The “gifted child” has never been a popular child – at least not with
members of the pedagogic establishment, teachers in the classroom, kids in
the playground, egalitarian crusaders and most of all, the parents of
children who wished their kids were gifted too.
Just look at the way popular culture portrays them as “boffins”, “nerds” and
“swots”. While in the media they turn up as hothoused little horrors who
always end up as unhappy adults.
There are signs, however, that maybe, at last, we’re ready to embrace gifted
children and bring them out of the cultural cold.
When I had my first child in 1984, my fellow fathers would always say: I don’t
care how gifted my child is, as long as it’s a happy child. In 2004 I had my
second son. This time around my fellow fathers were buying books with titles
like How to Have the Most Brainy Child in the World and Quantum Physics for
Toddlers. In middle-class homes the tapes of traditional nursery rhymes had
been replaced by DVDs that would make your child a baby Einstein. Mozart had
killed Mother Goose.
But is the belief that with a little parental encouragement we can all have a
gifted child just a false dream, perpetuated by the gifted child indus-try?
Last week a study by the University of Washington and Seattle Children’s
Hospital Research Institute showed that infants who regularly watched baby
DVDs and videos such as Baby Einstein and Brainy Baby understood fewer words
than those who did not.
You may wonder what sort of idiot would buy DVDs like that? Me, that’s who. I
confess to having been one of those pushy parents, the kind that drags their
kids off to art exhibitions, who plays number games in the bath and reads
them Shakespeare at bedtime.
Now I have doubts: am I just wasting time and money? Am I too anx-ious? Am I
too pushy or too compla-cent? To find out I decided to go to a conference of
the World Council for Gifted and Talented Children at Warwick University to
talk to some of the 800 experts in the field of dealing with the gifted
child.
First of all, I wanted to know what exactly is a gifted child?
Only at a conference full of clever academics would nobody dare make a
definition. “There is no single, internationally agreed definition of what a
gifted child is,” said conference chair-woman Professor Deborah Eyre.
Another professor told me that gifted was nothing more than a “culturally
relative term, the Canadian Inuit people have no concept of the gifted”.
“Yeah, well thanks for that,” I said, “I’ll make sure I don’t send my kid to
an Inuit school.”
Eventually I managed to piece together a definition of what a gifted child
was: they’re the ones who perform at the top end of the ability range – or
have the potential to. But finding out how many gifted children there are in
the UK is even harder. I was told time and time again by professionals that
it all depends on where you draw the line – should you include the top 10%
or the top 15%?
One speaker at the conference, Dr Thomas Balchin, claimed that the
government’s criterion of the top 10% is far too wide and gives a false
picture of how many gifted children we have in Britain.
The term has undergone something of a change in recent years. What we have is
a new, inclusive form of being gifted so that it no longer refers to a small
number of the best and the brightest but to those are merely smart and
capable. What’s more, according to the government’s criteria you can make
the gifted grade if you are good at football and have personal attributes.
What about the popular idea that the gifted child is a cursed child? There’s
the famous case of Ruth Lawrence who at 11 went to Oxford and later talked
about her unhappiness as a child. There was 10-year-old James Harries, the
gifted antique dealer who appeared on the Wogan chat show and later had a
sex change.
Professor Joan Freeman is a distinguished psychologist who has been studying
gifted children since 1974. She tells me, “It’s not true that gifted
children are unhappy or in some way damaged. They tend to be stronger and
more resilient. I think there is an element of schadenfreude about gifted
children, people want to believe that they are miserable.”
Given the recent growth in the gifted child industry, I asked Freeman if we
were becoming a nation of pushy parents, hothousing our children into
greatness?
“No, not really. You tend to find those sorts among the middle and upper
classes,” said Freeman, who as the author of How to Raise a Bright Child
admits to being part of that industry.
So how do I know if I’m a pushy parent? “You can spot them by their homes,”
said Freeman. “There are teaching aids on every wall, no televi-sion, a list
of verbs on the fridge door and the computer is only used for learning
programs.”
It’s easy to mock such parents, but it’s a sign of wider social change. As we
become a more meritocratic society, so we become more competitive. The race
to succeed is more intense now that class background no longer determines
your position in society. Parents are so anxious for their children to do
well, partly because their children are a reflection on them – but also they
are all too aware of the economic realities and hardships of contemporary
life, even for the middle classes.
