Little People, Mega Brains

satchitananda · Jan 6, 2012

What are kids coming to these days? BH just told me about a kid who was about 6 years old and was a serious contender for his post in the hospital. :shock:

I have heard Mozart was a brilliant child composer. He was a prodigy. He learned to play the piano at the age of four, composed his first pieces at five and at eight, wrote his first symphony. I want to go and jump into the closest pond (it will suffice I suppose to drown me). I still can't identify more than 4-5 musical instruments to save my life. :hide:

Coming to more recent times, did you hear about the 7 year old kid (Akrit Jaswal) who should have been running round on the streets in shorts kicking stones and footballs, but performed a surgery instead? :drowning He had an IQ of 146 and was considered the smartest person in a country of more than a billion people. He was even interviewed by Oprah Winfrey.

Well, apparently yesterday there was this kid who was hanging around the reporting room of BH's department while his mom had gone for a scan. One would imagine a 7 year old to be sitting quietly, looking around or alternatively driving everyone round the bend. Apparently this one amused himself (and the doctors in the room) identifying MRIs of the brain, abdomen, chest, X-Rays of the shoulders, ankles, knees etc and wanted to know what a knee replacement was all about. :idontgetit: Where did he know all that from? Did the parents spend their time of day holding X-rays in front of the kid and making him cram in the various bones and muscles of the body??? In which case, it makes me wonder about the parents. Strange passions, I must say. :spin

I told BH this was probably one more of those cases where one's inclinations and passions from a previous lifetime manifest early on in life. He says they just teach all these things very early on in school these days? Anatomy at the age of 6/7? mg: I don't know.

Well, me being no prodigy, I am not even aware of what is being taught in schools these days and what is not. :bonk Can someone please enlighten me whether this really is the case? Whatever be the case, BH and his colleagues better watch out. :drowning

knbg · Jan 6, 2012

Hi Satchi....
A nice post dear....
Kids are awesome these days .....
My 7 year old can name dinosaurs starting from each alphabet with a summary of its feeding habits,nesting habits and where its fossil was found......
They are very inquisitive and interested in learning......they think out of the box.....and when parents fail to answer them.....they google and they find....and explain to parents too.....:thumbsup
I agree with your school of thought......:coffee

satchitananda · Jan 6, 2012

Hey Bhargavi, thanks for the first reply. Schools seem to have indeed come a very long way from our times. Of course it is also a fact that kids have a lot of resources but most of all it is heartening that they make full use of them.

Mindian · Jan 6, 2012

Wow, interesting kid indeed, Sats. Maybe he was some great surgeon in his previous birth and had an untimely Death? I too wonder at these so called child prodigies.

And bhargavi, it is really nice to see kids using the computer for educational purposes too instead of playing the latest in games.

Chitvish · Jan 6, 2012

Dear Sats,
I am not surprised, having seen a child prodigy.
When I first attended the vocal concert of the now famous Chitraveena Ravikiran, he was just a small kid, not more than 7,8 yrs old.
He sang brilliantly, but on stage, his childishness was very much in tact & that made it more interesting!!

Aspire · Jan 6, 2012

Knowledge explosion today is exposing kids to all kind of information and thus increasing the learning capacity of the brain, allowing to absorb more information and learn new skills more easily. Study has shown that these special children use their right brain more!

kottravai · Jan 6, 2012

Very true Satchi. These days, if we have to talk to kids, we have to be well prepared for a barrage of questions. Dealing with managers/superiors at work would seem much easier than that. That being said, I should also quote something here, "the more the things change, the more they stay the same". One minute these kiddos would be giving you the entire history of dinosaurs, the next moment they'll be oohing and aahing about the latest barbie doll or the latest beyblade trick.

vchelluri · Jan 6, 2012

Nice and interesting post Satchi.
Wow! They seem to be really amazing in their IQ levels. The evolution has progressed a lot landing the present generation kids with more thinking and remembering. My younger one seems to be playing while my elder one is reading but after some days she comes out telling answers to all the questions put to my elder one. Kids have become more intelligent these days and it has become a big deal to deal with them. They want to learn about each and everything. My kids ask me about anatomy and physiology seeing books in my hand and when I try to avoid saying they are too young to understand, they simply don't agree but want to know anyway.

regards,
Latha.

Shanvy · Jan 6, 2012

satchi,

rightly said, little people mega brains..

I appreciate the guy. he can be termed child prodigy. while there is a group of parents who push and push their kids to perform. and our media really shows us a lot of those people..

sadly if there is no passion the same prodigies burn out fast..and we have lot of classic examples for the same in our country.

I came to know through an acquaintance about a boy who is 16, doing his 12th, who has found out a small device that could link your heart beat/ecg to your cadiologist/hospital database, and will alert the hospital in case of a heart attack. this is being tried by a leading hospital in chennai. and the acquaintance says, that he talks so much about this and other plans of his, that you feel like you are too short in front of them.

As aspire says it is knowledge explosion, and as a parent, if we could just prod them in the right direction every child is a genius, though maynot have those iq levels.

you cannot mess with this gen..you need to plan, anticipate atleast few steps ahead of them..this from a knowledge thirsty teenager's mom...
have you seen the movie little man tate...

marulamuniya · Jan 6, 2012

Oh Satchi, having met one such kind recently in my son's school.. I couldn't understand the mystery behind it.. I too understand that every child is a genius and as parents, if we give them exposure to different things they develop interest in them very fast.. But this 3 year old, born in UK, knows(remembers) so many things.. Ok.. knowing the countries and their capitals and currencies can be attributed to his parents' effort but the kid can speak upto 12 languages (Indian and European).. and he did not learn them from TV. He can read books written in 19th century English!!

Hmm.. I'm not sure about this.. I think I might go controversial if I try to explain these things :-D