My definition of insanity…
1) Competitive team sports for kids under 10
2) Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome
3) Any diet with one ingredient
4) 24-hour “news”
5) Our tax code
6) “Gifted” children… How do they know?
7) Thin thighs in thirty days
8) High heels
What’s your definition of insanity?
Missy Park
Founder
Thank goodness we’re all human. Thank goodness we all care enough about our fellow humans to allow for misinterpretations, mistakes, missteps, misunderstandings. Thank goodness we can all be passionate, innovative, creative, amazing and unique and allow that for others too. Let’s be passionate and compassionate at the same time. I’m going to assume the best of everyone in and be thankful to live in a world where we can express ourselves in varied ways.
Wow. I’ve been a big fan of your message about equality for women for years, so what a disappointment to open the current catalogue and see gifted children slammed.
One definition of gifted kids is that they do school work two years ahead of grade level. But this doesn’t begin to capture the way they take the world in, remember, process, ask questions. There’s surprising speed, depth, unexpected connections. They learn differently from non-gifted children, absorbing information and making leaps of comprehension rather than working step by step.
For parents of gifted children, it’s a wild ride, trying to keep up with their interests and abilities and make sure they’re allowed to learn to their potential in school.
More information here:
http://www.nagc.org/
and here:
http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/
Thank you for your time.
Heide Estes
New York, NY
I
Insanity – stage mothers. Not gifted children. The WSJ understands more than timeout.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704559904576230570655238148.html?mod=WSJ_article_related#articleTabs%3Darticle
The main reason that we, parents of gifted children, are taking offense, I think is that school funding and resources don’t tend to get allocated to gifted children as much as they need to. And part of the reason is this sort of thing, that giftedness isn’t real. It’s pushy parents wanting their children to succeed or be somehow better than their peers.
But it’s not. Gifted kids are special needs, just like someone with a learning disability. They need to be taught differently, they often have emotional issues, and are just different. And if their needs aren’t met, it can make school extremely difficult.
And so, when I see this sort of thing published like this, I get scared. If everyone thinks like this, funding for gifted education would get cut and no one would fight for it.
These kids, who have the potential to really contribute to society, are being ignored and punished because they develop skills faster or to a greater degree than the rest of their peers. And that, in my mind, is the definition of insanity.
Obamacare is insanity
Looks like you stirred up some passionate parents…lol. Can hardly wait to see your response. I figured to be fair, I would give you the link where this all got stirred up.
http://giftedissues.davidsongifted.org/BB/ubbthreads.php/topics/99611/title_nine_catalog_comments_ch.html#Post99611
I guess one of my definitions of insanity is dumping on things you don’t know about.
I’m trying to give this the benefit of the doubt, but it seems so….absolutist. High heels are insane! CNN is insane! Gifted children…well, it’s hard for me to get what you mean there, but based on the rest of the list, it seems like you’re not a believer in talent. Do you mean gifted/intelligent? Gifted at sports? Gifted at drawing? Or music ? If so, I’m thinking you haven’t met a three-year-old kid who taught herself how to read or a kid who could play basketball better than talented seniors when he was in 8th grade.
Differences exist and talent is real. I know that some parents push their kids way too hard and exaggerate their abilities, but that doesn’t change the fact that talent is real, and that some people have a whole lot of it.
Oh, another thing on my list of insane ideas is pretending that talent doesn’t exist and ignoring it/allowing it to wither. Gifted people (whatever they’re gifted at) need mentoring too.
6) “Gifted” children… How do they know? this is insanity? You are selling products there are geared toward women, don’t you think that some may have gifted children? And for the record if you have a gifted child, trust me you know…
Missy, I guess that you are going by a definition of “gifted” that depends on achievement. In reality giftedness describes aptitude or potential. One way you can know if a child has high academic potential is to give IQ or other aptitude tests, as well as charting earlier-than-normal development of academic skills and achievement.
It’s good that not everyone scoffs at giftedness. If they did, a lot more talent would go to waste.
Dear Ms. Park — I don’t understand why you have listed the identification of ‘Gifted Children’ as an idea or possibility that seems insane to you, other than that you are likely uneducated in the field of gifted identification.
I am assuming you must mean academically gifted, as I am almost certain you would admit to being able to tell when a kid is athletically gifted. (I certainly see definite differences in my daughter’s innate abilities athletically, and my sons –for the record, he is the less naturally coordinated, the guy who has to work harder, but still loves his sports ).
As far as intellectual giftedness goes, this can be a VERY obvious thing to some parents, when their kids are reading at 2 (yes, 2), doing multiplication at 4, etc. But even kids whose reading is normal or even behind others at age 5 can still experience the world in such a markedly different way than the average child that they need a markedly different educational path. If they manage through test scores, grades, and a teacher-friendly gifted mien to find that support, then the sky is the limit as far as their being well adjusted, happy and doing great things.
If their giftedness is not well reflected by scores, grades or how they conduct themselves in a classroom setting, they will often quickly surmise that their differences are ‘bad’, ‘weird’ and not acceptable. How could this possibly lead to being well adjusted, happy and doing great things?
Is it insane to get ok with the fact that lots of kids are not average and that average doesn’t really exist other than as a point on a graph?
This was not what I was expecting this morning when I flipped open your usually enjoyable catalog of cute sports outfits and uplifting athlete bios.
Badly done.