Spin off... if your child gifted?

[DisneyBamaFan]

 

[Swan4Me]

Which is fine and dandy but your first post mentioned none of this and everyone is jumping down MY throat because I questioned his giftedness for "reading a lot of books". Now, other things, sure he may be gifted and a 34 on the ACT is really good but the initial information provided didn't support him being gifted.

Well, since YOU quoted my original post here it is (I changed it because I had the Test name wrong and to update his scores)

Originally Posted by Swan4Me
One of my nephews is gifted-an only child of my very bright older brother who became his 24/7 mentor since birth

This kid was reading 50+ books every summer. In fact when he started 3rd grade my brother discovered the book she was using as her Reading book-he had read the previous summer.

He has done Quiz bowl, math bowl, science bowl, and in 7th grade recieved a Nationa Award given to 7th graders for Top SAT scores(his score then is what you wish your High school Junior had)

He was totally bored with the advanced classes Freshman year High school-so he applied for a very unique Public Boarding High School my state has in congunction with a University here.

Highest SAT, grades etc are requires-plus additional school activities and testing is required. Only 50 kids are admitted each year-just a Soph-Senior School(The XX School for Science Math and the Arts") and he got in.
So this year he will be among other genius-geek-brilliant types. The kids at this school all go on to the Major Universities of our Nation.

But I have to say , all in all, he doesnt have a lot of friends-in fact my brother says he wont miss being here because of that. So brilliance does have a price

 

[Swan4Me]

My revised post:



One of my nephews is gifted-an only child of my very bright older brother who became his 24/7 mentor since birth

This kid was reading 50+ books every summer. In fact when he started 3rd grade my brother discovered the book she was using as her Reading book-he had read the previous summer.

He has done Quiz bowl, math bowl, science bowl, and in

7th grade recieved a Nationa Award given to 7th graders for Top 2% in the nation ACT scores(his score then is what you wish your High school Junior had)-the Nations averahe is 21

He was totally bored with the advanced classes Freshman year High school-so he applied for a very unique Public Boarding High School my state has in congunction with a University here.

Retook the ACT-scored 32-34 (36 is the highest), grades etc are requires-plus additional school activities and testing is required. Only 50 kids are admitted each year-just a Soph-Senior School(The XX School for Science Math and the Arts") and he got in.
So this year he will be among other genius-geek-brilliant types. The kids at this school all go on to the Major Universities of our Nation.

But I have to say , all in all, he doesnt have a lot of friends-in fact my brother says he wont miss being here because of that. So brilliance does have a price

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Last edited by Swan4Me; Today at 05:49 PM. Reason: Revised the test-it was the ACT

 

[HelenePA]

My revised post:



One of my nephews is gifted-an only child of my very bright older brother who became his 24/7 mentor since birth

This kid was reading 50+ books every summer. In fact when he started 3rd grade my brother discovered the book she was using as her Reading book-he had read the previous summer.

He has done Quiz bowl, math bowl, science bowl, and in

7th grade recieved a Nationa Award given to 7th graders for Top 2% in the nation ACT scores(his score then is what you wish your High school Junior had)-the Nations averahe is 21

He was totally bored with the advanced classes Freshman year High school-so he applied for a very unique Public Boarding High School my state has in congunction with a University here.

Retook the ACT-scored 32-34 (36 is the highest), grades etc are requires-plus additional school activities and testing is required. Only 50 kids are admitted each year-just a Soph-Senior School(The XX School for Science Math and the Arts") and he got in.
So this year he will be among other genius-geek-brilliant types. The kids at this school all go on to the Major Universities of our Nation.

But I have to say , all in all, he doesnt have a lot of friends-in fact my brother says he wont miss being here because of that. So brilliance does have a price

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Last edited by Swan4Me; Today at 05:49 PM. Reason: Revised the test-it was the ACT

but does he play golf?

I couldn't help myself... he sounds like he's more than gifted... what does he want to do later in life? what are his goals?

 

[Plannin'Shannon]

 

[Magpie]

Just to settle the whole "I'm going with the dictionary definition" thing...

gift·ed [gif-tid] adjective

1. having great special talent or ability: the debut of a gifted artist.
2. having exceptionally high intelligence: gifted children.

