A good read!
What would you do?....you make the choice. Don't look for a punch line,
> there isn't one. Read it anyway. My question is: Would you have made the
> same choice?
>
> At a fundraising dinner for a school that serves learning-disabled
> children, the father of one of the students delivered a speech that would
> never be forgotten by all who attended. After extolling the school and its
> dedicated staff, he offered a question: 'When not interfered with by
> outside influences, everything nature does is done with perfection. Yet my
> son, Shay, cannot learn things as other children do. He cannot understand
> things as other children do. Where is the natural order of things in my
> son?'
> The audience was stilled by the query.
>
> The father continued. 'I believe, th at when a child like Shay, physically
> and mentally handicapped comes into the world, an opportunity to realize
> true human nature presents itself, and it comes in the way other people
> treat that child.'
>
> Then he told the following story:
>
> Shay and his father had walked past a park where some boys Shay knew were
> playing baseball. Shay asked, 'Do you think they'll let me play?' Shay's
> father knew that most of the boys would not want someone like Shay on
> their team, but the father also understood that if his son were allowed to
> play, it would give him a much-needed sense of belonging and some
> confidence to be accepted by others in spite of his handicaps.
>
> Shay's father approached one of the boys on the field and asked (not
> expecting much) if Shay could play. The boy looked around for guidance and
> said, 'We're losing by six runs and the game is in the eighth inning. I
> guess he can be on our team and we'll try to put him in to bat in the
> ninth inning.'
>
> S hay struggled over to the team's bench and, with a broad smile, put on a
> team shirt. His Father watched with a small tear in his eye and warmth in
> his heart. The boys saw the father's joy at his son being accepted. In the
> bottom of the eighth inning, Shay's team scored a few runs but was still
> behind by three. In the top of the ninth inning, Shay put on a glove and
> played in the right field. Even though no hits came his way, he was
> obviously ecstatic just to be in the game and on the field, grinning from
> ear to ear as his father waved to him from the stands. In the bottom of
> the ninth inning, Shay's team scored again. Now, with two outs and the
> bases loaded, the potential winning run was on base and Shay was scheduled
> to be next at bat.
>
> At this juncture, do they let Shay bat and give away their chance to win
> the game? Surprisingly, Shay was given the bat. Everyone knew that a hit
> was all but impossible because Shay didn't even know how to hold the bat
> properly, much less connect with the ball.
>
> However, as Shay stepped up to the plate, the pitcher, recognizing that
> the other team was putting winning aside for this moment in Shay's life,
> moved in a few steps to lob the ball in softly so Shay could at least make
> contact. The first pitch came and Shay swung clumsily and missed. The
> pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly towards
> Shay. As the pitch came in, Shay swung at the ball and hit a slow ground
> ball right back to the pitcher.
>
> Th e game would now be over. The pit cher picked up the soft grounder and
> could have easily thrown the ball to the first baseman. Shay would have
> been out and that would have been the end of the game.
>
> Instead, the pitcher threw the ball right over the first baseman's head,
> out of reach of all team mates. Everyone from the stands and both teams
> started yelling, 'Shay, run to first! Run to first!' Never in his life had
> Shay ever run that far, but he made it to first base. He scampered down
> the baseline, wide-eyed and startled.
>
> Everyone yelled, 'Run to second, run to second!' Catching his breath, Shay
> awkwardly ran towards second, gleaming and struggling to make it to the
> base. By the time Shay rounded towards second base, the right fielder had
> the ball ... the smallest guy on their team who now had his first chance
> to be the hero for his team. He could have thrown the ball to the
> second-baseman for the tag, but he understood the pitcher's intentions so
> he, too, intent iona lly threw the ball high and far ov er the
> third-baseman's head. Shay ran toward third base deliriously as the
> runners ahead of him circled the bases toward home.
>
> All were screaming, 'Shay, Shay, Shay, all the Way Shay'
>
> Shay reached third base because the opposing shortstop ran to help him by
> turning him in the direction of third base, and shouted, 'Run to third!
> Shay, run to third!'
>
> As Shay rounded third, the boys from both teams, and the spectators, were
> on their feet screaming, 'Shay, run home! Run home!' Shay ran to home,
> stepped on the plate, and was cheered as the hero who hit the grand slam
> and won the game for his team.
>
> 'That day', said the father softly with tears now rolling down his face,
> 'the boys from both teams helped bring a piece of true love and humani ty
> in to this world'.
>
> Shay didn't make it to another summer. He died that winter, having never
> forgotten being the hero and making his father so happy, and coming home
> and seeing his Mother tearfully embrace her little hero of the day!