Among the speakers at the conference I talked to, there was an overwhelming
sense that there has been a great sea change in the way we regard gifted
children. Once they were seen as products of privilege that didn’t need our
support and their champions were viewed as elitists and reactionaries.
“We are not interested in developing the abilities of a small number of the
kids and ignoring the rest,” said Eyre. “We want to help every child develop
their potential.”
I’ve noticed that so many parents are under the impression that if their child
can string a few words together, they must be gifted. So does every child
have the potential to be gifted?
“Absolutely not,” said Freeman. “You can’t make a child of below-average
ability into a gifted child.”
Both Eyre and Freeman were, surprisingly, against “hiving off” gifted
children. They talked about helping the gifted from all classes as a form of
“social justice” and they talked passionately about the need for
“inclu-siveness”. It was curious hearing them use the rhetoric of
progressive educationalists to promote the needs of the gifted.
But are we actually helping the gifted from all groups? After all, they will
be the doctors, the scientists and wealth creators of the future. Freeman
said that the educational system was supporting the gifted child. “When I
first started in this field there was nothing. Now we have government
putting millions into it.”
Champions of gifted children point to various government-sponsored initiatives
such as the creation of the National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth
as signs that we are making progress. They are pleased and proud that every
publicly funded school in Britain is required to have a gifted and talented
programme in place that will identify such people and encourage them.
But Eyre, who advises the government on the gifted, was more cautious. “The
Labour government has put more into the needs of the gifted than any
previous government,” she said. “But they still haven’t done enough.”
That’s putting it mildly. When Labour came into power in 1997 many believed
that at last hard-work-ing and gifted children from poor backgrounds would
be able to go to the top universities. But a decade later social mobility
has hardly improved. Today, 40% of all Oxford and Cam-bridge students are
still from public schools, which educate only 7% of schoolchildren.
But just how much support there really is for fostering the talents of gifted
children – from all classes – is doubtful. I spoke to Jim Campbell,
professor of education at Warwick University, and one of the founders of
Goal, a scheme set up to help gifted children from underprivileged
backgrounds. He conceded that nationwide the support has been “patchy”. But
when I asked about support from teachers he told me that around 46% of
teachers in the UK think it’s good that gifted students are given proper
attention.
I was shocked. Fewer than half of UK teachers are signed up. Those who argue
on behalf of the gifted child may say that it’s a case of the glass being
half full. The problem is that the glass doesn’t look half full when it’s
your child’s future at stake. This leads one to the question why is there
such low support for gifted children among teachers?
One teacher, who wished to remain anonymous, told me: “The problem is, many
teachers feel that if they’re paying attention to the needs of the gifted,
the needs of other kids will suffer. They tend to think that the gifted ones
will do well anyway, so why bother?”
The reason to bother is simple: a society that wastes the talents of its young
and most gifted will pay the price tomorrow by its own impoverishment. Our
failure to seek out and support bright children in our schools wherever they
may be is a national disgrace.
I grew up in Canada's smallest province where gifted education didn't exist. When I moved to Ontario & entered high school there, I was tested for their gifted pull-out & discovered why I had been such a misfit for so long. I spent the first 15 years of my life feeling isolated in just about every way. Other kids frequently bullied me & I felt as though it was truly my own fault. My family wanted so badly for me to "fit in" that I was placed in a variety of athletic activities & denied opportunities to develop my own talents in science, languages, & music. I tried so hard to hang on until adulthood-- all the while telling myself that I would escape someday & finally get the chance to be myself! This profoundly-gifted ex-child was forced into debt over student loans & medical bills (cancer) because everyone assumed I could take care of everything on my own... I am alone, broke, no assets/job, & my inventions will probably follow me to the grave. Everyone needs help; gifted or not.
Tori, Boston, MA
IQ is nothing more than cognitive. Correct the cognitive weakness , you have all the gifted you need. They are all gifted, some with a more severe cognitive weakness than others. Einstein is rolling in his grave, throwing up at all this garbage.He was ADD/dyslexic so was Edison..etc. etc. Treat them all as gifted and the gifted appears in all.
