Boy wonder is a class above the rest - including his teachers

WHEN Marley Adair was a baby he’d sit in his little towelling BabyGro watching the clothes and bubbles swirling round in his parents’ washing machine. But while for most babies such a machine is just a temporary distraction, for Marley it was a marvellous piece of electronic machinery. When he started talking, he asked his parents about the plumbing system and where the water went. By the time he began primary school, he had moved on to physics and quantum mechanics.

Now aged nine, Marley, a primary five pupil at James Gillespie’s Primary School in Edinburgh, has long ago outstripped his primary teachers’ knowledge of science and is studying Standard Grade physics with the school’s senior high students.

Three times a week he is escorted to the adjoining James Gillespie’s High School where, sitting on a high stool with his feet not reaching the floor, he sits beside 14-year-old Lars Fisher, his school “buddy”, assigned to be Marley’s partner in practical experiments and to help him settle successfully in class.

Lars admitted that fellow pupils were intrigued but a little worried when they heard Marley was joining them. “We were kind of apprehensive he might be better than all of us at everything. But he’s pretty amazing, has a certain level of maturity and is not annoying at all. He’s excitable, enthusiastic and polite. It’s just like having a person our age around. Sometimes his answers are better than ours,” he said. Lars is only occasionally reminded of Marley’s young age. “Sometimes his sense of humour is a little different from people my age, his jokes are not quite what I’d expect.”

Marley’s story brings to mind talented children such as Ruth Lawrence, who passed O-Level maths at the age of eight and graduated from Oxford University aged 13 with a first-class degree. But Marley’s parents, Eleanor Adair and Brian Carling, stress they are not “hot housing” their son.

Instead, they say Marley will set the pace and make his own decisions. While they wryly describe the intellectual challenge attempting to keep up with their son, they say they are grateful he has found something he is good at and which will always be with him, whatever he chooses to do with his life.

Mr Carling, recalling the early “washing machine” days when he could still answer the pre-schooler’s questions, said: “When Marley started talking he asked where water went when it went down the drain, he would look under sinks examining where the pipes went. He loved going to B&Q to look at plumbing systems.”

Mr Carling, a writer, who admits he himself struggled to scrape through to get poor grades at A-Level physics and chemistry, said: “That was OK. But then, even when he was at nursery, he started taking toy cars apart to examine the electronics. He would saw them in half to get the cog wheels out. We ended up buying him two – one to play with and one to examine.”

Mr Carling said he then had to learn to solder when Marley began building complex circuits and wanted to build electronic gadgets and robots.

“When his first tooth fell out a request was put in to the Tooth Fairy for a set of capacitors,” added Mr Carling.

Ms Adair, an artist, who has no background in science, said her son became interested in quantum mechanics when he started primary one.

“We could search online for some things, but he wanted to have discussions and talk about ideas. He wanted to know all about subatomic particles, how they interacted and combined. He’d ask ‘what’s a photon?’ ‘How does light get through space?’”

Kirsten Johnston, who was Marley’s primary one class teacher and the school’s science co-ordinator, said: “I remember the first time we did a science lesson in primary one. It was on the differences between materials such as plastics, wood and rubber. I knew pretty quickly that Marley had more knowledge than us. He said ‘I know what the structure of plastic is’ and started talking about atoms and molecules and hydrocarbons and how things bonded to make the plastic. I was blown away, amazed that a young child would even know the words.”

Mrs Johnston, who noticed he was also pushing ahead in mathematics, set up some mini-science projects for Marley, but it was not enough to contain him.

Talks with James Gillespie’s High resulted in two sixth-form boys studying physics being sent over one afternoon a week to tutor Marley. However, they soon reported back he had a better understanding of some of the things they were struggling with and managed to explain it to them. The primary school continued with the tutoring and also gave Marley advanced mathematics worksheets to study. Then, last August, after an assessment by the high school’s head of physics, he started the two-year Standard Grade physics course with pupils aged 14-15.

Last year he was also diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, which his mother describes being “just a very factual aspect to his life. Some of its characteristics – the motivation, focus and drive – may be a plus for him.”

Marley is a popular boy who, along with his father, runs the primary school’s computer Scratch club – an interactive programming tool designed for primary-aged children. He dreams of becoming a games programmer, but has not ruled out perhaps studying quantum physics at university one day.