>
> AND NOW A LITTLE FOOTNOTE TO THIS STORY: We all send thousands of jokes
> through the e-mail without a second thought, but when it comes to sending
> messages about life choices, people hesitate. The crude, vulgar, and often
> obscene pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion about
> decency is too often suppressed in our schools and workplaces.
>
> If you're thinking about forwarding this message, chances are that you're
> probably sorting out the people in your address book who aren't the
> 'appropriate' ones to receive this type of message. Well, the person who
> sent you this believes that we all can make a difference. We all have
> thousands of opportunities every single day to help realize the 'natural
> order of things.' So many s eeming ly trivial interactions between two
> people present us with a choice: Do we pass alo ng a little spark of love
> and humanity or do we pass up those opportunities and leave the world a
> little bit colder in the process?
>
> A wise man once said every society is judged by how it treats it's least
> fortunate amongst them.
>
> You now have two choices:
> 1. Delete
> 2. Forward
> May your day be a Shay Day
>
> Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder. Help someone's soul heal. Walk
> out of your house like a shepherd. -Jalaluddin Rumi, poet and mystic
> (1207-1273)
Showing posts with label Gifted or Talented Children?. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gifted or Talented Children?. Show all posts
Monday, 9 June 2008
Sunday, 8 June 2008
Thinking like a genius
"Even if you're not a genius, you can use the same strategies as Aristotle and Einstein to harness the power of your creative mind and better manage your future."
The following eight strategies encourage you to think productively,
rather than reproductively, in order to arrive at solutions to problems. "These strategies are common to the thinking styles of creative geniuses in science, art, and industry throughout history."
1. Look at problems in many different ways, and find new perspectives that no one else has taken (or no one else has publicized!)
Leonardo da Vinci believed that, to gain knowledge about the form of a problem, you begin by learning how to restructure it in many different ways. He felt that the first way he looked at a problem was too biased. Often, the problem itself is reconstructed and becomes a new one.
2. Visualize!
When Einstein thought through a problem, he always found it necessary to formulate his subject in as many different ways as possible, including using diagrams. He visualized solutions, and believed that words and numbers as such did not play a significant role in his thinking process.
3. Produce! A distinguishing characteristic of genius is productivity.
Thomas Edison held 1,093 patents. He guaranteed productivity by giving himself and his assistants idea quotas. In a study of 2,036 scientists throughout history, Dean Keith Simonton of the University of California at Davis found that the most respected scientists produced not only great works, but also many "bad" ones. They weren't afraid to fail, or to produce mediocre in order to arrive at excellence.
4. Make novel combinations. Combine, and recombine, ideas, images, and thoughts into different combinations no matter how incongruent or unusual.
The laws of heredity on which the modern science of genetics is based came from the Austrian monk Grego Mendel, who combined mathematics and biology to create a new science.
5. Form relationships; make connections between dissimilar subjects.
Da Vinci forced a relationship between the sound of a bell and a stone hitting water. This enabled him to make the connection that sound travels in waves. Samuel Morse invented relay stations for telegraphic signals when observing relay stations for horses.
6. Think in opposites.
Physicist Niels Bohr believed, that if you held opposites together, then you suspend your thought, and your mind moves to a new level. His ability to imagine light as both a particle and a wave led to his conception of the principle of complementarity. Suspending thought (logic) may allow your mind to create a new form.
7. Think metaphorically.
Aristotle considered metaphor a sign of genius, and believed that the individual who had the capacity to perceive resemblances between two separate areas of existence and link them together was a person of special gifts.
8. Prepare yourself for chance.
Whenever we attempt to do something and fail, we end up doing something else. That is the first principle of creative accident. Failure can be productive only if we do not focus on it as an unproductive result. Instead: analyze the process, its components, and how you can change them, to arrive at other results. Do not ask the question "Why have I failed?", but rather "What have I done?"
The following eight strategies encourage you to think productively,
rather than reproductively, in order to arrive at solutions to problems. "These strategies are common to the thinking styles of creative geniuses in science, art, and industry throughout history."
1. Look at problems in many different ways, and find new perspectives that no one else has taken (or no one else has publicized!)
Leonardo da Vinci believed that, to gain knowledge about the form of a problem, you begin by learning how to restructure it in many different ways. He felt that the first way he looked at a problem was too biased. Often, the problem itself is reconstructed and becomes a new one.
2. Visualize!
When Einstein thought through a problem, he always found it necessary to formulate his subject in as many different ways as possible, including using diagrams. He visualized solutions, and believed that words and numbers as such did not play a significant role in his thinking process.
3. Produce! A distinguishing characteristic of genius is productivity.
Thomas Edison held 1,093 patents. He guaranteed productivity by giving himself and his assistants idea quotas. In a study of 2,036 scientists throughout history, Dean Keith Simonton of the University of California at Davis found that the most respected scientists produced not only great works, but also many "bad" ones. They weren't afraid to fail, or to produce mediocre in order to arrive at excellence.