Studys in the United States prove it. There is only personality types, and some of this, I do not agree with either.
A 99 percentile ADD Gifted average Person
ME.,.just your average highly gifted mom
therese, tiltonsville, ohio
i think that speculation on this topic requires some further reading... i mean, "gifted" is such a loaded label. here is a link to an interesting article that might give more insight about the complications that can occur when we decide to make it our right to assign identities to our children....
http://nymag.com/news/features/27840/
jane, san francisco, california
Having been a "gifted" child, I recommend that each parent supports the natural uniqueness that is each child. Sound obvious? Then you're missing the point. Forget about making your child into something you've dreamed up. Your attempts at control of your child's development will guarantee only conflict within the child, between who the child is naturally and whom you want the child to be. Parents, stop gratifying yourself by believing you're "doing all that you can" for your child. You shouldn't be "doing" anything! You should be watching, observing, and recognizing each opportunity to support your child's natural individuality regardless of what that individuality is. These are your child's strengths. If you can put your child before your own gratification, you will teach your child to love his natural self. What greater happiness can any person have? If you don't teach your child this now, unhappiness as an adult is inevitable, but you might not live to see it.
Lee V., SF Bay Area, California
Intelligence with out focus, determination, and hardwork does not create the scientist, doctor, engineer ... it creates the criminal mind. Being gifted and talented is only half of the cup.
There are plenty of intelligent and gifted criminals.
We focus so much on the gifted and talented as if that was it to being financially successful.
mea chau, reno, nevada/usa
Gifted children can become an anathema to their peers and thus be left out of the society of compeer's, even though we are really not a society of equals. Actualization is truth in the sense that if a child acts or is treated as endowed/gifted, then that child becomes pretentiously elagant and ostracized due to their perceived station and importance. In our society, ineffectual cerebration seems to be taking place of sound practical judgement. I am not saying limits should be set, in fact schools should go to a "work at your own pace" curricula as gifted in science may not mean gifted in English or mathematics. That way students are always chanllenged but never overwhelmed, or at least can get more help in areas where they need it and can excel in areas where they have a talent. Instead of grades we could have levels..ie level 1-100 with perhaps 20 levels in all the subjects required for graduation. The rest can be constant learning through life.
Daelar Slarmas, Agathar / Vhen province, Gorlon
That is such a dissapointing thing to hear. To label a few who have managed to achieve a perspective and style that allows them to absorb the knowledge of this world easier than others as gifted and ignoring the rest.
The objective nature of modern techniques is more limited than what many tend to boast. What people ignore that no one is born with knowledge in their heads. If we truly whish to understand modern knowldge then we need to understand its perspective from its fundamentals and build them up. Those children who tend to absorb these perspectives or develop them become labelled as gifted and the rest who focus their attention on their natural desire to have fun get ignored.
If someone is skilled, definetly help them to develop. But society is made of many not a few. If you want to improve society then recognize that you do not have to be able to be a genius at age 5 to become a Scientist, Doctor, Engineer etc... A champion can't win a match if his team is weak.
Faiz Ahmed Khan`, Toronto, Canada
Look at all the vacuous celebrity "role models" that our children are bombarded with constantly. Why wouldn't we prefer programs that foster intelligence in children? Isn't this at least a positive step in the right direction?
For far too long, too many smart children are insufficiently celebrated but instead sometimes forced to "dumb down" to fit in with the pack or else endure negative labelling such as "nerd", "dork" etc.
All achievement in children should be celebrated, but it seems that we often over emphasize certain achievements eg sports and we're almost embarrassed to celebrate others eg brains.
Its about time we celebrated intelligence, foster this ( in the classroom, at home and in society) and help smart kids excel (however this may be) so that one day they can maybe make a real difference in life.
Pye B, Melbourne, Australia
As the parent of a child attending university at 15, I will say that the public school system here in the US failed her at almost every turn. We, too, have a system of 'identifying' gifted children -- and the money given to that cause is in turn used for testing the children and almost nothing else. Most teachers were uninterested in working with a very bright mind -- quite the opposite of what we'd expected. And by not 'isolating' these kids we have inflicted the worst form of cruelty to them: they never find a peer group of similar minds, and as a result don't ever feel as if they fit in socially, and are perpetually bored and come to expect that in life. What a horrible way to prepare our future leaders and innovators. No corporation would leave its finest talent undeveloped; it's a bad business decision. Why would it make a good educational decision?
