Aibu to think most "gifted" children come from well off, affluent families?

[Blueballoons1]

Eg start instruments or sports very early, can afford top tuition, often a parent has the skills to teach the dc at home, they have the time & money to travel around the country for events.. Parents oversee practice is done at home.. Whereas they may well be quite medicore compared to a child with raw talent whose parents just cannot afford what it takes..
I just feel for music, sports or academics money & an affluent background is part of the parcel for the majority of "gifted kids"..

The truly 'gifted' children or people are very rare.

I work in education and sure, I see lots of bright and able children. There is a correlation between successful parents and a child's academic achievement. Children with parents who are themselves articulate, educated, ambitious and recognise that spending time speaking, playing, encouraging, engaging, supporting, providing opportunities etc. for their children produce offspring that learn more easily and are able to access educational opportunities and are more engaged at school. I suspect there may also be a genetic aspect to their potential as well.

But to me, truly gifted children have some innate ability and predisposition to learn a particular skill whether that be music, art, mathematics, sport etc. that can't really be gained through hard work alone. They therefore achieve at a level far beyond the norm for their age.

My own DD had music lessons from a young age but she's not gifted, she's just a child of reasonably high intelligence and she therefore got to a reasonable level through practice which any other intelligent child could.

Well post code IS the most reliable indicator of educational achievement!

For us, we are pretty working class but we value education. I’m a SAHM so I’ve got the TIME to plan all these different things and honestly their extra work is cheap or a low time commitment - never both . My kid’s “gifted” before school maths class closed because of a lack of teachers and we can’t afford to replace it. I am great at reinforcing concepts but I don’t know how to introduce new ones so that’s that.

I think children at private schools are given opportunities to find what they are gifted at a lot more. DD is 3, she’s just done one term learning the basics of wind instruments. Now they have moved on to string instruments with ukulele’s, every child has an instrument. Last term they did tennis in sports, this term football.

If the teachers think a child has a particularly aptitude for something covered they strongly recommend further out of school tuition from 3. There are a number of children at her school who are competing at a high level, I’d wager they aren’t necessarily more skilled than children in state schools but that they’ve had significantly more opportunity from a very young age.

Yes but who will bring them to competitions, pay for violin upgrades, find & bring them to junior orchestras. I get what your saying about being ultra gifted but no one is going to spot & nurture you if all you can do is play your second hand violin in your living room.

Vanessa Mae, Alma Deutsche, Taylor Swift all came from very wealthy families who spotted the gift then nurtured it.
Even Mozarts dad was a music teacher.

I am musically gifted, I taught myself to play grade 8 pieces on the piano by the time I was 6. We didn’t have a piano because my parents couldn’t afford one, but we had a weighted keyboard that my dads friend gifted to me when I was 5. Before that, I had a regular keyboard. When I got to secondary school, my music teacher let me use the music cells and piano during lunch break to practice. I completely disagree with your statement. My parents couldn’t even afford to send me for piano lessons, which is why I had to teach myself to both play and read music.

But presumably you are not (and pardon me if you are), a concert soloist? I ask that because if you did have a piano at home, could practice every single day, and had a world class teacher, do you not think you could have done more with your musical talent?

I think the arts in the future are almost entirely destined for privileged children as there is so little funding for state schools.

Also people like Kenneth Branagh got a scholarship to RADA and probably a full maintenance grant.

Now the acting world in the UK is full of private school/nepo kids, your Gary Oldmans would have almost no chance of training or bring spotted now.

Going to a private school evidently helps:
Radiohead
Coldplay
Toms Hiddleston, Hardy, Holland & Hollander
Benedict C
Carey Mulligan
Emily Blunt
Emereld Ferrel
Tilda Swinton
Christopher Nolan
Cillian Murphy
These people had the opportunity to develop raw talent and the time and space. Plus the chance to earn nothing while they get enough work to live on.

Sorry, Emereld Fennell

My son's school told me that he is academically gifted, when he was in infant school. In senior school, two music teachers told me on separate occasions that he is musically gifted. We were a single parent family at the time and living on the breadline, due to my chronic ill-health and no financial support from his father for my son. My son was self taught on piano, guitar and saxophone. My son chose to study music at University, where he was often told that he is an outstanding guitarist. My opinion is that a gifted, or talented child, will show their enthusiasm and passion and whether or not they're pushed, will excel in what they want to do. Likewise, pushy parents who believe that their child is exceptional at music, sport etc, won't see the results they believe that they should, if that child is mediocre and has to be encouraged to rehearse or practice. Schools usually support passionate kids and there are facilities for the kid to excel. If a child wants to commit to something, nothing will stop them. If a child is pushed only because of a privileged background, then resentment follows.
I feel the post is negative and judgemental.

