Okay folks - I am aware that I may be opening a can of worms here but why does this topic piss so many people off?

[Theclosetpagan]

I mean if someone has deemed a child G+T (or is it G or T) why is it that they seem to be flamed when they post about any difficulties here?

If the label has come from outside the family and the family struggle why can't they post here saying "Help" without people leaping in to say "your child sounds normal to me"

For what it's worth I don't have a child labelled as G+T but am glad I don't given the response some posters get to this topic.

Surely it's okay for some children to be extra bright. Or is it that there is distrust of this label?

Just interested really.

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Cod, that's why I used that as an example - no-one would say their kid had a problem because they were good at running. Equally, I don't think being very clever is a problem.

KM - exactly, you'd get info. butif someone started saying 'what a big problem it was, it's just as hard as a SN' which has been said on the G&T board, then the poster would lose the sympathy of the board. Surely.

Message withdrawn

KM , forgive me of I 've got it wrong , but isn't this the child who has accelerated by a year at school but then struggled socially ? tbh it is hard to cross reference threads so a G and T thread taken in isolation may well easily lack balance to readers.

There is a definitely lack of HUMOUR on the G&T topic

There is so much that makes me want to scream at the sort of mentality that assumes that parents need to spend "all their lives taking the DCs all over the country to training/lessons/rehearsals/Saturday schools"

That just sounds like these parents have no lives of their own so are channeling everything into their children

I don't think that Einstein's parents said "OMG you MUST go to Science Camp!" - I expect they just gave him a knife and told him to fuck off and whittle like the rest of the children

i think a lot of it makes us with normal children feel rather insignificant so can provoke attacks

mainly i just let it brush over me.

i hav a highly intellegent (sp?? she obvsiouly didnt get it off me) dd, though i feel she is neither gifted or talented, esp. not at the meer age of 2!

Of course there are super bright kids and our state education system traditionally fails them terribly. All parents want the best for their children but it seems if you have a bright kid you are not allowed to want them to fulfill their potential. You're supposed to just be glad and content yourself with the fact that they'll survive the system however badly it lets them down.

It's also the traditional British fear of people feeling like they are good at something. In this country you are supposed to hide your talents as deeply as possible in case you get beaten up for being bright. You must pretend you're thick, or average, otherwise you are seen as boastful and stepping out of line.

I wonder why all the talent moves away or ends up being made and dysfunctional.

I think there is something weird about the term "Gifted"

It is basically a religious term isn't it?

This child was given a GIFT by God!

I mean it's a strange term

I think they could have given it a less weighted name

Yes its bizarre that the state education system invented G & T if it doesn't provide the werewithal to go with it

I think that all children have a right to schooling that extends them and lets them reach their full potential.

With on eor two notable exceptions all the G and T children that I have taught could easily have this provided for them within a 'normal' classroom.

An guess what, sometimes those clever kids will get bored, but so do all children, because they cannot find 8verything great fun in school, no-one does, And while they are getting bored, they can develop their inner self

And while they are at it, they can learn how to get on the rest of humanity.....which is quite a life skill.

LOLOL at Mps's comment about Einstein and whittleing. And can my ds join your s Rhubarb, be also does some amazing armpit farts

erm, I actually work for NAGTY kerrymum, on times

so I've read the literature. I've also worked with the kids. I stand by my posts.

Hardly impartial links though KM.

Tbh, the one truly gifted pupil I have had, the hardest thing was trying to get him to be a bit more 'normal' - to spend time away from his instrument. And the thing I'm proudest of as his teacher is that I think we succeeded in making him a normal teenager, albeit a ridiculously talented one.

Just going back to an earlier post KM, I was browsing some old threads and I came across this one which you started - this is what I was meaning about your ds1 being thought of as a "G&T child" rather than a normal kid with high abilities. Where to buy a cello is a perfectly reasonable thing to ask, but it doesn't need to be in G&T, unless it's to remind everyone that "he is G&T, don't forget".

No, they are not a myth. I've met one outstanding child. And interestingly he isn't a member of NAGTY! He spends his life reading books and grazing the internet, and asking wild questions in class.

No one would argue that the top 5% of children in the country are clever. They are obviously bright. And I know because I've met them and worked with them.

But none of the kids that I've met in this way through NAGTY have been so outstanding that I couldn't teach them in an ordinary class with minimal disruption to my normal classroom practivce

(And I don't mean to always seem to be getting at you KM, it's just I really really hate this topic, and the whole labelling thing)

Tortoise (my dd plays the cello! I must love her! )

Oh KM, how can you be surprised that people are antagonistic when you are kindly telling mb, of all people, what gifted children are.

I agree with others- there is one child in dd's year who is truly G&T. There was one boy in ds's year (these are years of 80-90) who was exceptionally clever and brilliant at sport, but not a "genius".