Our daughter went to a Canadian high school -- a school quite happy to have her -- and will now attend university there.
Marybeth O'Halloran, Bainbridge Island, WA
It is so interesting to read that another country is struggling with most of the same issues that America is regarding its gifted population. I'm a certified teacher with as much credentialing in serving the gifted as I can obtain and I live in Texas. (I used to live in Louisiana in a small community north of New Orleans.) Gifted education is so spotty throughout the US. My old community did a great job with the gifted, Texas nearly ignores them. There is such inconsistency that parents are left doing what they can with what they have access too. Some are doing a great job while others struggle. Society has developed many 'great minds' in the past but with technology and today's world/issues, will this continue? It's too risky to leave to chance...
Angie, Magnolia, USA/Texas
This is a great start, but it doesn't end with childhood. The western world seems to be under the impression that science and mathematics are for kids and that once you hit the age of 22, you're done learning. People seem to not realize that being "gifted" is only one admittedly important component which must be properly mixed with hard work, encouragement and exposure to opportunity. People rave at the idea of "gifted children", but tend to react to the idea of "gifted adults" with scorn. So, one aspect of learning about "gifted" youth should be to come to a better understanding of gifted people in their 20s, 30s and so forth. Thank you for the article!
Alexander, Minneapolis,
Maximizing potential is far more important than being gifted. Some of my most intelligent friends are not intellectual. Ingraining virtues of self-discipline, hard work, and humility will provide more consistent results than some sort of "gifted child" star-search.
Dylan, Edmonton, Canada
I was told I was gifted throughout elementary but, sooner or later, I guess my spirit dissolved into the rank and file of middle and high school bureaucracy. Now, I struggle in my early years of college, with many ideas but I feel I'm scattered and maybe.. maybe it's my fault, I could have made something more creative and exemplary of myself, instead of becoming a kog like everyone else. But, could I take a little piece of selfish encouragement that it's not 100% my fault?
Phantas, sonoma, ca,
The real problem at hand is that our society is designed around the concept that every child is like a lego piece designed to fit into one of a select few orientations, and those who will not fit properly are discarded.
As demand for conformity is increased and individualism curbed to a minimum, the balance of the system becomes so unhealthy that society becomes very unhealthy.
While a "gifted" child may be one who excels scholastically within the current form of school system, this does not necessarily mean that they are a healthy balanced child.
Following a bunch of canned "expert" advice to encourage your child to be "gifted" may also result in unintended unbalanced side effects.
If you really want the best for your child, I recommend to give them as much personal one-on-one attention as possible, and not rely on any ready-made instant solutions.
Derek Snider, Toronto, Canada
Here's a Few Examples:
1. William Sidus, I dare you to find a smarter man that ever lived, got his PHd at the tender age of 16, spoke something like 28 languages fluently by the age of 14.
2. Daniel Tammet, calculated Pi to 10K characters because he experiences synthasia due to a form of Epiliepsy, he reffers to himslef as a "Autistic Sevant"...lives in Kent with another Boy.
As for happiness, well that's another story, is anyone ever really happy, I mean really? If you become self actualized the rest of your life is anti-climactic, if you consistently achieve it you run the risk of burning out, if your children become self actualized at a young age, well gifted is not the term for that kind of child.
Not allowing a child to achieve their full potential is a crime, I know a number of them personally that use university texts as toys, and they can read them just fine.
Hazen, Ottawa, Ontario
I feel that every child has the opportunity to be gifted. In a huge way, it's the parents and the environment that the kids grow in that bring out the giftedness. In my opinion, being gifted is having has the opportunity to express and develop your knowlege and experience in something that you show an exceptional interest in.
The human brain has the capacity to perform various tasks. I think each one of is capable of performing every mental task out there. It's whether we choose to or are adept at doing it. I feel that the measured IQ is a measure of the density of your neurons in your brain which results in these tasks being faster. While it's a common idea that this property is more genetic, I would like to argue that it is more influenced by the maternal diet during the first few weeks of pregnancy; e.g Folic acid rich diet. As society is more aware of the importance of the first few weeks of pregnancy, more of the kids born these days have this "gifted" mental abilities.
