No matter what is going on or what has gone on we all have to "make the best of it." I think some might call it courage, obstinate, foolhardy, or whatever, but really what is the alternative?
Arthur From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Darryl or Natalia Sent: Sunday, September 26, 2010 12:38 PM To: RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION Subject: Re: [Futurework] Gifted children are failures 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
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