4. Make novel combinations. Combine, and recombine, ideas, images, and thoughts into different combinations no matter how incongruent or unusual.
The laws of heredity on which the modern science of genetics is based came from the Austrian monk Grego Mendel, who combined mathematics and biology to create a new science.
5. Form relationships; make connections between dissimilar subjects.
Da Vinci forced a relationship between the sound of a bell and a stone hitting water. This enabled him to make the connection that sound travels in waves. Samuel Morse invented relay stations for telegraphic signals when observing relay stations for horses.
6. Think in opposites.
Physicist Niels Bohr believed, that if you held opposites together, then you suspend your thought, and your mind moves to a new level. His ability to imagine light as both a particle and a wave led to his conception of the principle of complementarity. Suspending thought (logic) may allow your mind to create a new form.
7. Think metaphorically.
Aristotle considered metaphor a sign of genius, and believed that the individual who had the capacity to perceive resemblances between two separate areas of existence and link them together was a person of special gifts.
8. Prepare yourself for chance.
Whenever we attempt to do something and fail, we end up doing something else. That is the first principle of creative accident. Failure can be productive only if we do not focus on it as an unproductive result. Instead: analyze the process, its components, and how you can change them, to arrive at other results. Do not ask the question "Why have I failed?", but rather "What have I done?"
The effect of school on the genius mind
Article 1
The education system in America for example is designed to provide instruction for the average student. The concept behind this idea is that every student should graduate with what they need to know to survive the world in terms of math, science, language, and history. The instructional material is tailored so that students in the average range intellectually should receive a challenge.
The problem with this plan is that only 95% of students fall into the "average" intellect category. The other 5% have an IQ at one extreme end of the scale - either highly intelligent, or highly retarded. For the latter group, schools have long had special classes and slower instruction, for students can be held back if they do not learn enough, so that they repeat a grade and get a second shot at it. For the other group, however, schools are woefully unprepared to meet their educational needs.
Geniuses are occasionally offered one "gifted class" they can go to which allows them to study other topics of more interest, but these classes tend to meet infrequently. Some school systems will offer to let a student "skip" a grade - move directly into the 9th grade from the 7th grade, for instance - but many schools will not for fear of having a student miss out on proper socializing. Skipping causes another problem, in that if the gifted student had anything left unlearned in the skipped grade, he or she wouldn't have all the knowledge they need to succeed in the new one. Finally, only those students who are already hard workers will be blessed with the chance to skip a grade, because those students who are not hard workers but who are still geniuses won't have the grades high enough to prove that they need a more advanced level of study.
The problem all of this ultimately generates is that the minds of geniuses are allowed to slowly waste away in twelve years of school. By the time a genius graduates, he or she has had little if any kind of challenge, and has taken to simply breezing through school on his or her amazing intellect. For a genius, learning new facts is something that takes only one session in class, and no homework. Homework becomes a hassle and a bore, so the genius usually will skip it in favor of simply taking the test, passing it, and getting a grade in the class that is just barely above average.
And thus, the genius becomes lazy.
Without the proper kinds of challenge, the genius will go on to college and pick something rediculously difficult for the average person (such as nuclear chemistry or astrophysics) and still approach the class in the same way as before - attending class but not doing the homework. If the class is too difficult, the genius will find himself (or herself) unable to keep up with the work load and will eventually drop out. If the genius is driven to get a degree, the genius will pick something much easier on the next attempt, and thereby slide through college the same way he or she slid through high school.
This will carry over into life as well. The genius will become the dreamer - always thinking of grand ideas, but lacking the willpower to implement them.
How can I prove this? 1 out of every 2000 people you meet is a genius. How many of them do you hear about on a daily basis? Stephen Hawking is the world's only current recognized genius who is also out there making new and fantastic ideas and discoveries all the time. Every once in a while, another genius will be spoken of who has invented a number of products, but in every one of these cases, the genius was already fairly well off financially and was able to personally fund (or easily obtain backing for) these special projects. But, with 1/2000th of the population being a genius, we should have 150,000 geniuses in the U.S. alone who are constantly doing great, amazing things.
Truth is that we do have that many geniuses in the U.S., but we don't recognize them. As one of my college professors told me, "you can't be a genius, because geniuses wouldn't be going to school here." That's the stigma in our society, but if a genius isn't driven to succeed, how would the genius get into schools like M.I.T., Berkeley, etc? They wouldn't, so they go to schools like Tulsa Community College.
