*There is also the immediate family reaction to the knowledge that
their child may be "gifted". How that child is then treated at home is,
I believe, the main criteria here. Parents may be proud, skeptical, or
even jealous of the child that is gifted. If the child shows an ability
to learn faster and more efficiently than a parent, that child is often
beaten down psychologically and may find him or herself shunned by the
parent and will then try to become more like the parent (and/or
siblings) for the emotional acceptance. This is especially true of the
blue collar class where showing any kind of smarts can lead to negative
reactions like ridicule or downright abuse from the family.
Now, how does the child make "the best of it" under these circumstances?
*
*Darryl*
On 9/26/2010 6:13 AM, Arthur Cordell wrote:
Gifted or not, creative or not , whatever the case the child/person
has to make the best of it. Don't depend on school or "activities" to
do the job. The individual has a range of choices and "will back into
the future (and wherever possible) keep their options open" What is
failure anyhow? Trying something or trying many things and "not doing
well" or waiting for the "right thing" to come along. Boredom is
often self-inflicted and is a function of the child waiting to be
stimulated. I think we might be relying too much on others and not
encouraging or valuing self-reliance.
Arthur
*From:* [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] *On Behalf Of *Keith Hudson
*Sent:* Sunday, September 26, 2010 4:37 AM
*To:* RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, , EDUCATION
*Subject:* [Futurework] Gifted children are failures
The following Sunday Times story jumped out at me this morning because
I have a gifted 16 year-old grand-daughter, selected by Warwick
University from several state schools in the UK. She and other GCs
from around the world have just been on a project to Botswana during
their summer holidays. But I wonder how she will survive at least five
more years of boredom at school and university. She has a twin sister
who, in my opinion, is even more gifted. But she is even more bored
with school. For the past year she has been working for a couple of
hours a day after school with an international firm and deals with
after-hours phone enquiries from customers in different countries -- a
responsible and enjoyable job for which her adult day counterpart gets
a good salary. She is being strongly pressurized by her school to
stay on and then go to university. I don't yet know what she will
decide but I won't blame her if she opts to join the real world.
I suspect that many of those mentioned below don't succeed because any
creativity they once had was drained out of them by academia. In my
opinion credentialism has gone far too far. I strongly feel that most
children, whether 'gifted' or not, would actually do better and be
happier if they left school much earlier. If you are a
conspiratorialist you could say that, for the past 40 or 50 years the
adult generation have actually plotted to delay young people from
entering the job market for as long as possible and, unfortunately,
the youngsters have fallen for it. The job structure today could have
been a great deal different, and a lot more vibrant, too, I suspect.
<<<<
Sunday Times 26 September 2010
GIFTED CHILDREN ARE FAILURES
Sian Griffiths
Gifted children are just as likely to become misfits as Mozarts,
according to new research.
A study of 210 exceptionally talented children and what became of them
in later life shows that only 3% fulfilled their early promise.
Professor Joan Freeman, a psychologist who has spent 35 years studying
gifted children, said this weekend: "Of the 210 children in my study,
maybe only half a dozen have been what we might consider
conventionally successful.
"At the age of six or seven the gifted child has potential for amazing
things, but many of them are caught in situations where their
potential is handicapped."
A school set up for gifted children closed this year. The Sutton
Trust, which helps children from non-privileged backgrounds, is doing
a six-month research project to help other schools deal with the
exceptionally bright.
Lee Elliot Major, its research director, said: "It's not a pretty
picture out there. some state schools are all for giving these these
kids extra tuition and support, but others are even against
identifying kids that are excpetional."
>>>>
Keith Hudson, Saltford, England
_______________________________________________
Futurework mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
_______________________________________________
Futurework mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