Synonyms
1. accomplished, talented.


ex·cep·tion·al   [ik-sep-shuh-nl] adjective

1. forming an exception or rare instance; unusual; extraordinary: The warm weather was exceptional for January.
2. unusually excellent; superior: an exceptional violinist.
3. Education . (of a child)
a. being intellectually gifted.
b. being physically or especially mentally handicapped to an extent that special schooling is required.


My favorite scholarly definition of giftedness comes from Professor Françoys Gagné, who tried to differentiate between gifted and talented back in the sixties.

Gagné: Gagné proposes a clear distinction between giftedness and talent. In his model, the term giftedness designates the possession and use of untrained and spontaneously expressed natural abilities (called aptitudes or gifts) in at least one ability domain to a degree that places a child among the top 10% of his or her age peers. By contrast, the term talent designates the superior mastery of systematically developed abilities (or skills) and knowledge in at least one field of human activity to a degree that places a child's achievement within the upper 10% of age-peers who are active in that field or fields. His model presents five aptitude domains: intellectual, creative, socioaffective, sensorimotor and "others" (e.g. extrasensory perception). These natural abilities, which have a clear genetic substratum, can be observed in every task children are confronted with in the course of their schooling. (Gagné, F., 1985)

There are assorted other definitions to choose from at this site: http://www.nagc.org/index.aspx?id=574

NONE of them restrict giftedness to that one-in-a-million kid. Most set the bar at the top ten percent.

Now I can go to bed.

 

[Swan4Me]

but does he play golf?

I couldn't help myself... he sounds like he's more than gifted... what does he want to do later in life? what are his goals?

No-not athletic at all

Hopefully this school will guide him into a career choice-he's also a whiz on the computer-who knows

But as i said, my own kids are very average and are doing well in the real world as young adults-so does it really matter in the long run how smart, gifted a kid is-just that he finds a direction in life

 

[LuvsDragonflies]

My Pappy used to say "Gifted is as gifted does"


In other words, you could have the smartest pig in the world and he could still end up bacon.

 

[C.Ann]

I think there really are more gifted children now - or maybe it's just a matter of testing being done on a regular basis (which it wasn't back when I was in school), so parents are more aware of it now than they would have been in the past..

As for the number here on the DIS, why would anyone presume that a parent on this board is lying - or give them a hard time - if they say their child is gifted? I see people post photos of their children in prom dresses; make announcements that they won a trophy for a sport; were accepted into a good college; etc., and the "snowflake" and other such comments don't come out then.. Why is that? Are people jealous if someone has a gifted child and they don't?

I say good for them - and good for the child..

 

[Feathers]

I wonder what the kids think about themselves being "gifted". Not a lot of my academically smart friends really care what they're called as long as they end up not failing high school.

I just graduated and I'm wondering if I count as gifted. I took my first art class in 10th grade and had a really sucky teacher so I basically didn't listen to any instructions regarding assignments. When we did our big term long paintings I decided I didn't want to so I used pencil crayons (my usual medium) instead and basically told her tough luck, and she gave me A's anyways for some reason. Somehow I ended up with the department award but I'm pretty sure it's because nobody in high school actually takes art seriously enough to want a plaque regarding it (I know I don't, it sits on my wall doing absolutely nothing.)

By grade 11 she was getting frustrated with me because I still wasn't listening to her but my art wasn't terrible so she couldn't really do much about it. I still skipped out on painting most of the time and passed a lot of five minute doodles off as still life art assignments I actually spent time on. I vividly remember being told to take a round object and put it in with a distinct light source, and that she would be able to tell if our finished product was legit or not. Of course I forgot all about the dumb assignment (like everyone else) and quickly scribbled a tomato out on a sheet of small paper as she was collecting them. I got 10/10.

In grade 12 I had to work on my portfolio to take to National Portfolio day at Emily Carr University, a school that only accepts 250 students a year and is famous for never taking kids directly out of high school. I didn't want any paintings in it because I hate painting and I don't need to know how to paint with actual paint to get where I want to go in life. But of course my art teacher, who went to Emily Carr in her late 20's, insisted that it was a terrible idea to only take my fantasy (monsters and junk) art in and not a boring watercolor of an English countryside. She told me I should do a watercolor at least, so I did a painting of a dragon in space. She got very cross with me and took me aside to tell me I would never get into Emily Carr.