So, enough complaining, and on to the solution. The genius mind doesn't need to skip a grade, because of the chance of missing some key data. What the genius mind needs instead is fast-paced instruction. Classes for geniuses should be set up so that students are learning material twice as fast as in normal classes - when a topic is taught, the teacher moves on with another topic and doesn't linger. The genius mind will get it anyway, and won't need an hour's worth of reiteration. In this way, the genius mind will be challenged, and the genius will not grow up to be a lazy bum. Once we have a nice core group of geniuses, the technology level in this country should grow by leaps and bounds.
But it'll never happen...
The education system in America for example is designed to provide instruction for the average student. The concept behind this idea is that every student should graduate with what they need to know to survive the world in terms of math, science, language, and history. The instructional material is tailored so that students in the average range intellectually should receive a challenge.
The problem with this plan is that only 95% of students fall into the "average" intellect category. The other 5% have an IQ at one extreme end of the scale - either highly intelligent, or highly retarded. For the latter group, schools have long had special classes and slower instruction, for students can be held back if they do not learn enough, so that they repeat a grade and get a second shot at it. For the other group, however, schools are woefully unprepared to meet their educational needs.
Geniuses are occasionally offered one "gifted class" they can go to which allows them to study other topics of more interest, but these classes tend to meet infrequently. Some school systems will offer to let a student "skip" a grade - move directly into the 9th grade from the 7th grade, for instance - but many schools will not for fear of having a student miss out on proper socializing. Skipping causes another problem, in that if the gifted student had anything left unlearned in the skipped grade, he or she wouldn't have all the knowledge they need to succeed in the new one. Finally, only those students who are already hard workers will be blessed with the chance to skip a grade, because those students who are not hard workers but who are still geniuses won't have the grades high enough to prove that they need a more advanced level of study.
The problem all of this ultimately generates is that the minds of geniuses are allowed to slowly waste away in twelve years of school. By the time a genius graduates, he or she has had little if any kind of challenge, and has taken to simply breezing through school on his or her amazing intellect. For a genius, learning new facts is something that takes only one session in class, and no homework. Homework becomes a hassle and a bore, so the genius usually will skip it in favor of simply taking the test, passing it, and getting a grade in the class that is just barely above average.
And thus, the genius becomes lazy.
Without the proper kinds of challenge, the genius will go on to college and pick something rediculously difficult for the average person (such as nuclear chemistry or astrophysics) and still approach the class in the same way as before - attending class but not doing the homework. If the class is too difficult, the genius will find himself (or herself) unable to keep up with the work load and will eventually drop out. If the genius is driven to get a degree, the genius will pick something much easier on the next attempt, and thereby slide through college the same way he or she slid through high school.
This will carry over into life as well. The genius will become the dreamer - always thinking of grand ideas, but lacking the willpower to implement them.
How can I prove this? 1 out of every 2000 people you meet is a genius. How many of them do you hear about on a daily basis? Stephen Hawking is the world's only current recognized genius who is also out there making new and fantastic ideas and discoveries all the time. Every once in a while, another genius will be spoken of who has invented a number of products, but in every one of these cases, the genius was already fairly well off financially and was able to personally fund (or easily obtain backing for) these special projects. But, with 1/2000th of the population being a genius, we should have 150,000 geniuses in the U.S. alone who are constantly doing great, amazing things.
Truth is that we do have that many geniuses in the U.S., but we don't recognize them. As one of my college professors told me, "you can't be a genius, because geniuses wouldn't be going to school here." That's the stigma in our society, but if a genius isn't driven to succeed, how would the genius get into schools like M.I.T., Berkeley, etc? They wouldn't, so they go to schools like Tulsa Community College.
So, enough complaining, and on to the solution. The genius mind doesn't need to skip a grade, because of the chance of missing some key data. What the genius mind needs instead is fast-paced instruction. Classes for geniuses should be set up so that students are learning material twice as fast as in normal classes - when a topic is taught, the teacher moves on with another topic and doesn't linger. The genius mind will get it anyway, and won't need an hour's worth of reiteration. In this way, the genius mind will be challenged, and the genius will not grow up to be a lazy bum. Once we have a nice core group of geniuses, the technology level in this country should grow by leaps and bounds.
But it'll never happen...
What happened to this genius 3?
ARTICLE 3
Posted on March 24, 2006 by The Eternal Wanderer
For those who've read today's The Star article, Genius Finds School Boring, on our very own child prodigy and Maths genius, 7 year old Adi Putra, the fact that the boy finds the public school system boring is a testament of our government's inability to provide holistic education for not only someone of Adi's standards, but also to other students as well.
Of course, bearing in mind that Adi's present school is obviously at a lost of how to manage a child who is far advanced compared to his peers, the school had no choice but to continue teaching the standard curriculum for Primary One students. The teachers, unfortunately, cannot give Adi special treatment as that ill not sit well with his other classmates and by giving him preferential treatment, it will also make him an outcast among his peers who would become jealous of the special treatment.
