June 15, 2005
Spinning towards the truthLiterature
One of the best-selling books at your local store right now is the philosophical essay titled, On Bullshit. Philosophy is HOT right now, as are the philosophers who are philosophizing. That leads me to five year old Shruti Indiresan from the Bay Area. The SJ Mercury reports (thanks for the tip Runnerwallah):
Shruti Indiresan has been surprising people all of her life.
As a toddler she buzzed through books and slapped together puzzles developed for much older children. Today, at 5, the kindergartner at Faria Elementary School in Cupertino reads and writes at a fourth-grade level.
Shruti’s latest stunner: winning the Most Philosophical Kindergartner in America title with the essay she composed for the third Kids Philosophy Slam. Several thousand students across the country in kindergarten through 12th grade submitted essays on which is more important in their lives: truth or beauty.
“I feel happy when I am telling the truth,” Shruti wrote in her essay. “I become beautiful when I am truthful.”
Her mother was a bit baffled.
“She’s very fond of princesses,” Rohini Indiresan said. “So I figured she would choose beauty.”
So what was Shruti’s winning essay? Behold:
Truth means not telling a lie. It is good to tell the truth. You are telling the egzact thing that you did. I feel happy when I am telling the truth. I become beautiful when I am truthful. Beauty comes from your good behavior. You can find out you are telling the truth by the size of your nose. Truth means to me good behavior. Because truth is the only way adults will be proud of you. Everyone will like me.
That’s deep. There was even a hat tip to the great philosopher Carlo Collodi that she embedded within her treatise. Did anyone else catch it? So is Shruti a total bookworm then?
Shruti wears glasses and is a deep thinker. She can’t put down Time magazine and has engaged her parents in thoughtful discussions about the Asian tsunami and the Terri Schiavo case.
But a bookworm she’s not. Her parents don’t impose strict study routines. They indulge her love of drawing — usually self-portraits featuring flowing gowns and waist-length tresses. They allow her some TV and computer time limited to kids’ sites, “where I get to choose what to play,” Shruti says while maneuvering a mouse as if she was born with one in her hand.
Mostly, the girl loves a good twirl.
“Everybody just loves seeing her spin around,” Luttrull said.
Ahhh. Of course. Those that are Mevlevi at heart are always philosophical and spinning in search of truth.
abhi on June 15, 2005 01:16 PM in Literature · T·r·a·c·k·b·a·c·k address · Direct link · Email post
I included this in the spelling bee post...
From the article,
Not mentioned in the article - her dad, Atri Indiresan, was a top 10 rank holder in the JEE test for entry into the IITs and her grandfather, P.V. Indiresan, was once the director of IIT-Madras/Chennai.
Gorgeous. What a super star.
oh my god, she's adorable :)
What a sweetie!
in this multi-hued world
we live and die,
our lives unfurled,
truth and beauty in a tie.
wink, aish: wink, sexy
on truth, on beauty
we are always flexy.
believing what we want
our best selves to flaunt,
which is why this girl
so rare,
an fluorescent pearl,
a purple bear.
*brain bird leaves a poem*
Is intelligence inherited? Hope not. My kids will have a tough time otherwise.
Her smart parents obviously gave her nurturing surroundings as well, so I highly doubt it's merely in the genes.
She's so cute, little glasses, twirling and all. My heart did a little flip with "I become beautiful when I am truthful."
Don't burn out too quickly, little one.
The little girl is CUTE, but I'm blown away by the fact that the American public school system regards this as a fourth grade-level essay.
Carlo Collodi
very funny.
The little girl is CUTE, but I'm blown away by the fact that the American public school system regards this as a fourth grade-level essay.
Huh. It might not be her densest prose. I mean, I think it's great, but you're making me think about that. How would one go about measuring what's the bestan average fourth grader is capable of achieving instead of what the average fourth grader actually acheives in our system. You'd want a very carefully culled set of students to study for the former--culled for being totally average and ordinary.
a stay-at-home mom who has a Ph.D. in space physics
This is also making me think. . . .I'd be interested in statistics on the education levels of Indian stay at home Moms vs. other ethnicities.
