Focus on gifted children

Lifetime channel’s “Child Genius”

TV shows tend to stuff children into a predictable “cute and porma” box, making it difficult to share the many other traits and gifts they have.

Last month, however, we were pleasantly surprised to watch some programs that focused on kids’ less ephemeral and ickily ingratiating talents and abilities.

Topping the unexpected viewing fest and feast was Lifetime’s “Child Genius,” the awesomely impressive IQ competition that tests young contestants’ knowledge across a very wide range of subjects.

The telecast we caught was the season-ender, so we were able to see the cream of this season’s crop determinedly rise up to the final’s most stringent tests.

We’re fairly “knowledgeable” ourselves, but the 9- and 10-year-old finalists firmly put us in our sheepish and underachieving place with their vastly superior treasure trove of information!

The season’s big winner was rewarded with a cool and hot $100,000 college fund, plus the unique psychic satisfaction of being “officially” hailed as the smartest kid in the United States.

Best of all, the tilt’s focus on amazingly informed and intelligent children has inspired many other kids to be similarly focused on their studies, and not on being as cute and porma as all get-out. That’s money in the bank for them, too!

Another TV program that showcases “not just determinedly cute” kids is the “US National Spelling Bee” competition, which we’ve watched from time to time for some seasons now.

What’s most striking and instructive about this particular TV tilt is the fact that many of its best competitors are not the usual white or black stereotypical representation of American youth, but of Asian, specifically Chinese or Indian racial derivation.

We’ve known for a long time now that the Chinese are good at numbers, but the Asian-Indian ascendancy is a very pleasant surprise.

Indeed, an inordinate proportion of finalists in nationwide spelling bees shown on TV underscored this fact, to Indian contestants’ clear advantage.

For its part, “Junior MasterChef Australia” delights, and surprises viewers with its special focus on and tribute to pint-sized cooks who whip up impressively complicated dishes for the cooking tilt’s judges to savor—and rave about.

Strictly supervised by adults to make doubly sure they don’t cut or singe themselves, the precociously gifted kitchen wizards and witches are quite obviously no cute but callow amateurs.

They come to the show already well-versed in the culinary arts and the techniques required to excel in them.

Finally, “Project Runway’s” own teen edition impresses viewers with the skills of its young contestants, whose design and clothes construction skills are often nothing short of amazing.

In their precocious case, youth and talent are definitely not wasted on the young!