Mensa Toddler Should be Allowed to Flourish
Originally published in the Times Colonist on April 29, 2012.
Undoubtedly, Anthony Popa Urria’s IQ score of 154 and his distinction as Mensa’s youngest Canadian
member is highly impressive. Already at the age of two, he seems to possess a greater ability to
reason than a number of adults I have come across throughout my life.
Anthony’s extraordinary intellectual abilities should be embraced but in such a way that it will allow him
to grow socially as well. It is my hope that academic institutions and society have sufficiently advanced
to appreciate the emergence of great minds that can significantly contribute to human advancement
and understanding, and that an individual such as Anthony can be provided with an adequate
environment to flourish.
William James Sidis was said to have an IQ score close to 300. He had a long list of impressive
intellectual achievements at a young age, including becoming the youngest professor in history and
even positing the possible existence of black holes and dark matter. Unfortunately, instead of being
embraced and treasured for all of his intellectual accomplishments and gifts, Sidis was regarded as
an extreme oddity, that of a freak. Eventually, in part because of being under the media’s perpetual
scrutiny, he end up resigning from his professorship at Rice University and disappearing into
obscurity
We should let what happened to Sidis serve as an example in helping society avoid the mistakes of
the past with respect to future bright minds such as Anthony Urria.