When I was little my sister called the "rides" she gave me the Bhimsen and the Garuda. Bhimsen. . pick the kid up and twirl him or her up above your head, just like Bhimsen always sort of literally dispatches bad guys in movies. Garuda. . .grab the kid's arms and spin around while they squeal. It's a wonder we didn't break anything.
"...You can find out you are telling the truth by the size of your nose. ..."
CUTE!!
just b/c she CAN read/write/function at a 4th grade level doesn't mean that THIS particular essay is at that level. do all of us function at our peak capacity at all times? let alone when we're FIVE?
the story clearly says that her mother filed this contest away as a thing "to do", only remembered it the day before it was due and then sprang it on the poor kid w/o any warning, preparation or opportunity for her to daydream (or twirl).
i think it's a damned good statement. sometimes, the simplest thoughts really are the most profound. fourth grade? i'm done with grad school, and i'm nowhere near as wise as our baby philosopher princess.
I'm sorry, but I don't agree. Perhaps I'm jaded from knowing six year olds (and up) who want nothing more than to emulate Miss India/World/Universe contestants.
You know, I skimmed past the news article bit and just read what the actual contest was. Haven't these people heard of Keats?
She is TOO adorable. And echoing Maitri, reading her essay gave me goosebumps. If only I made it big after winning my county's best poet in KG.
I think I did crash and burn...and then went to law school.
I think my favorite is the photo of her eating a cookie in her party dress.
It's not ideal fourth grade-level, it's fourth grade-level reality in the United States. Meaning that it's relative which makes Sruti's essay at a sixth grade-level in most parts of the American south.
Oh, and AAAAWWWW ... please smash my broken heart into a few more million pieces by striking a cute pose while dressed in party dress and those wittle glasses and eating a cookie.
Now, there's an ideal: to be smart, wise and content.
I can't wait until she's 25 and stumbles across this thread :)
Saheli (or someone else), I have no idea what this means. Can you enlighten the poorly read among us? :)
Saurav,
It was Saheli, but I'll attempt to decipher her implication.
The last line of Ode On A Grecian Urn states:
Beauty is truth, truth beauty that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.
You know, given that the competition rules at the kindergarten level ask the kids to explore "Truth or Beauty? What is more important in your life, Truth or Beauty?"
grazi :)
It's 'grazie,' it doesn't rhyme with Nazi :-)
*Saurav turns red with embarrassment*
well, learn something new every day, i guess. grazie.
>
And I am sure they all got there by "rote memorisation". The wonders of "mugging up" Oh Boy. That explains the secret of these smart desi families!
Interesting though. Dr.Indirean when Director of IIT-M used to thunder at the students for wanting to haul themselves over to this part of the world. And his som works in CISCO? I am not sure if the father is very happy about that!
Daing!! The writing level notwithstanding, I'm just floored by the way she put the seemingly opposite ends of arguement together. She's like one rebirth away from nirvana!
Hey Self-righteous, NOT AT ALL if she's got Shruti to show for it. And never mind Shruti, this is one decision no one else can judge but Rohini. I don't know whether you are a parent, or a South Asian, but here's my perspective from one who's both: I've known many, many academically and otherwise very accomplished S Asian parents "give" careers up to raise their children. Parents *should* raise their children, not daycare (and I very well understand the reality in USA anyway). By your comment it would seem that a Ph.D.'s life is sub-optimal by being a parent.
I believe my child should get my best time and effort, not my employer.
Does this mean that those who say or believe that "War is deceit" are inherently ugly? >:)
This is awesome. I'm proud to have worked closely with her father Atri at Cisco in the same group as a fellow software developer for over four years between 2000 and 2004. This is incredible, indeed!!!