The cult? of "giftedness"

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Discuss..................

SheHulk - didn't Mozart's have the ultimate pushy parents in history? His dad made him perform from the age of 5 - so his innate talent was mercilessly pushed when he was a child. Einstein, on the other hand, didn't talk until age 4 and failed school maths - still went on to publish his controversial theory of relativity while working as a lowly post office clerk.

There is no one definition of 'genius' or 'gifted', but there are definitely people of all ages who simply have more brain power than average. (Doesn't mean to say everyone uses their innate intelligence to reach their full potential though.) In children a particularly high IQ typically brings many many problems and creates challenges for parents and teachers.

Just because there is an industry that has mushroomed around 'giftedness' and testing and many parents seem to aspire to have "gifted" children (fools!), it doesn't mean there aren't very real and often misunderstood issues around gifted children.

I'm really glad I don't have a gifted child; just a very well educated ordinary one.

Einstein did well in school maths and physics, had a teaching degree in maths and physics, as well as a PhD awarded in 1905, the year of special relativity, and he had a non-lowly job as a patent clerk. He did fail the entrance for the Zurich polytechnic but because of bad grades in non-science subjects - he had very high grades in maths and physics. Within 3 years of his famous 1905 papers he was given a university position so his theories weren't that controversial. And I think it is disputed that he had early speech difficulties.

Richmal - so you should be !

Thalitsa - thank you for the corrections! Very interesting to learn new stuff :) It certainly seems to be a myth that Einstein failed school maths (I never knew this before!) - however, according to Einstein's own account he didn't talk until he was 4. And he was employed as a third class patent clark (with no formal qualification in maths) when he published theory of special relativity in his spare time.

The paper certainly got him noticed in academia sharpish!

Eye, the dad was very pushy but the boy was good!

Indeed, there are a lot of misunderstood issues around giftedness and by no means I was implying there aren't gifted children. It's just that the term is really being abused and used incorrectly IMO which is not fair for the really gifted.

There is no way of telling whether the people mentioned had innate genius or a good education with average to good ability. I really don't think it is possible to know which of today's school children will be labeled by history as a genius.

I do however think that having academic ability will lead to more choice and a greater chance of getting a more interesting career. I too dislike all the nonsense of merchandise to make babies intelligent, especially when a little teaching on a consistent basis goes a long way.