Were YOU gifted and talented? What's your experience.

[morningpaper]

Just interested really, bunch of bespectacled girlie swots that we are on Mumsnet. Were you "G&T" before it was cool?

of course i was. i wa gifted and talented both.

why "was"?

Sorry to come into this thread so late, and I haven't read all the posts. My dd (year 6) has just been classified G+T for her ability & potential in sport. Is this a naff classification in your opinion? Should I take it seriously? I've never heard of a phys ed T&G child. I have a feeling the government are clutching at straws for the forthcoming Olympics in 2012, as DD will be prime age by then. My family & friends don't seem to be that bothered by the news and I'm not sure if I should be or not? Help! She's been invited to Junior Athlete Education day which will be practical and theory and it all seems to be really exciting, but I can't help thinking its a 'white elephant'. What do you think? Sorry if this isn't the point of this thread - but my daughter has been deemed T&G afterall

princesscc...how does she feel about it ?? what sport has she been identified as being G & T' in ???? There has been a huge investment in sports through sports development officers, so nearly every sport has a county based DO eg netball development officer, athletics develpment officer etc etc. One of the remits is to work with schools to identify G & T (sorry i always thing of gin and tonic !!) children and, you're right, for the 2012 Olympics - but, especially with sport, children develop at such a different physical rate that often others catch up when they reach physical maturity IYNWIM. if she wants to go for it then I'd encourage her as much as possible - it'll be fun and may develop into something more....

thanks housemum - of course being G&T may have had nothing to do with it. I may have been bullied and miserable anyway (join in with Morissey "heaven knows I'm miserable now") and no one does misery like a teenager after all

You are right, ideally teachers would have the time to enable breadth of study and stretching without children being separated by age but I fear these days they spend more time just trying to control the unruly unteachable children... but that's a whole other thread

In retrospect I was told that I was a "very advanced child" who by the time I started school at 4&1/2 I could read, write and complete basic Maths tasks. I realised early on that I found school to be very easy and was one of those annoying kids who studied nothing but got top marks ! I also enjoyed sport - played hockey, netball and athletics for school and county and was christened an "all rounder" by primary and secondary schools. School reports were the same every year A's for effort and attainment and was in the top set for all subjects. University was the same - I see myself as having a greater aptitude for learning rather than being G&T - my DH however, has to really apply himself when studying. Was this being G&T or a child who had an innate ability to study and pass exams ? Neither of my parents were vaguely academic - dad painter and decorator and mum - housewife.

Strangely, I can see this pattern now recreating itself in DS, who has been labelled "G&T" and an "all rounder" as he too has a love for sport (plays football, hockey and tennis for the school and local clubs)and is very advanced in most subjects compared to his peers - is this really G&T or a natural innate ability ?

I personally don't like labels and find it hard to accept the teacher's praise for DS as I know he is very much like me as a child - not a lot of effort goes in but gets outstanding grades/reports.

An interesting debate for next time - is intelligence learned behaviour or is it innate?

I have often felt that there is a sort of upper bar for intelligence/learning.

A certain amount is just natural ability - the likes of you have a very high bar and are close to it iyswim, so without much effort you get very high marks. The "normal" person is much further away from said bar - so they can reach it, with a hell of a lot of work and study, but their natural level is much lower.

Does that make any sense?? All random thinkings anyway...

I was put ahead a whole year all the way through primary school...then stayed in the last year whilst the rest of the class went up to secondary school (wasn't allowed to go with them) so did different work compared to the rest of that class..was in top sets in secondary school and then discovered boys, staying out late and it all went downhill...lol

My eldest is doing well though-top set for everything-always has been-started her GCSE's in maths and science this year (year early)
2nd son has a maths and science brain 6c for science at beginning of year 7..not too good at English though.
3rd son doing extremely well in year 4-going out for extra Science lessons as he finds it easy...

i think a family of mad scientists is happening-hopefully one will discover a diet pill that works within 2 hours...LOL

I don't think labelling as g&t really helped me at all. I was a very precocious child in language terms, taught self to read over dad's shoulder at 4, etc. Never needed to work at school except in maths and science- those subjects annoyed me, I got As, but actually had to do something to get them...My mum and dad were really invested in my 'brilliance' and even today that's all they can see of me.

I have spent a lot of years drifting, like others on this thread have experienced depression a lot of which is due to perfectionism and too high expectations of self. I went to Oxford but had a breakdown and didn't get the expected first. It took me about 10 years to recover from that and get back into academia but I am 34 and still not in employment (studying/teaching)so you couldn't call me a success story.