On November 4th I showed my pencil crayon and marker drawings of detailed fantastical creatures and got accepted to Emily Carr on the spot because I'm not completely inept. I was asked what my inspiration was for each piece and I always said video games because that's what I do when I'm not busy skipping art assignments.

For the final term of art class this year, I proceeded to not complete any assignments. I also had a portfolio art class and a ceramics class with the same teacher and didn't do anything in those classes either. She always asked me if I just wanted a zero, to which I always replied "sure". I handed in exactly one art project in the last three months of school.

During the awards ceremony at school this year, I was presented with the department award for ceramics. I won the award for a sculpture I did to get out of doing a boring glass project (after claiming I already knew how to do it).

At the graduation ceremony, I was given three major art scholarships and was invited to a bunch of fancy-pants art galleries in the city where people title their lawn chairs and display them as famous works. I start at Emily Carr on the 6th of September and I have an internship with EA Games (or Pixar) next summer (I want to get into game art design).

Do I count as gifted, or am I a cheater? Or maybe my talent is that I pretend to be gifted? Is that even possible?

 

[dandave]

Do I count as gifted, or am I a cheater? Or maybe my talent is that I pretend to be gifted? Is that even possible?

I think: You sound as if you're quite gifted. You aren't being challenged. You are often bored, as a result. You really don't give a rat's rear what anyone thinks of your work. You find it rather amusing that people are so easily impressed. You question your talent, because there's a really good chance that you've just been surrounded by far less talented people so far. Yep. You sound like a genius to me!

 

[Feralpeg]

I wonder what the kids think about themselves being "gifted". Not a lot of my academically smart friends really care what they're called as long as they end up not failing high school.

I just graduated and I'm wondering if I count as gifted. I took my first art class in 10th grade and had a really sucky teacher so I basically didn't listen to any instructions regarding assignments. When we did our big term long paintings I decided I didn't want to so I used pencil crayons (my usual medium) instead and basically told her tough luck, and she gave me A's anyways for some reason. Somehow I ended up with the department award but I'm pretty sure it's because nobody in high school actually takes art seriously enough to want a plaque regarding it (I know I don't, it sits on my wall doing absolutely nothing.)

By grade 11 she was getting frustrated with me because I still wasn't listening to her but my art wasn't terrible so she couldn't really do much about it. I still skipped out on painting most of the time and passed a lot of five minute doodles off as still life art assignments I actually spent time on. I vividly remember being told to take a round object and put it in with a distinct light source, and that she would be able to tell if our finished product was legit or not. Of course I forgot all about the dumb assignment (like everyone else) and quickly scribbled a tomato out on a sheet of small paper as she was collecting them. I got 10/10.

In grade 12 I had to work on my portfolio to take to National Portfolio day at Emily Carr University, a school that only accepts 250 students a year and is famous for never taking kids directly out of high school. I didn't want any paintings in it because I hate painting and I don't need to know how to paint with actual paint to get where I want to go in life. But of course my art teacher, who went to Emily Carr in her late 20's, insisted that it was a terrible idea to only take my fantasy (monsters and junk) art in and not a boring watercolor of an English countryside. She told me I should do a watercolor at least, so I did a painting of a dragon in space. She got very cross with me and took me aside to tell me I would never get into Emily Carr.

On November 4th I showed my pencil crayon and marker drawings of detailed fantastical creatures and got accepted to Emily Carr on the spot because I'm not completely inept. I was asked what my inspiration was for each piece and I always said video games because that's what I do when I'm not busy skipping art assignments.

For the final term of art class this year, I proceeded to not complete any assignments. I also had a portfolio art class and a ceramics class with the same teacher and didn't do anything in those classes either. She always asked me if I just wanted a zero, to which I always replied "sure". I handed in exactly one art project in the last three months of school.

During the awards ceremony at school this year, I was presented with the department award for ceramics. I won the award for a sculpture I did to get out of doing a boring glass project (after claiming I already knew how to do it).