The simple solution to this is simply for Adi to not go to school, after all, what's there for him to learn in public school when he can already read a newspaper at the age of three and solve Add Maths problems by age 6.
I totally understand why Adi feels bored and decided to cut classes. The Primary One curriculum is basically something like kindergarten all over again, where students are drilled on writing, reading and calculation, all of which Adi has already mastered. There is nothing new to offer Adi in the curriculum or lessons, so why stay in school. The parents of Adi did the right thing by complying with his wishes to not go to school and I salute the boy for wanting to go to a school that gives him a more holistic education and a better learning environment.
Still, what the school did, which is to threaten to expel him, could have been done with a bit more tact. It is obvious that the school's action in issuing show cause letters to the boy and his parents, warning him that if he does not show up in school, he will be expelled, was done with little tolerance and understanding of Adi's predicament. I normally equate expellation with students with serious discipline problems and Adi is certainly not a boy with discipline problems. But the label would stick and he will have to live with the memory that he has been threatened with expulsion.
Did the school ever gave a thought to how Adi might feel and how his peers in school will think of him? Obviously not. All the school cares for is its policy to ensure that students attend classes. Anyone who does not is a problematic child. Thus, will be expelled. The school never thinks about the child's feelings. To them, that's secondary when it comes to doing their duty to uphold school rules and poilicies.
What the government should do, and if they are really serious and concerned for Adi's welfare and education, is to let the boy enrol in the Islamic International School here in KL, or any other private school that is better suited and prepared to manage a genius child like Adi. The most important thing here is not only to nurture his abilities so that he will not be one day burnt out like many other geniuses around the world, but also to build him up in other skills, not just Maths. He has expressed interest to learn other languages, and should be encouraged to do so.
Nurtured and taught the right way, we can expect great things from this boy in the future. But until then, it is also important that the glare of the media and attention be diverted away from him. He's still first and foremost a child and should not be exposed to such pressures. He should be allowed to enjoy the things every normal child enjoys. Every child have their right to have a normal childhood, to experience everything a normal child should experience, regardless of whether he's a genius or not.
True, expectations on him will be high in the future. but with proper care in his upbringing, I do not see how Adi will not become one of Malaysia's outstanding personality in the future.
For now, let's give the kid a break he so needs and deserves.
Posted on March 24, 2006 by The Eternal Wanderer
For those who've read today's The Star article, Genius Finds School Boring, on our very own child prodigy and Maths genius, 7 year old Adi Putra, the fact that the boy finds the public school system boring is a testament of our government's inability to provide holistic education for not only someone of Adi's standards, but also to other students as well.
Of course, bearing in mind that Adi's present school is obviously at a lost of how to manage a child who is far advanced compared to his peers, the school had no choice but to continue teaching the standard curriculum for Primary One students. The teachers, unfortunately, cannot give Adi special treatment as that ill not sit well with his other classmates and by giving him preferential treatment, it will also make him an outcast among his peers who would become jealous of the special treatment.
The simple solution to this is simply for Adi to not go to school, after all, what's there for him to learn in public school when he can already read a newspaper at the age of three and solve Add Maths problems by age 6.
I totally understand why Adi feels bored and decided to cut classes. The Primary One curriculum is basically something like kindergarten all over again, where students are drilled on writing, reading and calculation, all of which Adi has already mastered. There is nothing new to offer Adi in the curriculum or lessons, so why stay in school. The parents of Adi did the right thing by complying with his wishes to not go to school and I salute the boy for wanting to go to a school that gives him a more holistic education and a better learning environment.
Still, what the school did, which is to threaten to expel him, could have been done with a bit more tact. It is obvious that the school's action in issuing show cause letters to the boy and his parents, warning him that if he does not show up in school, he will be expelled, was done with little tolerance and understanding of Adi's predicament. I normally equate expellation with students with serious discipline problems and Adi is certainly not a boy with discipline problems. But the label would stick and he will have to live with the memory that he has been threatened with expulsion.
Did the school ever gave a thought to how Adi might feel and how his peers in school will think of him? Obviously not. All the school cares for is its policy to ensure that students attend classes. Anyone who does not is a problematic child. Thus, will be expelled. The school never thinks about the child's feelings. To them, that's secondary when it comes to doing their duty to uphold school rules and poilicies.
What the government should do, and if they are really serious and concerned for Adi's welfare and education, is to let the boy enrol in the Islamic International School here in KL, or any other private school that is better suited and prepared to manage a genius child like Adi. The most important thing here is not only to nurture his abilities so that he will not be one day burnt out like many other geniuses around the world, but also to build him up in other skills, not just Maths. He has expressed interest to learn other languages, and should be encouraged to do so.
