Gifted and talented: the concept of North America based on the education of exceptional children, as defined in the psychometric assessment. Despite the 140-year longevity of endowments, we firmly remain in this one-dimensional understanding of being harmonious with the school. This view of giftedness is, at best, outdated and harmful at worst, and has many implications for both gifted adults and children. Understanding giftedness that focuses on school often, except for everything else, limits those who have been identified as gifted. This definition negates those who attend gifted programs, awareness of the emotional characteristics and personality traits associated with giftedness. Some gifted programs give a lot of attention to academic performance, and this emphasis is often reinforced by parents who send a “you must meet your potential” message. Within the educational context, maintaining your potential inevitably means getting good grades. As a result, many children in gifted programs define themselves solely for their ability or ability to learn successfully. By not taking into account the individual traits and emotional consequences of gifting, while focusing on academic performance, some students in gifted programs tend to fail, since these can be character traits, such as perfectionism and discrepancy, which contribute to their failure to school. On the other hand, there are those talented students who excel in academic attitudes toward stereotype and support their potential. academically. However, academic success for some students in gifted programs is due to their social and emotional development. Without awareness of the emotional aspects of gifting, some academic supermen are less equipped when they encounter problems later, whether problems are academic or in other areas of their lives. Gifted programs that focus on the academic performance of a child, not paying attention to all the elements of giftedness, perpetuate a limited understanding that this should be gifted.
Combining giftedness and school means that many people still believe that getting good grades is the same as being gifted, and the inability to be an exceptional student is proof that you cannot be gifted. Keeping the myth that scholastic execution and giftedness are the same means that unidentified gifted children and adults who do not stand out in school do not recognize themselves as gifted. The idea that school achievement determines giftedness / intellect continues to be popular, despite its erroneous logic, and some of these misconceptions are directed towards gifted programs.
Connecting school and giftedness excludes a significant group of gifted people: those who are not officially identified as gifted by the school board. If you were forty years old, it was extremely illegal, you were selected in the school system. And if you are not forty years old, screening for gifted programs remains very spotty in urban centers and does not exist in populated areas. There are also methodological problems associated with testing IQ - you can be a gifted adult and not demonstrate your talent for evaluation for a number of reasons: cultural bias, visual-spatial orientation, or measurement error. Most gifted people have never been formally evaluated, and some gifted people cannot be identified, even if they have been evaluated. However, due to the widespread understanding of gifted people as equivalent to education, many people have an idea that they can only be gifted if the school board decides you.
The logic of determining school-related endowments means that once a school ends, it will no longer be canceled. The consequence of this erroneous logic is significant. This means that gifted adults, regardless of whether they are identified in the school system or not, suggest that as soon as formal education ends, it becomes gifted. Focusing the definition of giftedness on school ignores the holistic reality of being a gifted person — a person is endowed with life and in all aspects of life. Ultimately, school is only a small part, even those who pursue advanced higher education will spend more time at work than at school. Focusing on education ignores what should be gifted as a parent, partner, employee, boss. For example, how many gifted parents also have gifted children? How many parents know how the emotional aspects of gifting affect their parental gifted child — mutual love of reasoning and the power struggle, sensitivity, and sense of moral injustice associated with it? How many adults understand that their giftedness affects their relationship with their partner - a challenge to find an intellectual partner as a life partner, additional emotional demands that a gifted adult can give, the intensity of life with a gifted adult. And what does it mean to be a gifted adult at work? If a gifted child is not challenged or not involved in a standard educational environment, to the extent that a human rights based approach has been created to bridge this gap, it follows that a gifted adult should be illegally challenged or involved in a typical work environment . The definition of giftedness only in the school environment does not allow to solve all other areas of life that affect giftedness.
We need to go beyond the 140-year-old definition of what it means to be gifted, and separate it from the school. Otherwise, we will continue to provide inaccurate information to children in gifted programs, limiting their self-understanding as children and adults. Gifted children who do not have / gifted adults who have not performed at school will not identify themselves as gifted and cannot assess who they are or why they may feel isolated. This is the time to stop the perpetuation of the outdated, incomplete idea of what it means to be gifted.
