. Could hope so anyway.

which one was it celia?

the chess boy?

I'll be watching. Hope the chess boy is okay, he was my favourite. I couldn't really warm to the others.
If this is an update why is Georgia in it? Unless the programme makers thought it wouldn't be interesting enough without the Grafton-Clarkes

bumpity bump