to wince at the term 'bright' applied to children?

[MrsGuyofGisbourne]

Because the corollary is that a child that is not deemed 'bright' is presumably 'dim'. Do people say 'bright' to be coy when they mean clever? Or is it shorthand for the child that is not clever in any measurable sense, but has outstanding qualities (visible only to its parents).
This rant has come about because two canny snake oil saleswomen authors are giving a talk at Ds's school this week, (or next - I won't be there. so haven't bothered to check date) to sell their book which about something like 'how to recognise and challenge the bright child' Clever stuff, of course 'cos presumably all the paretns who think their child is 'bright' (which is probably everyone) will turn up to preen about their outstanding brat prodigy and pay the cash for an autographed copy. Which leads me to think - the child may be 'bright' (cringe emoticon required)- but the parents cetainly ain't...

A mother told me with glee that her 12month old ds had been described as "bright" by the GP. I think she took it to mean clever, whereas I think he just meant alert...

Well, special maths lessons in a good way, so I wasn't really upset. More surprised...

It's not like they'd identified a problem that they had to keep me informed about. They're pretty good at that (also an issue for DS, in another area ).

oH i seeeee, extra challenging maths! Oh, I get it now.

I would say bright meant 'switched on' , engaged ,interested rather than intelligent.
Don't like 'gifted' unless a child really is gifted (like Mozart) which is a very very rare thing

I would use the word "bright" about my DD who struggles a bit academically, to mean she is interesting, imaginative, articulate and has a good understanding of the world around her, but would not use the word "clever" which I associate with being top of the class.

No! Don't call them "clever"! Was the bane of my life as a child being called clever. "I hear you're very clever?" What do you reply? I've had it as an adult too (in fact MIL said it a few months ago), and it just feels insulting. Like, "I can't relate to you at all because you're so clever".

Agree with all usamama says.

And there's so much more to primary education than the academic stuff. Getting along with other people, asserting yourself without putting others down, learning to be a good loser and a good winner, learning to be part of a team, practising good manners. All important things to learn.

I have a friend who everyone runs a mile from when she approaches because they know that all they will hear will be how bright brilliant DD is. Sad thing is not many people like the child because of the parents.The thing is, intelligence or brightness is the same as money. It's not how much you earn, it's what you do with it. Some people earn a fortune but never have anything to show for it while others budget and save on half the amount. DS works for a Dr. with about 10 degrees whose parents were told by a second grade teacher that he was a plodder but would probably do ok in life.

I am sitting here trying to decide what the difference between bright and intellegent.

I would not describe my dd as particularly clever or intellegent. She's average. But she is bright.

I take bright to mean quite quick and sharp.

Clever can mean taking the time to unserstand and learn something complicated.

I'm not sure where intellegent fits in.

You may not need to worry about it all anyway as we've set our education system up to pull up the struggling pupils to get the best league table results, noone gives a hoot about bright or gifted or talented pupils.

The Gifted and Talented labels were explained to me thus, when I taught in the UK: "gifted" is intellectual - maths, etc., "talented" means you can dance or kick a ball really well.