Gifted Bulletin Board

Welcome to the Gifted Issues Discussion Forum.

We invite you to share your experiences and to post information about advocacy, research and other gifted education issues on this free public discussion forum.
CLICK HERE to Log In. Click here for the Board Rules.

Links


Learn about Davidson Academy Online - for profoundly gifted students living anywhere in the U.S. & Canada.

The Davidson Institute is a national nonprofit dedicated to supporting profoundly gifted students through the following programs:

  • Fellows Scholarship
  • Young Scholars
  • Davidson Academy
  • THINK Summer Institute

  • Subscribe to the Davidson Institute's eNews-Update Newsletter >

    Free Gifted Resources & Guides >

    Who's Online Now
    0 members (), 167 guests, and 10 robots.
    Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
    Newest Members
    parentologyco, Smartlady60, petercgeelan, eterpstra, Valib90
    11,410 Registered Users
    March
    S M T W T F S
    1 2
    3 4 5 6 7 8 9
    10 11 12 13 14 15 16
    17 18 19 20 21 22 23
    24 25 26 27 28 29 30
    31
    Previous Thread
    Next Thread
    Print Thread
    Page 3 of 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
    Joined: Dec 2005
    Posts: 7,207
    Grinity Offline OP
    Member
    OP Offline
    Member
    Joined: Dec 2005
    Posts: 7,207
    What I dislike most about the term "gifted" is that it means different things to different people - AND it's used in so many different contexts!

    Wow - Seems like only last month when this was the hot topic! I love how active this group has gotten!

    ((back slapping))
    Trinity


    Coaching available, at SchoolSuccessSolutions.com
    Joined: Nov 2007
    Posts: 516
    Member
    Offline
    Member
    Joined: Nov 2007
    Posts: 516
    This is a very interesting topic. I was thinking about how most of you said you were bored during school and I can't honestly say I remember ever being bored. What I remember doing was bringing whatever novel I was reading, propping up my text book and then reading my book behind it during the lecture portion of the class. After the lecture was over and it was time to do homework, I'd do my homework and that was that. At the time I thought I was really clever and that none of my teacher's must have been smart enough to catch on that I was reading all the time. Looking back on it, I of course realize, that they had to have known what I was doing but because I was making good grades, they didn't care. Let me tell you, I got a LOT of reading done during high school. But I never once considered that I was bored or not being taught something relevant or up to my abilities. I was happy to read!!! :-)

    To be honest, both my sister and I knew we were labeled "gifted" but it just wasn't any big deal in our household. We were talked to and treated as people with mind's by our parents and the label really meant nothing. My sister was grade skipped and my poor mother has always felt she ruined my sister's life by letting her skip. She went from an outgoing leader in her class to having few friends and having a hard time fitting in socially. So for her, skipping wasn't good. But maybe she'd have been so bored later that wouldn't have been good either. I had to be pulled out with a group of, to me, "nerdy, brainy, kids" to go to another school once a week for enrichment. This I HATED with a passion. I wasn't one of THEM and the program was the pits. Just extra boring reports and the teacher for some reason took a dislike to me (which had never happened before) so I hated every minute of it.

    Honestly, being labeled "gifted" has meant nothing to me in my life except maybe in a negative connotation. That is one reason I started another thread about what you all find positive about being gifted because I wasn't seeing much. I see now there are positive things in being gifted, just not necessarily in being given the label. At least in my case. That is one reason I have been so ambivalent about my child being labeled. But if it will be a good thing for him, then I of course want it.

    Now this has been extremely long and rambling but I hope I am making some sense. :-)

    Joined: Nov 2007
    Posts: 347
    Isa Offline
    Member
    Offline
    Member
    Joined: Nov 2007
    Posts: 347
    I am one of those parents who discover their giftedness when I was reading information about the topic for DD4.

    I knew that I was intelligent, but never thought of myself (or my parents) as gifted. In the school I was certainly not bored and have to work hard, even though I really loved learning (still do). On the other hand, I have had all my life very poor vission and that certainly has lowered my academic performance.

    I knew as well that I was 'different' but never why and I was a total misfit in the school.

    The positive think however is that I never took for granted that I could learn easily and never underestimated the value of hard work.



    Joined: Sep 2007
    Posts: 6,145
    Member
    Offline
    Member
    Joined: Sep 2007
    Posts: 6,145
    EandCmom:

    To keep busy in class, I wrote notes to my boyfriend while he was still in high school with me (he was 3 years older), and then letters to him when he was away at college.

