kimck,
Yeah, I can see how one has to use the label �gifted� in dealing with the public-school bureaucracy. We ourselves are homeschooling through a public charter school which sends a teacher out once a month to check on us, so I do see a tiny bit of that bureaucracy myself. Thankfully, our charter school is known for being very un-bureaucratic, and our teacher was actually homeschooled herself, so we do not have to deal with very much bureaucratic nonsense.
Incidentally, I�m not trying to make any sort of �politically correct� objection to the term �gifted�: obviously, some human beings do have greater innate talents in some areas than others. For example, I took a couple of years of trumpet as a kid, and I have absolutely no doubt that Wynton Marsalis in innately more gifted at the trumpet than I am!
And, I certainly do not see any reason why anyone whose kids are way above average intellectually should hide that fact anymore than parents whose kids are �gifted� athletically or musically should hide the fact.
I do think, though, that the unfortunate anti-intellectual bias in our country is a problem not only for parents of intellectually �gifted� children but for all parents who care about their kids developing to their potential. Even �normal� six-year-olds, as far as I can see, would rather learn about knights and castles or Egyptian mummies than learn the fireman-is-my-friend pabulum that passes for �social studies� in so many public schools. No doubt �gifted� kids are indeed much smarter than most people realize. But I think that even intellectually mediocre kids are much smarter than most people realize. As the clich�, says, a mind is indeed a terrible think to waste, and I fear we are wasting many millions of young minds, and not just the �gifted� ones.
All the best,
Dave