Nurtured and taught the right way, we can expect great things from this boy in the future. But until then, it is also important that the glare of the media and attention be diverted away from him. He's still first and foremost a child and should not be exposed to such pressures. He should be allowed to enjoy the things every normal child enjoys. Every child have their right to have a normal childhood, to experience everything a normal child should experience, regardless of whether he's a genius or not.
True, expectations on him will be high in the future. but with proper care in his upbringing, I do not see how Adi will not become one of Malaysia's outstanding personality in the future.
For now, let's give the kid a break he so needs and deserves.
What happened to this genius 2?
ARTICLE 2
SHE was a child maths genius who won a place at Oxford University aged just 13—but now the only sums Sufiah Yusof is interested in are the ones she earns as a HOOKER.
For sad Sufiah the daily equation she has to solve is simply sex equals £130 as she sells her body to punters over the internet.
The gifted girl with the winning smile had the world at her feet ten years ago and should be a rich woman by now—but last week she was busy subtracting her underwear for our undercover reporter in her dingy back street flat.
“Would you like to start your half hour now?” said Sufiah, 23, as she danced on the bed, displaying her body for examination.
Then she listed all the sleazy plus points she would throw in for our man if he took up her offer.
Calling herself Shilpa Lee, the former child prodigy still juggles with figures on a hookers’ website, describing herself as a “very pretty size 8, 32D bust and 5′5″ tall—available for booking every day from 11am to 8pm.”
She says she is a “sexy, smart student” who prefers “older gentlemen”— but a former pal who has witnessed her downfall told us: “It is all desperately heartbreaking.
“With her amazing brain she should be able to make money any way she wants. But instead her life has spiralled completely out of control.”
Life has never quite added up for Sufiah. Her descent into prostitution in Salford, Manchester, is the latest in a long line of tragedies to have engulfed her since the sunny day when she posed with her university mortar board for the world’s press outside prestigious St Hilda’s College.
Our shock revelations today come in the week her domineering dad Farooq was jailed for sexually assaulting two 15-year-old girls as he home-tutored them in maths.
And he was always at the root of all her troubles— even as she passed the further maths A-Level she needed for entry to Oxford at the age of 12. In those days Sufia was a strict Muslim child who prayed five times a day and was subjected to her father’s famous Accelerated Learning Technique.
Her days involved stretching and breathing exercises in freezing rooms to keep her brain attentive.
Sufiah would then study hard and be forced to play tennis with just as much intensity as fanatical Farooq drove her on. The routine was so effective Sufiah was seeded number eight in the country for under 21s.
But three years into Oxford, the 15-year-old sparked a massive police hunt after running away.
Abuse
At the time her father bizarrely claimed Sufiah had been kidnapped and brainwashed by an organisation seeking the key to her intelligence.
But Sufiah sent an email to her family describing her life under her father as a “living hell”.
One message to her sister read: “I’ve finally had enough of 15 years of physical and emotional abuse. You know what I am talking about.”
Sufiah was missing for two weeks before being found in an internet café in Bournemouth where she had been working as a hotel waitress.
She refused to go back to her parents and instead was taken into the care of social services.
It was then revealed that Farooq had been jailed for three years in 1992 for his part in a £1.5m mortgage swindle. Before that—at the age of 19—he had been sent to borstal for his role in a conspiracy involving £100,000.
Free from the spell of her father, Sufiah returned to Oxford to complete the final year of her Masters in Maths.
But she was now more concerned with enjoying herself—and failed to finish the course after meeting trainee lawyer Jonathan Marshall.
They were married in 2004 when Sufiah was just 19 and Jonathan 24. But the strains with her family were still there.
Despite being invited, Sufiah’s parents and four brothers and sisters failed to turn up to the wedding.
Her dreams of a happy life with Jonathan were shattered when the couple divorced just a year later.
Now, in her sad little flat, she uses her body to pay the rent. Sufiah met our man, posing as a punter, at the entrance to her building wearing a tiny skirt, leather boots and a tight t-shirt. She was carrying three mobile phones.
She laughed and joked as she led him to her small apartment where a bed was already set out in the lounge.
She told him it was £130 an hour and offered him a glass of water before putting some music on to a cheap portable stereo and nervously stripping down to her red lace bra and knickers.
Sufiah then peeled off her underwear and danced on the bed. She told him she did full sex with a condom and oral sex without protection.
After our man had made his excuses, Sufiah kept him talking by telling him how she was studying for a Masters degree in Economics on a part-time two year course in London.
The former prodigy added: “I’ve got exams coming up and I’m thinking ‘Oh my God!’”