Sliding down the chair and giving a naughty glance when asked what he has gained from his lessons with older pupils, Marley, an endearing mixture of talented scientist and young boy, says: “I’ve learned bits and bobs, but they never teach me anything new. I like the practical work like making pulleys and pulling the little chord. But when I was in p2 I built a room in a shoe box with a doorbell which rang and working lights and I’ve made a gravity-powered car. It’s good having Lars to work with and sometimes I’ll say to him, “why have you got such a different answer?” and we’ll talk about it. I like quantum mechanics and he knows other subjects.”

Marley, peeping out from behind his blond hair, says he enjoys astronomy and has attended winter talks at the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, and describes giving one of his inventions to physicist Professor Brian Cox who was appearing at the Edinburgh International Science Festival. “I like Brian Cox and his astronomy programmes are quite good. But his stuff is quite simple. I built him a little bunch of electronic flowers with a battery in the tub and flashing LED light flowers.”

Marley is also an avid reader and he grins as he describes Terry Pratchett’s Bromeliad Trilogy. “There’s a strange world in them with science worked in. It’s secret and free and I like it. I once read 246 pages in one and a half hours.”

Other favourites include children’s science fiction stories such as George’s Secret Key to the Universe by Professor Stephen Hawking and his daughter Lucy, and Russell Stannard’s Uncle Albert books.

Dr Robert Moffat, national director of the National Autistic Society Scotland, said that anyone can be talented and that it is coincidental someone as talented as Marley has the condition.

“But some people with Asperger’s can have the edge because as well as talent they have the tenacity to see things through and apply themselves,” he added. “While there may be some challenges on the social side, we have a child here who is being supported at home and school which is a great basis for a good quality of life.”

Marilyne MacLaren, the City of Edinburgh Council’s education leader, said a gifted pupil’s emotional development is as important as their intellectual development: “A balance has to be struck between the need to stimulate the child academically, preventing them from becoming bored, and the need to safeguard their emotional well-being.”

But what of the future for Marley? His parents’ simple answer is “it’s up to him”.

Ms Adair says: “We’re not “hot housing” him. We don’t go through his homework or revision with him. He gains a lot from being around his friends at school and we’re thankful for the opportunities he’s been given. All of this has come from his own love and motivation. If he gives it up, that’s his decision.”

Marley, interview over, heads back to classes. But one of his teachers calls him back. He’s forgotten his lunch box. Quantum mechanics or not, a boy’s got to eat.

BRIGHT YOUNG THINGS

• RUTH LAWRENCE, inset, became an academic sensation when, aged eight, she passed O-Level mathematics and got a grade A at A-Level pure mathematics. In 1981 she came first out of 530 candidates applying to study mathematics at university and joined St Hugh’s College, Oxford, in 1983, aged 12. However, the decision to admit her was controversial, with American faculty member Matt Ginsberg arguing no further students under the age of 14 should be admitted, unless for exceptional reasons. Ruth, from Brighton, was the daughter of two computer consultants. Her father, Harry Lawrence, gave up his job to teach her at home from the age of five.

Mr Lawrence attended university lectures and tutorials with his daughter. Ruth completed her bachelor’s degree a year early, graduating in 1985 at the age of 13 – the youngest person in Britain to get a first-class degree, and the youngest to graduate from Oxford University in recent times. She is an associate professor of mathematics at Einstein University in Jerusalem.

• In 2010 ARRAN FERNANDEZ, 15, studying mathematics, became the youngest undergraduate at Cambridge University since 1773. When Arran was six, he became the youngest person to gain a GCSE in maths for an exam he sat at the age of five, taking the title from Ruth Lawrence. Taught at home by his parents he got a D in the foundation stage of the exam – the highest mark which could be awarded in that category.

• Six-year-old RAJAEI SHARMA passed a GCSE in information technology in 2010.

• DYLAN COBB, aged eight, from Devon, passed two GSCEs in 2001 two years after being forced out of school by bullies. He achieved B grades in maths and information technology after nine months’ study at Ryde College, a private institution near Watford, Hertfordshire. He was also taught at home for a while by his mother, Anita Cobb.