True to form, it was Laurent's father who did almost all the talking, while mom sat by him, smiling. The topic of their story was not the alleged bullying by TU/e or other problems. Instead the Netherlands watched a new episode of the brand new show about Laurent the celebrity, with a lead role played by his willing dad. Footage of a high school diploma, an interview with Dutch TV show host Ivo Niehe, Laurent at TU/e; hadn't they done well for themselves.

The upbeat story on Pauw sat nicely in the sequence NOS, RTL, Telegraaf, Le Figaro, Le Monde, Der Spiegel and CNN, all of which had already devoted column inches or airtime to the child prodigy. And to his parents, of course. Parents like these would normally be found on the sidelines of the soccer pitch, pushing other children out of the way as soon as the scouts from PSV or Ajax turn up. In this case, instead of scouts, there are TV cameras: whereas in politics the media serves to verify and check, in this case it is simply responding to the cry for attention issued by Laurent's parents - under the guise of ‘seeking collaborative possibilities for Laurent’.

The break with TU/e was waved aside on Pauw as a simple transfer, because a 'better' university is now in the picture. It seems that Laurent has the opportunity of doing a PhD at a college in the US. So evidently this wasn't about ‘gaining a degree at the age of nine’, no, Laurent had been compelled to drop Electrical Engineering after ten months because the eight months postponement did not fit into the strategy devised for his studies and PR. While the parents had counted on receiving every preferential treatment going (or to come), TU/e simply said ‘no’ - perhaps for the first time. What petty-minded sticklers, getting worked up about something as insignificant as a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering!

Preferential treatment

The prevailing cliché in the Netherlands is that we don't appreciate the value of talent. And on Pauw, Laurent's parents affirmed that when you're the tall poppy, it doesn't take long before you're cut down to size. How easy it is to produce the aggrieved response that others are simply jealous while you've enjoyed the media's full attention for the past two years. While TU/e puts mentors and professors at your disposal. While all the scheduling of examinations, resits, and the like, is planned specially for you. Even this kind of preferential treatment of such megalomaniac proportions has its limits.

Come on, Laurent is only a child. Learning sometimes takes longer than you think. It just does, it's unplanned. Perhaps he didn't pass Computation first time around, most EE students don't. Oh well, this is Electrical Engineering after all. I grappled endlessly with the theory before I could make sense of those triple integrals of magnetic fields. That TU/e wanted to add a couple more months to the schedule is perhaps the only realistic aspect of this entire soap.

In the end, Laurent's mom spoke two sentences. She said that Laurent completes a course in a week, so even if he had to retake ten courses, he shouldn't fall any more than three months behind schedule. This was the only occasion that the couple deviated from dad's PR script. Two sentences that made clear that there is no gratitude here, but that everything must be arranged immediately. For Laurent and for themselves.