Clever kids

He can put leggo together and he gets into mensa?

Clear case of parents taking things too bloody seriousely.
 
anyone else find it annoying that aside from the interviewer asking him a stupid riddle which requires comprehension of the idea of a riddle as well as the vocabulary involved, he got it wrong! the interviewer I mean, the way he said it the kid was perfectly correct to say a glass house.
 
Margh, I loathe the concept of Mensa. Your intelligence is influenced by your genes and your environment. Accordingly, Mensa seems to me to be nothing more than a huge circle jerk for the fortunate. Why anybody would want to join baffles me, I would hate to be associated with such masturbation.
 
I do believe the mother of that child is the sister of the youngest person ever to be accepted onto a computer science degree at Oxford Brookes (the Brookes part was always missing when that was bandied about) at the age of 13. What I know about him would lead me to believe it is indeed parents bigging up their kids.
 
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It can be pretty damaging for a child to be catagorised too early. I speak from experience somewhat... (and please don't take this as a bragging post, it really isn't intended to be).

As a child I was extremely bright - a lot more so (relatively speaking) than I am now. An early developer if you like. Anyway, I had my routine assessment at age 3, and the woman who came to assess me told my parents that I was "the most incredible 3 year old she had ever seen". She told them that I was "one in a million". While I'm sure that this was pleasing for my parents to hear, it created a level of expectation that was impossible for me to keep up with.

For example, I was always *expected* to be the best at everything I did. If I was, then that was just to be expected. If not, then I must have been doing something wrong. It was impossible for me to win any praise from my parents (or anyone else in authority), because I was only following in the wake of my 'gift'. When I got straight As at GCSE and A-level it was "only to be expected". When I got into Cambridge to study maths, there was some concern and disappointment because I didn't get the highest possible grades in the STEP entrance exam. This kind of attitude brewed inside me feelings of resentment towards others, who were allowed to feel proud of their achievements. I was especially resentful towards my brother who was of average intelligence, recieved all kinds of incentives to do well at school, and was always praised when he did something well.

Now I don't blame my parents for any of this, they were only trying to get me to live up to my full potential, but it has certainly left me with residual emotional problems. I have no real motivation to do anything, I feel no pride in my work, I feel extremely uncomfortable when anyone says anything positive about me, and I still have massive envy for people that can be proud of their achievements.

Anyway, the point of this long-winded post is that parents should be very careful about labelling their children too early, in any way shape or form. A child should at least be old enough to understand the meaning of their 'label' before it is affixed to them. I believe this holds true with alsorts of assessment, including primary school exams etc. As for the specifics of this case, having the child take a MENSA exam (which IIRC only means that his IQ is over 150), it sounds like the parents are living through their child. I hope that they don't push him too far, as a lot of children burn-out as a result of such pressure.
 
Insufferable pushy middle class parents. I bet they only feed the poor thing tofu, play him Mozart and read him the classics. He'll be an only child because his parents want to dedicate all their energies into raising this one exceptional child.

In 12 years time he'll do a speach at the Labour Conference on the importance of fair trade gender equality in combatting climate change, but by 18 he'll be a cross-dresser with mild schizophrenia and will eventually live alone in an an old fishing cottage in Norfolk whittling chidren's toys from driftwood (to remind himself of the childhood he never had).

I've told my wife to stab me in the leg wth a carving fork if I ever become like that.
 
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At 2 you will have had nowhere near enough education or experience to get into mensa for a start.
2 year olds can never be clever, smart for their age yes, but smart for a 2 year old isn't exactly smart.

He'll probably go crazy after a few years of the parents using him as a project, him not experiencing life.
 
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