Britain's Brainiest Family is Black and Has 9-Year-Old High School-Bound Twins

[malaise]

http://www.bvblackspin.com/2010/03/02/britains-brainiest-family-is-black/
<snip>
The future little scholars' father, Chris, and mother, Ann, immigrated to Britain from Nigeria more than 30 years ago and have actually been down this prodigy route before with their three older children, who are also overachievers.

The couple's oldest daughter, Anne-Marie, is now 20, but at age 13, she won a British government scholarship to take undergraduate courses at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Christiana, 17, their other daughter, is the youngest student ever to study at the undergraduate level in any British University at the age of 11. Youngest daughter, Samantha, now 12, passed two rigorous high school–level mathematics and statistics exams at the age of 6. She mentored the twins to pass their own math secondary school test when they were also 6.

Even with all of this, the proud dad denies that there is any particular genius in his family. He does credit his children's success to the Excellence in Education program for disadvantaged inner-city youth. "Every child is a genius," he said. "Once you identify the talent of a child and put them in the environment that will nurture that talent, then the sky is the limit. Look at Tiger Woods or the Williams sisters -- they were nurtured. You can never rule anything out with them. The competition between the two of them makes them excel in anything they do."
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Wow!!

[jody]

1. I've had several Nigerian graduate students and they were all top flight. n/t

[HeresyLives]

2. Grey matter is far more important than skin color.

[Cerridwen]

3. "put them in the environment that will nurture that talent" n/t

[TheDebbieDee]

4. They're smart, yes. But what are their social skills like?

[HeresyLives]

5. What???

[TheDebbieDee]

7. Being brainy is only a part of what makes a successful person.

A successful person also has to be able to networ, interact with co-workers, supervisors, clients.

Most people, no matter how smart, don't start out at the top of a company. They usually have to work their way to the top. They won't get there if they don't know how to treat people.

[HeresyLives]

10. I think you'll find most geniuses have zip interest

in team-work, or interaction with co-workers. :rofl:

And intelligent people everywhere are quite capable of manners...whether they're black or Nigerian or anything else.

Brains are brains. 5 minutes can fill you in on table manners.

[happy_liberal]

9. well judging from my homeschooled kids

They are more able to hold a conversation with people of all ages. They have interest in and can discuss history, science, philosophy, politics, literature and are not just interested in the getting their next video game, although they are interested in that as well. They don't go around saying things like 'rofl' or have that 'glazed over not really all there' look, nor do they have experience sexting their body parts to others so I guess they are missing out.

[sense]

12. Ditto for my home-schooled children.....

Plus, the oldest speaks 6 languages to better be able to communicate with even more people.......

[happy_liberal]

6. !

"Every child is a genius," he said. "Once you identify the talent of a child and put them in the environment that will nurture that talent, then the sky is the limit."

[malaise]

8. He's right but what I found even more interesting was

'...the Excellence in Education program for disadvantaged inner-city youth'.

[etherealtruth]

13. That is the key

We keep hearing what the problems are trying to educate "underprivileged" children within the current system ... well lets work on a system that supports children within the environment they are in (Yes, we should strive to erase the things that put them at a disadvantage ....starting with poverty).

[happy_liberal]

14. love it! I love this family! Thank you for posting this.

I have to cross post this response by nannah on another thread about poverty...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7935410#7943562

"what is sadly ironic about this is that many of the causes
of poverty are essentially put into place at a persons point of birth and we are not willing to recognize and mitigate this difference. Consider that at a person's point of birth, they have physical and cognitive attributes. They are born into environments that affect how they are nurtured and nourished. Their economic status is determined. Opportunity is sharply limited for people who are born with an unfortunate combination of birth point elements. Opportunity is sharply increased for people with a fortunate combination of birth point elements. There is increasing research showing that genetics, nutrition and nurturing significantly effect how we merge into the people we become.

Poverty is rarely volitional. By overstating the idea that anyone can succeed if they try and ignoring the role of point of birth issues in limiting a person's opportunities, we distort reality and create a cruel disdain for people who weren't born into the high opportunity group.

I say this after spending 20 + years working as a social worker with people in poverty. Our words of equal opportunity obscure how unequal people's access to success really is. "

[etherealtruth]

15. My hat is off to social workers that do what you do!

Yours is truly a profession that is under-paid and under-appreciated!

[etherealtruth]

16. My hat is off to social workers that do what you do! sorry for the duplicate ???

But it is worth repeating :)

[malaise]

18. Excellent post happy_liberal

Thanks for this

[blueamy66]

11. I love the "multiplying

with their fingers"!

[newtothegame]

17. Wow what a racist post. n/t

[npk]

19. That is impressive

9 years old and already bound for high school. Of course that means they will have to ride the school bus their entire time in high school. That would be the part that would have killed me.