"SCHOOL FOR GIFTED CHILDREN" IN MALAYSIA... X-MEN MENSION?

I am pleased to read the news about Malaysia having our very own 'School for Gifted Children' under the Permata Negara Programme. It gives the opportunity for these 'special' children to feel belong and development their skills and ability to the highest degree possible. Maybe one day we can hope that Malaysia will be able to produce intellectuals with ground-breaking and revolutionary inventions. This is a plausible effort indeed. But somehow, this actually reminds me of a similar facility in the fiction arena - The X-Men Mention.

Read this news about the Permata Negara Programme, then the history of X-men Mension below:

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Permata Negara lays groundwork for gifted children: PM

Tuesday March 27, 2012
BERNAMA

BANGI: The Permata Negara programme sets the groundwork for a special education for gifted children endowed with high intelligence quotient (IQ), said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak. He said if the potentials of gifted children were not optimised in the best interest of the country, they would be denied an education system that could enrich their high-order thinking that supersedes the normal level of intelligence. If a suitable education system is not provided for them, the children would get bored with lessons easily or they might be sent to study or work abroad by their parents, he said. "This will be detrimental to the country as we will be losing our talents, and the so-called brain drain is happening," he said when opening the PERMATApintar Negara Centre Complex at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia here. Najib said through the Permata Pintar programme, the children's ability could be moulded and enhanced to enable them to achieve extraordinary success. Mooted by his wife, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, Permata Negara is made up of five programmes, namely Permata Negara, Permata Seni, Permata Insan, Perkasa Remaja and Sekolah Permata Pintar UKM. Rosmah is the patron of the Permata Negara programme. Najib said he learned that a nine-year-old pupil under the tutelage of Permata Negara was currently studying at the pre-university level, and the child would likely be admitted by a leading university abroad within the next few years. "Who knows there might be Steve Jobs among them in Malaysia," said Najib.

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X-Men Mension - The Origin

After graduating Oxford University, being drafted in the KoreanWar, and battling the Shadow King in Cairo, Egypt, Xavier decided to devote his life to protecting humanity from evil mutants and safeguarding innocent mutants from human oppression, believing that both could peacefully coexist. Xavier worked with fellow mutation expert, Dr. Karl Lycos, as well as Dr. Moira MacTaggerd, and they began discussing the idea of founding a school for gifted youngsters. Professor Xavier's first student was the 11-year-old Jean Grey who had been traumatized when she telepathically experienced the emotions of a dying friend. Professor Xavier later met with Fred Duncan, an FBI agent investigating the growing number of mutants. Professor Xavier told Duncan of his plan to locate young mutants and enroll them in his "School for Gifted Youngsters", using his ancestral mansion home as a base to train them to use their powers, as well as provide them conventional educations, for humanity's benefit. The base included an off-limits west wing with subterranean medical labs, a training facility called the "Danger Room" an aircraft hanger with a Stratojet and helicopter, and Professor Xavier's mutant detection device, code named "Cerebro". Cerebro's main function was to locate mutant signatures, but was also integrated in the mansion, as the school's A. I. Professor Xavier later moved Scott Summers into the mansion and, over the following months, assembled his original team of X-Men: Scott, who took the name Cyclops, Iceman, Angel, Beast and Jean, who took the name Marvel Girl, and opened his school as the headmaster.

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So, did you manage to spot the similarities?