I think g&t is a bit of a poisoned chalice. Nurture talents yes, but naming children as 'high achievers' is dangerous imho.

yes

drifted

we know the story, yes?

g+t is a load of bllx ime

Also I don't think I ever really expected to have to work at anything, so real work was a big, big shock to me.

No official G&T label, but I guess I was. Speaking in complete sentences before 1st birthday, reading at age 3, writing at 4. Started playing piano at 6 and won a competition six months later. Played the guitar and sang in concerts throughout school.

Never studied much, always got top grades. Learned English as a second language and French as a third, now I don't have an accent in either.

Main problem was the social aspect - fitting in with other kids was hard, and although quite admired in certain respects, I was in no way popular.

As whywhywhy said, after the ease of school, real life was a bit of a shock. Not only because it was tough to work, but also because it was horribly boring - no new challenges every day, no monthly tests to succeed brilliantly. Can't say work life interested me all that much.

Not sure about g&t, but top of everything in my school (small school though) - got all As and A*s, at GCSE (actually I got a B for Design Technology, but it was still the top mark [big head emoticon] - won poetry and art competitions etc, same at A levels and then got first at degree.

Not much drifting or misfitting though, pretty regular child, enjoyed school, liked learning, knew how to get on with it with minimal effort.

whywhywhy you could be me, except for being annoyed by maths and science, because I love them. could read before I went to nursery, high expectations all the way through school, which I lived up to because it was easy to, but started to go to pieces in university, have been through depression and done lots of "drifting", get really enthusiastic about learning new things but not very good at staying in a job (one of my friends thought it was a joke when I got a job with an 8 year contract) and perfectionism stops me from accepting that good enough really is good enough.

reading Malory towers etc before school and pitted against whole class in a general knowledge quiz aged 9 and won. Loved being a bit different until my school had the brilliant idea to place me two classes ahead in certain subjects. So two or three times each day I would be marched into a class full of kids two years older than me ( all glaring at the freaky kid) one of whom was my sister !!
Yes - that really helped sibling relations and I shut down pretty quickly. Disengaged with the whole thing - eneded up with 8 o levels 3 A level none of which I studied for and refused to go to University ( would have been the first from my family). Happy to be average now - but of course as any doctor will tell you most of the brain gets squeezed out just after the placenta

yes

was in the Daily Mail for being a nerdy brainbox

was introduced to girls in new school as 'Enid, who is so glad to be coming here as she really wants to do Latin'

also held county records for long jump, hurdles and 200m for years

won sports cup and drama cup in same year

was all round over achiever hiding dark secret of parents loony behaviour yada yada

I suppose so. IQ well into the top percentile and so on. But I had a pleasant, unpressured childhood, coasting happily through school, largely unchallenged.

It wasn't nearly such a disaster as the parents of many G&T kids seem to think it is. Made me happy, reflective, etc.

Not sure if I was G&T but I was certainly always top of the class by a long shot at primary. And bored, bored, bored by being made to repeat things - if they showed us how to do simultaneous equations once, that was fine, I could do them forever, didn't need to do 20 of the buggers to get the point. And I usually 'knew' the answer in maths/science, made some sort of intuitive leap that was reliable so I could do whatever new thing they were showing us without having to do all those tedious workings out. Hated being made to do everything the 'slow' way.

My best subjects were English and History though, because there's less of that tedious 'show your workings out'. BUT we moved house when I was 11, was horribly bullied for being a swot (had no concept of swottishnness before then, being good at everything was always positive as everyone else would ask me for help). All went downhill from there, really, although I did get 'good' exam results.

Time to change name of site to Swotsnet.

Well possibly, had the term been invented back in the day (okay, 1970's).
But am a positive thicko compared to my parents... sigh.

V interesting thread if nothing other than to what we all know that being 'brihgt/G&T etc' has nothing to do with happiness and 'sucess' in life generally. I was also top of my primary school and topish of secondary school for a while at least - definitely not 'gifted' I don't think - although remeber being bored constantly at school but then again v bored in uni lectures (wrong choice of degree). Still get bored v easily with playground/mum converstaions about every day stuff - its an effort for me to talk about the weather etc..

left uni - entered law - set up own practice - nice successful life on the surface....) the boredom is a real issue for me and I think my children need to be challenegd andinterested in life generally - not sure than my dd in particular is getting an awful lot out of all the gluing and sticking they are doing in reception at the moment but hey ho..