At the graduation ceremony, I was given three major art scholarships and was invited to a bunch of fancy-pants art galleries in the city where people title their lawn chairs and display them as famous works. I start at Emily Carr on the 6th of September and I have an internship with EA Games (or Pixar) next summer (I want to get into game art design).

Do I count as gifted, or am I a cheater? Or maybe my talent is that I pretend to be gifted? Is that even possible?

You may very well be gifted, but you also sound a little spoiled. If you were to give other mediums a chance, you might find you like them.

Regardless, there will be a time in the working world where you will find that it isn't about what you want to do. The company will give you an assignment and the specifications for what they want. If you don't deliver what they want, there will be plenty of other talented individuals who will.

I'm not trying to be mean. It is simply reality. It sounds like you are still very young and have yet to really experience what it means to be in the working world.

 

[Feathers]

You may very well be gifted, but you also sound a little spoiled. If you were to give other mediums a chance, you might find you like them.

Regardless, there will be a time in the working world where you will find that it isn't about what you want to do. The company will give you an assignment and the specifications for what they want. If you don't deliver what they want, there will be plenty of other talented individuals who will.

I'm not trying to be mean. It is simply reality. It sounds like you are still very young and have yet to really experience what it means to be in the working world.

How am I spoiled? Of course I've tried every medium. I had already established that I disliked painting and that I didn't need it for my future career.

You sound like you think I don't realize what it means to work for someone. Having an assignment under employment is very different from having an assignment in high school, as I'm sure you know (and somehow think I don't know because of how you read my comment?). People are allowed to slack off in high school and be successful later in life.

I am an adult and I have worked at YVR airport for the last three years.

The idea behind my comment wasn't to actually see if I was gifted, it was to prove that, gifted or not, people can do what they want if they are into it enough. IQ scores don't really make a difference. You can go to Harvard or you can go to community college and still end up with the same job.

 

[dandave]

How am I spoiled? Of course I've tried every medium. I had already established that I disliked painting and that I didn't need it for my future career.

You sound like you think I don't realize what it means to work for someone. Having an assignment under employment is very different from having an assignment in high school, as I'm sure you know (and somehow think I don't know because of how you read my comment?). People are allowed to slack off in high school and be successful later in life.

I am an adult and I have worked at YVR airport for the last three years.

The idea behind my comment wasn't to actually see if I was gifted, it was to prove that, gifted or not, people can do what they want if they are into it enough. IQ scores don't really make a difference. You can go to Harvard or you can go to community college and still end up with the same job.

And I had a feeling that you would like Feralpeg's post far more than mine.

 

[cornflake]

The idea behind my comment wasn't to actually see if I was gifted, it was to prove that, gifted or not, people can do what they want if they are into it enough. IQ scores don't really make a difference. You can go to Harvard or you can go to community college and still end up with the same job.

While the latter statement is true, it works far more often one way than the other. You can get a job doing a lot of things regardless of where you went to school. You're also going to have a harder and longer time getting certain positions, entry into certain things, etc., if you went to a community college vs. a more well-known university.

I don't see how your comment proves anything like what you're suggesting it does. Plenty of people are "into" art and have no artistic talent whatsoever. Plenty of people would love nothing more than to sing for a living, they can take voice lessons, they can devote time and work to it - and still really suck at singing. Or writing. Or... etc. You can improve, but you can't just do what you want, no.

As well, IQ scores, or rather what they indicate, do really make a difference, yes. Someone who achieved an honest, say, 85 on an IQ test, which puts them in the normal range, is not going to make it through med school successfully. Same way someone with an IQ of 145 is going to have a very hard time finding a job as a cop if he or she wanted one, in most places.

Life isn't just 'you can do whatever you want and if you don't want to, just don't, which, presumably, you'll find out soon enough.

Your original comment sounds less like a question than kind of jerky, arrogant preening to me. But I've known a lot of kids who thought they were really cool by acting like petty jerks, though they're usually 13, so ... shrug, neither bothers nor surprises me, they get knocked down a few pegs pretty reliably, or they turn into 'that guy,' heh.

If anyone can do what they want if they're into it enough, we're gonna need a lot more pro sports teams to accomodate them.

 

[Feathers]

Sorry, didn't mean to come off as a jerk. I made a bad choice of words.