This is exactly it. Look at the children on the junior GB ski team.. All spend weeks training in the French Alps, Switzerland, Canada from a young age. That's on top of all the trips all over Europe for competitions.
Many top private schools have ski teams which help.
My youngest son is an excellent skiier but we can only afford a week a year to Bulgaria so despite his promise he will never make the Team GB winter sports teams as we simply couldn't scratch the surface of what it entails!

The reason we're not great at many sports internationally is because it's largely only the kids that are privileged enough that get selected from, ie a very small percentage of the overall talent pool

The best (for example) table tennis player in the UK has probably never played table tennis, or ever even thought about it

I think it's more to do with parental support regardless of income, than wealth. I do think family affluence helps the child go further down their chosen path later on and therefore give them more chances in life as an adult but a gifted child is still gifted whether they are rich or poor and money doesn't change their brain. My eldest is gifted with mathematics (which is a shock as I'm as far from mathematical as you can get) but we spent his infancy in a family hostel before getting a council house and I was on income support for his first 8 years. He's never received extra tutoring in anything. My income doesn't make him less gifted, but it will affect how far his giftedness will take him. It won't take his ability away from him though. He will still calculate how many seconds are in 7 years without even hesitating.

I had the aptitude to be gifted, but lacked the family or financial support, and never found a particular interest or mentor. I have two potentially gifted children who also are unlikely to achieve greatness due to social and economic factors.

I think children from affluent backgrounds are better able to discover their talents/gifts. In terms of academics it could happen to people from any background as it's part of the curriculum for all children. Although children coming from a background were it doesn't seem like education pays off and/or they have to much stress in their life to build on the talent/gift they aren't going to do as well as a child who has encouraging parents and plenty of opportunity to do extra study.
Things like playing the violin, ballet, rowing, skiing etc are things that children from poorer backgrounds may never experience or may experience it only once or twice and never be able to build on it with lessons or further opportunities to practice.

I was one. Grew up on a council estate. Started primary school unable to do buttons , buckle my shoes or sit still in a class room / follow instructions but confident with numbers and patterns and happily reading classic children's books like Heidi or Swiss Family Robinson. I wasn't remotely well rounded and school was mostly something to be got through.

Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work is absolutely true. Well off affluent families have the means however their child won't make it if they don't work and are very driven. The problem for poorer families is the child getting the opportunity in the first place.

For sport especially you need child, coach and parent working together to maximise potential. Many poorer families don't have the means, drive or knowledge to support their child.

No I don't think the most gifted come from affluent families, they are just the ones who get the most opportunities,

But imo the whole package is necessary... My cousins daughter plays hockey at county level.
She is excellent, also goes to private school, also is part of her local hockey club & from there was selected for county. My cousin & his dw are very affluent, have the time & money to drive her all over for her matches, she's very young still but has Olympic ambitions. Between her private school team & outside support she has later upon layer of advantages heaped upon her..

Also the vast majority of her county hockey

team also attend private schools & my cousin said that's accross the board in county & national hockey teams both boys & girls..

Hockey is a relatively cheap sport starting out. Get a stick, shoes, club membership but even at county level it gets very expensive & your child is competing for places against children who have every advantage who play for top private schools who already have former Team GB hockey coaches training the teams.

State schools kids near me do music, tennis, lacrosse and football too you know

That doesn’t necessarily mean she’s gifted though. It means she’s working hard and has talent and means.

Nooo, we were super poor growing up and all three of us were on various gifted and talented lists.

No you are not correct. 2 of my grandchildren are gifted. We are an ordinary family. You are born gifted

Yes but you are proving my point that you didn't get far because your parents didn't provide you with opportunities to reach the echleons of top musicians.
Yes you sounded gifted but did you get a opportunity to go do junior orchestra or become a soloist? Sounds like you skipped through the cracks as your parents did not supplement your musical education & you missed many opportunities.

Yes but there's probably much more talented players out there with more talent & no means which really is quite sad.
She has Olympic dreams with very ambitious parents who will do anything to make it happen & have the means to.

@Newgirls you’ve missed the point completely. The children at my daughter’s school are doing all these things aged 3. They certainly weren’t doing any of those things in the state preschool she went to before. The outstanding state school rated in the top 100 in the country we considered didn’t offer lessons with musical instruments until year 3.

Whilst the children at the private school may not be any better than those at the state school, those with promise are being identified and given further lessons 5 years before those in a nearby state school which is obviously going to give them an advantage.

They do them but the majority of county, regional & national teams are made up of private school kids.
Same with skiing, lacrosse, polo, rugby etc..