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___WEDNESDAY___CH 4___UPDATE___"CHILD GENIUS"___UPDATE___CH 4___

551 replies

RTKangaMummy · 13/04/2008 21:44

WEDNESDAY

CHANNEL 4

AN UPDATE ON THE CHILDREN FROM LAST YEAR

x x x

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.

x x x

OP posts:
hippipotami · 16/04/2008 22:26

Yup, Dante next week.

Was it my imagination or was Adam a little when he found out his brother had a high IQ too?

ellingwoman · 16/04/2008 22:27

Well I think the programme was a bit mean when they asked Adam about it. They lingered on him and he clearly had nothing else to add so looked a bit embarrassed.

hippipotami · 16/04/2008 22:31

Yes true, it was just the words 'good for him' and the shrug...
Maybe I am reading something into nothing...

luminarphrases · 16/04/2008 22:48

i am watching it on 4+1 and georgia's mum is an absolute twunt.

just out of interest, is 'gifted and talented' ever regarded as sn? cos i hope not, actually

hippipotami · 16/04/2008 22:50

I think it is regarded as a Special Educational Need, as the gifted and talented children will need harder/extra work to keep them stimulated and interested.

Georgia's mum is indeed a moo of the highest order!!

Original poster
RTKangaMummy · 16/04/2008 22:51

I am on ch 13 too and I agree about her mum

OP posts:
merryforge · 16/04/2008 23:09

Felt very sorry for Georgia, clearly being set up for a troubled life by Mum's expectations.

Can anyone explain to me why, at one point, Peter's LEA were planning court action because they were 'unhappy' with him not attending school - this isn't usual is it, in a case where a parent decides to HE? It's not illegal not to attend school but you do occasionally hear of it being treated as such and this always puzzles me.

Clary · 16/04/2008 23:30

What happened at the end to Georgia? DH called 10 minutes from the end so I missed from where she opened the envelope and did her fake cheery "oooh look, allocated... oh no you didn;t get in..."

how awful for that little girl with her dummy and her ability to walk at 9mo

SueW · 16/04/2008 23:58

Re the LEA - I wondered if it was because he only really did chess and maths and they felt his education was limited. Later in the prog it said he had joined scouts to meet other children.

Was interested in the spelling boy who didn't know what a hat was first time around (is that right, I'm not getting them mixed up?). Does being a good speller=good comprehension/understanding?

Why are children so frequently gifted in maths? I hear it quite a lot in real life 'maths genius', 'fantastic at maths'. Or is it just revered cos so many people are supposed to hate maths?

SueW · 16/04/2008 23:59

Sorry, bad last para - why do children labelled as gifted mostly seem to be gifted in maths?

smartiejake · 17/04/2008 00:01

I was secretly pleased that the chess boy lost his matches. He was an arrogant little twit who needed taking down a peg or two.

roisin · 17/04/2008 08:16

Crikey I was really shocked at the parents on this programme, and worry for the children's future self-esteem. Chess boy's dad was so 'cold' and unsupported when he didn't do well at the comp. I wanted to give him a hug!

Much as I abhor the idea of 8 yr-olds at boarding school, I think getting A away from the clutches of his parents where he gets a more rounded experience of friends, games, fun, and sport as well as academia, must be a good thing.

I'm looking forward to the next prog - do you remember that 'writing boy' from last time. I think his mum was an Oxford Don or something. I liked him, I thought he was very quirky.

MrsMattie · 17/04/2008 08:42

All the families made me feel uncomfortable.

I laughed when Mikhails' mum kept going on about how he was 'obssessed with spelling'...then it cut to a clip of him saying 'I'm tired of this mummy' during yet another home spelling test. Also, they clearly pushed him into the spelling thing when the IQ test came back saying he was brilliant at Maths but below average with language skills. He didn't come across as 'gifted' to me at all, just as a little boy who had been geared up all of his short life to be 'abive average' at everything by extremely ambitious parents.

I thought the chess boy was very sweet, but his dad was clearly living through him and trying to fulfill dreams of his own.

The little girl (Georgia?) was lovely, but I thought her mum came across as immature and her behaviour around her daughter was inappropriate. Balling her eyes out in front of the little girl when she didn't get into her school of choice seemed cruel.

I really thought the family with the two gifted brothers were odd. the mum had a demented look in her eye. I thought it was awful when the IQ testing woman said things like 'He's much brighter than you expected' in front of the poor little thing. I suspect there decision re: boarding school was much more to do with a wish to climb up the social ladder than anything else. Eton isn't full of bright sparks, it's full of rich kids who will go on to successful, well paid careers whether they flop their A Levels or not.

MrsMattie · 17/04/2008 08:43

scooz spelling, I'm not with it this morning

meglet · 17/04/2008 09:19

I commented on the little girl, Georgia, being given fruit shoots at dinner time. "oh my goodness she is giving her a fruit shoot!!!"