I just see so many folks going on about the famous combination of being gifted as well as a perfect student, I wanted to give an example of someone who slacks off but can also have a fairly good talent.

I tried to write my story in a humorous tone but I think it came closer to sarcasm.

I just don't see why I needed to be called spoiled, especially since it came from four tiny paragraphs of my life. I got away with stuff I shouldnt have gotten away with and I see that more as luck than me getting my way. I was lucky I got away with zeros.

 

[cornflake]

Sorry, didn't mean to come off as a jerk. I made a bad choice of words.

I just see so many folks going on about the famous combination of being gifted as well as a perfect student, I wanted to give an example of someone who slacks off but can also have a fairly good talent.

I tried to write my story in a humorous tone but I think it came closer to sarcasm.

I just don't see why I needed to be called spoiled, especially since it came from four tiny paragraphs of my life. I got away with stuff I shouldnt have gotten away with and I see that more as luck than me getting my way. I was lucky I got away with zeros.

I'm not the one who called you spoiled but I'll guess it's because nothing at all came off as if you saw it as luck, just smirkily as if it was your due because you are so awesome and so much smarter and more talented than the teacher that you do whatever you want and get great grades and she can't even grasp your awesomeness and brilliance.

It doesn't seem sarcastic, no, are you sure that's the word you mean? It seems like arrogant preening, bombastic obnoxiousness. Like a 13-year-old who can't stand to hear his parents or teachers even talk because the adults are so stupid and slow and old it's embarassing, because the 13-year-old is so brilliant and has figured out the world and cannot stand being bothered by anyone - if they'd just leave him aloooooonne.

 

[Feathers]

I apologize for sounding that way. The only adult I mentioned was my teacher and she was not a very kind person, even to better students. Additionally she was new, but I guess that doesn't have much to do with it.

I assure you that I didn't intend to come off as a pretentious thirteen year old but I can see how it looks like that's what I am. I did say I made a bad choice of words. I don't think I personally insulted anyone but myself but if I did then I apologize again.

You can probably tell I'm not used to the community boards.

 

[cornflake]

I apologize for sounding that way. The only adult I mentioned was my teacher and she was not a very kind person, even to better students. Additionally she was new, but I guess that doesn't have much to do with it.

I assure you that I didn't intend to come off as a pretentious thirteen year old but I can see how it looks like that's what I am. I did say I made a bad choice of words. I don't think I personally insulted anyone but myself but if I did then I apologize again.

You can probably tell I'm not used to the community boards.

I don't know how you meant things, only how I perceived the post. I don't think you should feel you have to apologize, we are what we are, you didn't do anything to me or anyone here - afaik, heh.

As for her not being very kind, I can imagine. You said you didn't listen to her, didn't do any assignments, told the teacher tough luck, you were going to do what you felt like, not what you were instructed to do, said she was frustrated because you refused to do the work assigned or even listen to what she said, but she didn't punish you by grading your work badly, etc....

If someone treated you like that, say, an arrogant 10-year-old whom you were paid to give drawing lessons to at a drawing class at art camp. Imagine you, in the role of art camp teacher, would have thought up lesson plans for your class and assignments to teach them specific things and build their skills. If he sat and refused to follow any instructions, ignored you, did what he wanted regardless, sat and doodled and paid no attention when you were talking to the class and when you gave the class assignments, said he'd knew every type of drawing and didn't want to do what you assigned the class because he didn't like it, told you 'tough' and did whatever he felt like, if he felt like doing anything at all - would you react kindly?

 

[Feathers]

Oh I didn't mean specifically unkind to me, just unkind in general, to everyone. There are definitely stories I could tell but this thread isn't about that. There was a nasty experience the first year she was there involving her painting over the artwork of other students without permission, and some students I wasn't familiar with ended up bringing it to the principal.

I spent my peer tutoring class recording marks for her as well, and it was very often that she'd lose important assignments or inspect drying sculptures belonging to students and then drop them. She asked me to clean it up and toss it and she never told the students.

I didn't expect you to know that and again I will say that it was a bad choice of words. I didnt explain the situation well enough for others to understand it and I see that now. It can definitely be interpreted in a different way and that is my fault.

I also appear to be unable to quote correctly on my phone for some reason.