Rhett Mash, Redmond, WA
As a former teacher, I was amazed at the attitudes towards "gifted children". Some recognised that giftedness could take many forms, others were searching in vain for the class "mini Mozart, Rembrandt, Einstein", whatever. I am 63, brought up and partly educated in the good ol' USofA. I was told I had a "very high IQ" but no one ever told me where my talents lay. Perhaps this waas a good thing. I don't know.
But what it most certainly did do was foster an attitude that if you couldn't spell well ( never mind I had a reading age of a 17 year old at 10!) or found maths difficult ( try telling the time!) you were useless. I was lucky to resist even the shame of my mother who compared me to my step brothers and sisters - all academic high achievers - and had a deep love of learning.
My best friend Jane, didn't see the need for further education until she got divorced. She completed high school and went on to Med School. She disected the corpse down to its knees. At last she suceeded!
Carlyle Braden, Croydon, U.K.
The Government could co more to help Gifted children. These are the children which will hopefully improve our countries ability to compete with the rest of the world. We have three children aged 15,13& 8. The eldest two are both members of NAGTY and our youngest will hopefully join them when old enough. They have attended several outreach events but we find that the cost of many of these courses is now prohibitive. Neither I nor my wife attended university, the best we could manage was 1 A level ( grade E economics) and neither of us earn great salaries so the cost of sending two children on a course which costs £45- £50 each for 5-6 hours is too much. We do worry that as the syllabus gets more difficult they may lose out to children who have parents with more knowledge of the subjects ( the eldest was awarded best in school at science on leaving middle school two years ago and the 13 year old has just been awarded best in school at Maths).
Gerald Copsey, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
the gift is only a responcibility between the owner and the giver
miron, private, na
"Our failure to seek out and support bright children in our schools wherever they may be is a national disgrace."
I wholeheartedly agree...
Gary B., Albuquerque, NM, NM
We pay attention to children who are underperforming because we recognize that those children if not educated may end up in jails, or supported by the state. Another reason we support education for the underperforming student is because often such support is easy, an overwhelming amount of research has gone into teaching children who learn by a rote approach.
Cognitively gifted children are often the ones who learn through class discussion, experimentation and project based learning. They are the ones who perform well on nationally normed testing, (whether or not their grades reflect this testing), for many years until their lack of engagement in the classroom begins to adversly affect their testing levels. In other words, they are bright curious children who often become disengaged within the classroom if information is repeated. Doesn't every child deserve to learn at least one new thing every day, even if they are "gifted"?
Martha Kreeger, Fremont,
It's not just the UK. I live in Canada and my son was identified as gifted in the fourth grade. (Age 9) He was able to attend a part time class for gifted students for some time but now there is nothing available to him.
To the credit of the teachers who have taught him since then, he has been challenged in different and creative ways since then within a regular classroom but a couple have mentioned to me that they wish they had the same kind of resources and training to teach gifted children as they have to teach special needs children. The money and resources are just not available for gifted children.
Vicki, Ontario, Canada
In America we are constantly being told that formal education is the solution to living a comfortable life. Today's TV, Internet, and self-help industry has the population convinced that everyone can be a millionaire. Yet the statistics show that less than 10% of the people filing tax returns make over $200,000 a year. We have two choices to explain this. Money is being made and not reported or the people who are telling everyone they can be rich are way overpaid. The same is true of genius. It is a gift. We have IQ & EQ. To that we add education and experience. Let the children be what they will. Quit manipulating them based on highly pumped advertisement.
Deborah J. Boyd, Arlington, Virginia
"...a society that wastes the talents of its young and most gifted"
most gifted in what, cosmo?
Bolthole, London, England
Most schools just aren't equipped to deal with the needs of the gifted and talented child. I was in my comprehensive school's gifted and talented scheme and they had nothing to offer me in the way of extra stimulation. All the way through school I finished my work first, helped out the other students and sat twiddling my thumbs through sheer boredom. Rarely ever did anyone disagree with my ideas or challenge my work. No wonder so called 'gifted children' from ordinary backgrounds tend to be badly behaved; mainstream school has nothing to offer us!
Amy , Gravesend, Kent