Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Growing up gifted

Have either or both parents, of the gifted children we're discussing, grown up gifted and/or were you surrounded by other gifted siblings or parents or is giftedness a new thing for you [in your child/ren]? Just curious.

I grew up in a very artistic family. I am one of 5 siblings and 2 of my brothers are in the PG category. One being a musical prodigy and traveled the world since a teenager in the classical music circles. Another brother is a math and statistics whiz who did the class schedules and teacher assignments for his high school as a "fun summer project" for the principal. I would not label myself PG, but somewhere in the gifted continuum. I wasn't challenged with school until college and had to unlearn many bad habits caused by this.

DH was in gifted programs since 1st grade and completed many college math and comp. science courses before the AP courses were around. He had a wonderful mentor and knew he and his friends were different, but in that environment it didn't matter. His brother is a classic gifted underachiever.

We are surrounded by various examples of how a gifted child can turn out. This certainly affects our desire to keep DD challenged and motivated in school.

I never knew anything about giftedness until now.

DH and I were both ID'd as GT as kids, as were his only sibling and my only sibling. There's also reason to believe that at least a couple of our parents were GT (if not all 4), though they were not tested or ID'd as such back in those days.

There are pros and cons to all that GTness in families. I think it's one of the reasons I didn't realize right away just how bright DS7 really was. MG (or higher) was the norm to us, so I just assumed DS7 was MG. His high test scores were a huge shock to me, even though I really should have known better because I'd been reading about GTness since I was a child. (My mom was the founder of a support group for parents and GT kids, so she had all the books back then. I read literally everything I could get my hands on, including her books. Back then, GT books didn't really talk about LOGs though. More reason for my cluelessness about DS7's specific situation, even though I was pretty well-versed in GTness long before I had kids...)

Finally, it turns out that most of DS7's young friends through his life have probably been MG, but at the time I had always figured they were ND and he was MG. Without a good sense of what ND looked like, my whole frame of reference skewed low.

So I would argue that in some cases, the more GTness you see, the less aware you are of GTness. It seems backwards, but I think I was a *lot* more confused and freaked out when I got here than newbies I've seen since who haven't had as much GT experience as I had. GT denial is easier to stay in--and harder to shake yourself out of!--when virtually everyone you know is GT.

If that makes any sense...

I grew up being identified as gifted and participating in a few gifted pullouts in grade school. Because the programs back then were just enrichment activities that everyone would benefit from, my mom complained to the school about them and tried to make sure everyone got to do them (she was unsuccessful). She probably did this because my older brother was not identified as gifted by the school (looking back, i'm guessing he would be 2e). My parents never made a big deal out of giftedness, and so I never thought of myself as gifted. I was part of the state's first post-secondary enrollment plan, where I took all my classes my senior year at the local university.

DH never thought of himself as gifted either, and he had similar gifted pullout experiences and a mom who lobbied for gifted kids. He thought DS4's behaviors (including reading at 2.5) were normal.

The giftedness only kicked in when reading about our ds4's giftedness. I remember reading stories and saying "that was me!"

I have just started learning about giftedness about a year ago. I mostly never saw myself as such, but now with the research I think I was or am. I moved arround alot as a child maybe 10 plus times, mother married and devorced a lot, 4 times all before 18. Mostly rural schools with no Gifted programs. Once I was tested, or so I have been told in 1st or 2nd, they wanted to send me to some special school, but we moved again. Reading was easy, however learning by whole word vs phonics, has made spelling and writting difficult. Also the pace of writting is very difficult even today. My brother who is a year younger has ADHD, was on ritlain, and had a very difficult time in school. I always thought of him as not so bright, he was in special ed classes, he was kicked out of K, he has a lot of issues fitting in, even more then myself. The funny part is my DW mentioned that my brother is very bright, (I never saw it). It turns out he is, just that it is masked by behavior issues, and by his lack of education. For myself school was too easy, so I did not particpate, only on things that interested me did I do well. You know you may be a geek when you get the frineds of the library award in MS (I think they made that one up for me).Because of my past I think I am a stronger advocate for my DS5. On ADD, one of my clients a Phycologist mentioned that if my brother was ADHD, that I may be ADD. I have never thought so. I took on online test though last year, it says I was and that I should seek help immeadatly, (I think its a marketing ploy). My wifes family all seem very bright, they learn quickly, thier children seem quick, but it is thier norm. GT issues never came up for any of them, but in looking at the criterior many are MG. If you look at our parents, no white coller types, but almost all of them are quick verbally, and also seem somewhat gifted. I know this is an over simlification, I have no real data. But it does seem like there is some past history of giftness, that is there.

No one ever used the word gifted while I was growing up. No one at my small, private school was identified gifted. The only kids that got any special attention at all were the families that contributed a lot of money or time to the school or affiliated church. In elementary school I always felt like a misfit and underachieved as much as humanly possible to fit into my class. I was miserable. I was quickly in the top 10 in a class of 300+ at high school without really trying. (probably because I found a peer group)

But I still felt like Kriston with my own kids. I didn't even have gifted in my vocab. This was never an issue or a thought before kindergarten. Lots of kids in this area read before kindy (due to hothousing/Montessori). I actually thought my kid was behind. Sure he related to older kids, understood conceptual math beyond his years, and could put together legos sets for 12 year olds, but so what? I'm sure all of us as a family naturally gravitate to GT people and kids. My husband was always the smartest of 3 siblings and even though his own kid is off the charts and we're likely homeschoolers, he still isn't comfortable with GT talk. This research into the world of GT has opened my eyes to my own childhood.

Interestingly, my mother was identified GT in elementary school.

All three of us were id'ed as gifted kids in school. My parents are definitely gifted, although I don't think they were identified as such during childhood. My dad is an accelerator physicist, and my mom is an artist.

My mom was early entranced to K at age 4 by her mother who gave the school a false birth certificate. My mom could already read and tried "help" the other kids read the color names on their crayons to teach them their colors, LOL. She got in trouble at school a lot for not staying in her seat and for singing in the bathroom.

My dad's mother was a teacher who didn't "believe in" giftedness even though she was certainly gifted herself...

Okay, I have a little bit of a mom-crush on your mom for this, Cathy! LOL!

I know! I must know all your moms too well now!

But getting in trouble in K for singing in the bathroom? How can you not love that?!?