CREDIT: Tim Fraser, CanWest News Service
Posted on 03/01/2003 8:58:27 AM PST by Loyalist
Canada may lose brilliant toddler to brain drain
U.S. Arabs to pay tuition: Boy names capitals of 40 countries and speaks 3 languages
CREDIT: Tim Fraser, CanWest News Service
Bachar Sbeiti, a three-year-old from Windsor, starts class next week at a school for gifted children in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. His funding was raised by the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee.
Bachar Sbeiti can rattle off Islam's 99 names for God, knows the capitals and flags of dozens of countries and speaks three languages.
And, at three years old, he is poised to become the youngest member of Canada's brain drain. The boy and his mother, who currently live in Windsor, are about to move across the Detroit River so Bachar can attend the august Roeper School for gifted children in Bloomfield Hills, Mich.
"I'm so proud that my kid is Canadian," said Hala Sbeiti, Bachar's Lebanese-born mother. "I've knocked on all the doors, but nobody answers."
Ms. Sbeiti found out Bachar was gifted during a trip to the family doctor when he was two years old. He could already name the capitals of at least 40 countries and knew the difference between a triangle and a trapezoid.
Dr. Henry Clarke watched his young patient take an intense interest in a world map posted on his office wall.
"This guy was naming the various capitals of the different countries," he recalled. "It is not the usual interest of two-and-a-half-year-old boys."
Born in Montreal, Bachar turned three in January. Dr. Clarke is reluctant to call him a genius -- the child's IQ has not yet been tested -- but said he has an unusual level of intelligence that needs to be carefully developed.
He recommended Ms. Sbeiti send Bachar to a private school where he could get a specialized education, but the single mother said could not afford the expensive programs available in her area.
Ms. Sbeiti said she spent a year searching for an organization that would help sponsor her son's education. She called a nearby chapter of the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), a U.S.-based civil rights organization, as a last resort.
Imad Hamad, the group's regional director, said he assumed Ms. Sbeiti was a proud mother exaggerating about her son's abilities until he met Bachar in person. The three-year-old can even understand his neighbours when they speak Italian and recite verses of the Koran, he said.
"I was thrilled. He knows information that I barely remember," Mr. Hamad explained. "He can cite the 99 names for references to God in Arabic or the Islamic faith. I'm 41 years old. If you asked me to count those, I barely can remember five, 10 at the most."
The committee rallied around Bachar and his mother and has since raised US$30,000 from the Arab community for the boy's scholarship fund -- more than enough for his first year at Roeper. Their immediate goal is to raise enough for Bachar's first three years of school, which will cost about US$45,000.
The Lebanese consul-general based in Detroit, Mohammed Skayni, hosted a reception in the young protegé's honour on Thursday. About a week before the event, Bachar visited Mr. Skayni's office and stunned him by recognizing a picture of Emil Lahoud, the President of Lebanon, and the Lebanese flag.
Mr. Skayni said it is also important for Bachar to be supported by the Lebanese community.
"Our message is that we want to take care of our own kids," he explained. "This boy is going to turn out to be American at the end of the day because he's going to be raised here and he's going to be open to all sorts of ideas in the American system. But we still want him to know what we are and who we are."
It is imperative gifted children such as Bachar go to special schools so they do not encounter psychological, emotional or social problems, and get the attention they crave, he added.
Ms. Sbeiti admitted being Bachar's mother can be trying at times. He hates watching television and gets frustrated even when his mother wants to watch the news.
"The doctor says this may be because it takes my attention away from him; he wants me always with him," she said.
Once when Bachar asked his mother what happened to the sun at night, she said she told him it rested while the moon came out.
He confronted her one rainy day, pointing out neither the sun nor the moon were anywhere to be seen.
"I have to spend 24 hours talking to him and answering questions," she said. "Sometimes I know, sometimes I don't know."
Bachar often helps his mother with her shopping by reminding her what items are in the refrigerator. He has also memorized the routes to her friends' houses and gives her directions from the passenger seat.
Ms. Sbeiti is now planning her move -- school starts next week -- but she said she would prefer to stay in Canada.
"It's my last call to the Canadian schools, to the Canadian community, to the Canadian society, to adopt Bachar here in Canada before we make our move."
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