DP " You have been on Mumsnet too much!"

I think he had a point.

Thought the parents were way out of order for letting the children in on their IQ results / school entrance letters.

coppertop · 17/04/2008 09:22

When Georgia's mother was reading out comments from the internet, did anyone else peer at the screen to see if she was looking at MN?

Kathyis6incheshigh · 17/04/2008 09:33

SueW - re maths, there are a few factors I think.
One is that it can be easily measured in quite an objective way, the way giftedness in, say, English literature can't. You might have a dc who writes brilliant stories or is fabulous at art, but you can't measure that objectively against another child's art, while with maths you could give a bunch of kids the same test.
Another is the enormous range in ability. Some people can hardly add up, but even at professional level the range of abilities is huge - my dh is a maths lecturer so pretty damn good at it by most of our standards, but even at that level there are mathematicians who by comparison make him look practically innumerate (in his opinion - I can't judge!)
Another factor is that wider knowledge of the world and emotional maturity don't come into play much with maths the way they do in other subjects, so kids can excel. Finally you don't need any special equipment to do it - it would be hard to be a child prodigy chemist, for example.

Re the LEA, I wondered the same as you. It might have been because his education was limited, as you say. I also thought, bearing in mind the personalities of the parents, it might equally have been because they had approached the whole thing in a confrontational way and not been prepared to jump through the hoops the LEA required.

Dandi · 17/04/2008 10:40

did anyone else feel for the older children of Georgia's mum? I thought the older girl who was with them when the mum opened the school letter and began to cry showed a really sensible attitude in trying to get her to stop crying as she was upsetting Georgia.

MrsWeasley · 17/04/2008 10:45

At the end they did say that the LEA were happier now because the little boy was seeing a tutor for some subjects. So I assumed it was more about the education he was not receiving as opposed to him being HE. I was a little concerned about his dad's attitude, but thought perhaps he didn?t like being in front of the cameras
The little boy said "sometimes we do a bit of maths, then chess. Sometimes we do chess all day". I was concerned that he only seemed to play it on the computer. I think he struggled to remain focussed for the length of a real match (one where he couldn't pause and shout about how clever he was etc)

MrsWeasley · 17/04/2008 10:48

my DH heard Georgia's mum say she was 42, looked at me and said "Dont get any ideas" When I asked why he said that as I hadn't said a thing, he said it was the look in my eyes

shrinkingsagpuss · 17/04/2008 11:23

That programme was awful. I came away feeling really sad for all the children, esp the little brother of the v bright boy, who was clearly clever, but over shadowed by his genius brother. His parents seemed disappointed in their now more normal child, once he'd been to the prep school for a while, and so they turned their attntion to the other son. My God.

Made me re think our ideas about DS, who we have been advised to consider moving up a year, when he does start school. He's not in the genius league, by any means, but he is an intelligent articulate child, and I didn't think Georgia was that special.

It interested me how she came i "off the scale", yet that little boy, Mikhail who had the incredible maths ability was initally assessed lower. Shows how the overall level varies. He clearly was v talented with maths, then his parents went on at him for the spelling.

Fancy organising a spelling bee so your poor hard working son can be tested like that infront of everyone. He didn't seem too enthused about the whole thing.

MrsWeasley · 17/04/2008 11:30

Was anyone else surprised at the things the 3 year old was being asked to do as part of her Mensa test. Now I appreciate she is 3 and therefore it limited the things they can ask but the activities were everyday, normal pre-school activities. It seemed that Georgia had been "coached" in these activities (flash cards whilst running out the door etc) I was left thinking if everyone was tested in this way we could have a nation of child genius'

Kathyis6incheshigh · 17/04/2008 11:59

To be honest I was a bit about the prof doing the tests. I wonder how much she charges.
DH was highly amused when she said to the mother after the test where she came out off the scale 'You see, we said last time she was more than 153, didn't we?'
One way to ensure a repeat visit, I suppose....

luminarphrases · 17/04/2008 12:09

as my english teacher always used to say to me 'iq tests are about measuring how good you are at doing iq tests'.

my dd and georgia are about the same age, and i can't see any major differences except that my dd doesn't have a dummy, doesn't have all eyes on her, doesn't sit at the head of the table, and isn't given fruit shoots!

shrinkingsagpuss · 17/04/2008 13:25

I'm glad I wasn't the only one a bit about the testing. My Ds can name all the same shaepes she was naming, and knows the words she was using too. I wonder how heavily edited it all was. If that was as hard as the questions get, then yes, we are a nation of genius'!!

I was IQ tested as an 8yr old. I loved it, and remember the verbal questions, and the shape tests and stuff. I don't know what my IQ was, and unlike the kids in the programme, I was certainly not groomed, and certainly would never have had it discussed in front of me.

I really felt for the poor boys, having their academic hi's and low's discussed infront of them.