Child Genius

I heard on the radio that Rahul's father clapped when another child got something wrong. Definitely child abuse.

Not a programme I would want to watch because I hate to see children, who do not want to be there, very distressed.

I guess this must come under the banner of 'guilty pleasure viewing' for me because some of the parents and children are awful. It is very evident that some parents want the 'win' for their own self-esteem and in every series there are some who try to justify the pressure they are applying and neglect to affirm their children, whether they 'succeed' or not in the competition. But there are also some parents who are delightful and balanced and have managed to produce apparently lovely children.

To me the programme gently holds the mirror up and leaves us to our own thoughts about it. I always hope that parents will watch it back and those that need to might see themselves with fresh eyes and learn something positive from the ones who are nicer!

We can but hope for Rahul and his family ...

I did find this compelling tv, but must admit I don't approve of it really. Rahul was obviously perfectly confident but some of the children seemed very unhappy and I cannot understand why their parents put them through this.

Actually I disagree that Rahul will end up a not-very-nice adult - on the contrary, I was struck by his humility, there was absolutely no whooping or lording it over other competitors at any poit, as far as I can remember.

*point

You are right devongirl - Rahul's behaviour was more mature and balanced than his father's. It was a pity to see that he kept a distance from other children - again parental influence it seems, but he did come across as a nice person.

I taught a boy once whose father had told him 'winning is all that matters' and he got so distressed on Sports Day when he didn't win a race - even if he came second! He also had a very inflated view of his own abilities - had had it drummed into him that he was 'the best' and often repeated this like a mantra - this really put other children's backs up and left him isolated amongst his peer group - very sad. But if you met the parent you could see why the child was as he was. He was actually a really lovely little boy, but made so vulnerable in life because of the way he was being brought up.

I agree ++ with those who don't like it.
What bothers me most is the probable inability of the losers, emotionally immature, to cope with their 'failure'.
I think it's cruel.
Other things I don't like but that's the most upsetting.

Watching Child genius got me thinking about the concept of `genius` . The children are obviously very intelligent but is it not more to do with their ability to memorise ? Would problem solving be a better indication of so called genius ? I have one son who may have done well on this programme but he is on the Autistic spectrum and admits he would rather have social skills !

I was surprised to find out that the spellings they were asked( really obscure words , half of which I had never heard of) were from a pre given list of 400 which they had all swotted up. Why not ask random spellings which are unprepared? Better test of general knowledge then rather than memory then

Oh, I didn't know that about the spellings! I think in previous runs of the show, they had been allowed to ask the meaning of the word, but that didn't happen this time, which is more understandable if they had seen the list already.

I agree, in that case it was just another memory test, whereas a good speller will make use of other cues such as meaning and context, etymology, phonics, patterns and "rules", etc.