Once described by her parents as “naïve and unstreetwise”, she works alone from her flat without any obvious physical security or protection.
She even admitted to our reporter: “It’s always a surprise who you are going to meet.”
Cheerful Sufiah gave no indication of any sadness at the jailing of her father the previous day. On Wednesday Farooq, 50, was sentenced to 18 months at Coventry Crown Court for touching two 15-year-old girls when he was home tutoring them at maths.
The court heard how in May last year Farooq arrived at one of the victim’s home for a maths lesson.
Destroyed
Farooq’s defence lawyer Tim Hannam said: “He’s been back in prison for over five months and knows there’ll be no more teaching and any hope he had of gaining an income from the teaching method he had developed to a high degree of success is lost to him. His reputation is destroyed.”
Now it’s clear the daughter who fled his strict regime has almost been destroyed too.
Her friend said last night: “Sufiah has suffered so many knocks in her life. I just hope she can drag herself out this life she has got herself into.
“She is a good person and deserves a much better life than this. Her gift really has been a curse.
SHE was a child maths genius who won a place at Oxford University aged just 13—but now the only sums Sufiah Yusof is interested in are the ones she earns as a HOOKER.
For sad Sufiah the daily equation she has to solve is simply sex equals £130 as she sells her body to punters over the internet.
The gifted girl with the winning smile had the world at her feet ten years ago and should be a rich woman by now—but last week she was busy subtracting her underwear for our undercover reporter in her dingy back street flat.
“Would you like to start your half hour now?” said Sufiah, 23, as she danced on the bed, displaying her body for examination.
Then she listed all the sleazy plus points she would throw in for our man if he took up her offer.
Calling herself Shilpa Lee, the former child prodigy still juggles with figures on a hookers’ website, describing herself as a “very pretty size 8, 32D bust and 5′5″ tall—available for booking every day from 11am to 8pm.”
She says she is a “sexy, smart student” who prefers “older gentlemen”— but a former pal who has witnessed her downfall told us: “It is all desperately heartbreaking.
“With her amazing brain she should be able to make money any way she wants. But instead her life has spiralled completely out of control.”
Life has never quite added up for Sufiah. Her descent into prostitution in Salford, Manchester, is the latest in a long line of tragedies to have engulfed her since the sunny day when she posed with her university mortar board for the world’s press outside prestigious St Hilda’s College.
Our shock revelations today come in the week her domineering dad Farooq was jailed for sexually assaulting two 15-year-old girls as he home-tutored them in maths.
And he was always at the root of all her troubles— even as she passed the further maths A-Level she needed for entry to Oxford at the age of 12. In those days Sufia was a strict Muslim child who prayed five times a day and was subjected to her father’s famous Accelerated Learning Technique.
Her days involved stretching and breathing exercises in freezing rooms to keep her brain attentive.
Sufiah would then study hard and be forced to play tennis with just as much intensity as fanatical Farooq drove her on. The routine was so effective Sufiah was seeded number eight in the country for under 21s.
But three years into Oxford, the 15-year-old sparked a massive police hunt after running away.
Abuse
At the time her father bizarrely claimed Sufiah had been kidnapped and brainwashed by an organisation seeking the key to her intelligence.
But Sufiah sent an email to her family describing her life under her father as a “living hell”.
One message to her sister read: “I’ve finally had enough of 15 years of physical and emotional abuse. You know what I am talking about.”
Sufiah was missing for two weeks before being found in an internet café in Bournemouth where she had been working as a hotel waitress.
She refused to go back to her parents and instead was taken into the care of social services.
It was then revealed that Farooq had been jailed for three years in 1992 for his part in a £1.5m mortgage swindle. Before that—at the age of 19—he had been sent to borstal for his role in a conspiracy involving £100,000.
Free from the spell of her father, Sufiah returned to Oxford to complete the final year of her Masters in Maths.
But she was now more concerned with enjoying herself—and failed to finish the course after meeting trainee lawyer Jonathan Marshall.
They were married in 2004 when Sufiah was just 19 and Jonathan 24. But the strains with her family were still there.
Despite being invited, Sufiah’s parents and four brothers and sisters failed to turn up to the wedding.
Her dreams of a happy life with Jonathan were shattered when the couple divorced just a year later.
Now, in her sad little flat, she uses her body to pay the rent. Sufiah met our man, posing as a punter, at the entrance to her building wearing a tiny skirt, leather boots and a tight t-shirt. She was carrying three mobile phones.
She laughed and joked as she led him to her small apartment where a bed was already set out in the lounge.
She told him it was £130 an hour and offered him a glass of water before putting some music on to a cheap portable stereo and nervously stripping down to her red lace bra and knickers.
Sufiah then peeled off her underwear and danced on the bed. She told him she did full sex with a condom and oral sex without protection.
