Grinity,

You wrote:
> In families, sometimes one kid is thought of as 'the gifted one' and the other one thinks of themselves as 'not as smart.'

Yeah, in our family, I was the �smart one,� one of my brothers was the �talented one,� and the other brother was the �nice guy.�

In fact, I know my brothers well enough to know that we are all of roughly equal intelligence; I just happened to care a bit more about getting top grades and happened to have a strong interest in some traditionally �tough� academic subjects (math and science). I suppose I was �gifted� in math, but I suspect that was largely the result of being intensely interested in math starting in late grade school.

I suppose I am a little wary of the term �gifted� because it may freeze children in or out of a particular mold. There are of course real innate differences in IQ, but even the most fervent believers in IQ only claim that it explains part of one�s actual accomplishments.

I agree with your point about meeting educational needs. The only modification I would make is that I strongly suspect that we underestimate the potential of even �normal� kids. For example, a couple years ago, we invited some of our kids� friends over to make Mobius strips and do other �math stuff.� One of the kids happened to be a girl who was known to be a little �slow� in school. I happened, for some reason, to casually mention the word �infinite,� and this kid was off and running telling us all what her thoughts were about infinity. She clearly had thought about it, and her thoughts were fairly perceptive for a child her age. I don�t know her well enough to know exactly what is going on, but, somehow, something is wrong if she is considered �slow� in school but is thinking seriously about the idea of infinity.

Most kids, even most gifted kids, cannot be Einstein or Beethoven or Pasteur. But our society goes to a lot of trouble to see to it that kids have a real chance to develop, for example, whatever athletic ability they may possess, whether that innate ability is awesome or merely run-of-the-mill. We do not do the same for intellectual ability. That seems to me a horrible shame.

Dave