After our man had made his excuses, Sufiah kept him talking by telling him how she was studying for a Masters degree in Economics on a part-time two year course in London.
The former prodigy added: “I’ve got exams coming up and I’m thinking ‘Oh my God!’”
Once described by her parents as “naïve and unstreetwise”, she works alone from her flat without any obvious physical security or protection.
She even admitted to our reporter: “It’s always a surprise who you are going to meet.”
Cheerful Sufiah gave no indication of any sadness at the jailing of her father the previous day. On Wednesday Farooq, 50, was sentenced to 18 months at Coventry Crown Court for touching two 15-year-old girls when he was home tutoring them at maths.
The court heard how in May last year Farooq arrived at one of the victim’s home for a maths lesson.
Destroyed
Farooq’s defence lawyer Tim Hannam said: “He’s been back in prison for over five months and knows there’ll be no more teaching and any hope he had of gaining an income from the teaching method he had developed to a high degree of success is lost to him. His reputation is destroyed.”
Now it’s clear the daughter who fled his strict regime has almost been destroyed too.
Her friend said last night: “Sufiah has suffered so many knocks in her life. I just hope she can drag herself out this life she has got herself into.
“She is a good person and deserves a much better life than this. Her gift really has been a curse.
What happened to this genius 1?
ARTICLE 1
The Star, Monday January 8, 2007--(SEREMBAN): Chiang Ti Ming, the boy genius who was the youngest student ever to be admitted into the prestigious California Institute of Technology (CalTech) almost two decades ago, has passed away on Saturday morning. “He passed away peacefully,” said a family member yesterday.
The family declined to reveal other details while Chiang’s parents, father Chiang Chick Liam and mother Lee Soo Hoon, were too distraught to talk to the press.
Only his family members were seen entering the house here yesterday afternoon and requested that privacy be given to them.
Press reports in 2002 said that he had been admitted into a hospital in Kuala Lumpur, for depression and withdrawal symptoms. The family also suffered a tragic loss when his sister Eei Wern, drowned at the swimming pool of the Seremban International Golf Club in 1993. Eei Wern was then four.
It was reported 16 years ago that Chiang, who was 15 at the time, was not only the youngest student to be admitted into CalTech but also among the top five percent where his results were concerned.
Chiang had achieved many firsts while at CalTech, including being the youngest ever student to receive the Undergraduate Students Merit Award two years in a row.
He was also an honorary member of the Tau Beta Phi, a national engineering society.
He had been accepted to study for the second year of the four-year Physics degree course at the university in 1989 when he was 13 after sponsorship from several organisations.
The prodigy later pursued and graduated with a doctorate in particle physics at Cornell University in New York.
The Star, Monday January 8, 2007--(SEREMBAN): Chiang Ti Ming, the boy genius who was the youngest student ever to be admitted into the prestigious California Institute of Technology (CalTech) almost two decades ago, has passed away on Saturday morning. “He passed away peacefully,” said a family member yesterday.
The family declined to reveal other details while Chiang’s parents, father Chiang Chick Liam and mother Lee Soo Hoon, were too distraught to talk to the press.
Only his family members were seen entering the house here yesterday afternoon and requested that privacy be given to them.
Press reports in 2002 said that he had been admitted into a hospital in Kuala Lumpur, for depression and withdrawal symptoms. The family also suffered a tragic loss when his sister Eei Wern, drowned at the swimming pool of the Seremban International Golf Club in 1993. Eei Wern was then four.
It was reported 16 years ago that Chiang, who was 15 at the time, was not only the youngest student to be admitted into CalTech but also among the top five percent where his results were concerned.
Chiang had achieved many firsts while at CalTech, including being the youngest ever student to receive the Undergraduate Students Merit Award two years in a row.
He was also an honorary member of the Tau Beta Phi, a national engineering society.
He had been accepted to study for the second year of the four-year Physics degree course at the university in 1989 when he was 13 after sponsorship from several organisations.
The prodigy later pursued and graduated with a doctorate in particle physics at Cornell University in New York.
What is a genius ?
Is genius a gift or is it developed?
What can I do to enhance my brain power ?
Learn more about your own brain’s function:
• How do you process information?
• How do you store information?
• What are your own internal processes?
• What makes you remember?
• When are you at your most creative?
• How did you learn so well as child?
As Albert Eistein said....
Intellectuals solve problems;
Geniuses prevent them.
What can I do to enhance my brain power ?
Learn more about your own brain’s function:
• How do you process information?
• How do you store information?
• What are your own internal processes?
• What makes you remember?
• When are you at your most creative?
• How did you learn so well as child?
As Albert Eistein said....
Intellectuals solve problems;
Geniuses prevent them.
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