    Your reading during lectures sounds a lot more...edifying...than my love letters!

    smile


    Kriston
    Joined: Nov 2007
    Posts: 516
    Member
    Offline
    Member
    Joined: Nov 2007
    Posts: 516
    Dottie - love your "system" and how awful you got called on it on the news!!! Did the teachers say anything to you about it?

    Kriston - I don't know how "edifying" a lot of the books I read were. I remember reading the "Flowers in the Attic" (I don't know how to underline) series during the time we read "Romeo and Juliet"!! I did go through a period of obsession with medieval Europe and the kings and queens of that time so I did read a lot about them. I guess that was somewhat "edifying". :-)

    Joined: Mar 2007
    Posts: 797
    acs Offline
    Member
    Offline
    Member
    Joined: Mar 2007
    Posts: 797
    EandCmom,
    I definitely read a lot in class. At first I was descrete and then I stopped pretending I was doing class work altogether. i think one of my teachers said that he felt better when I read because then he didn't have to feel guilty that he wasn't teaching me anything. In physics, I usually spent time looking for mistakes that the teacher made and then raising my hand to correct him. When my hand went up, he invited me up and I took over (and this is sad, because really I wasn't all that good at physics, just better than my teacher!). And then I had another teacher who gave me a "permanent hall pass" which I carried with me, so I could just get up and walk out (and go to the library, or visit the office, or whatever I wanted) whenever I "needed" to. Really, I just got up and walked out of class without having to ask permission. I held a number of offices and did have fundraisers and such I was planning, so, at least some of the time I went off and took care of business.

    These are really happy memories. And I was rarely bored over all, but just didn't find the academic stuff challenging. This may be where my ambivalence about challenging my kid comes from. If I had been working to my academic potential I might not have gotten my treasured permanent hall pass!

    I was also like your sister. I skipped first grade and never felt like I found my social footing again until my junior year in high school. I never told my mom how I felt, because I knew she'd feel guilty and I knew she had done what she believed to be best for me. So I got both the under-challenge of a school being too easy and the social disruption of a skip. Nonetheless, I am pretty happy well-adjusted adult. People can be pretty resiliant.

    Joined: Nov 2007
    Posts: 13
    Junior Member
    Offline
    Junior Member
    Joined: Nov 2007
    Posts: 13
    Wow, I just read today's posts, and it brought back such memories for me. Yes, I read other books during class (although I usually read them at the end of class, after I had finished the homework--I spent the lecture time interacting with the teacher). Yes, I too had a system--any homework I didn't finish in period 1, I finished at the end of period 2. I didn't really understand why other kids brought their books home each night instead of leaving them in their locker like I did--I thought, "Isn't that what a locker is for? To store your school books overnight."

    I was blessed that in the 7th grade they took 30 of us from the other 900 and put us in an advanced track. No one called us gifted--just "the advanced track." So I had a group of friends through jr. high and high school who thought like I did, had a similar sense of humor, and who would be known as "geeks" today, but back then we were just the really smart people (who didn't know how to dress well!)

    I rarely felt bored, being in the advanced track. Also, whenever I felt bored, I wrote--I wrote a lot of poetry and short stories in high school. I really enjoyed taking notes on lectures--isn't that weird! But in grad school, lots of people studied from my notes. I would type them up, and then people would ask to photocopy them.

    I didn't skip a grade exactly--in 9th grade I decided I wanted to graduate a year early. So I skipped 11th grade--I had to petition the school to be allowed to do it, but I couldn't wait to get to college. I had to double up in English my senior year, and I never did take the AP Physics class (since I was taking 2 English classes), but I enjoyed it. True, I wasn't really accepted by the senior class that I moved up to, but I didn't care either--I already had my sights set on college. I took CLEP exams and arrived at college with 12 credits of English, Math, and Science, but that let me "drop out" for a semester my junior year to study at the Sorbonne in Paris.

    So I don't remember being bored in high school--I would just make up more stuff for me to do.

    I DO remember being bored in my college freshman sociology class--I had already studied it in high school--so I sat in the back of the class room and did my Greek homework.

    But overall, my academic experience was challenging and enjoyable. That's what makes me confused about my kids. Both are gifted, highly intelligent, whatever the word is today, but both of them hate doing school work. Even though they do it with enough ease (but I also challenge them--they are both one grade advanced for their age, and we use difficult curriculum). I just don't know why they don't have more desire to KNOW and MASTER knowledge. I loved EVERY subject, but neither of my kids has a favorite subject. I can get them to DO their work, but I can't seem to inspire them to LOVE learning. From the start, I've tried to make it fun and enjoyable, but they say, "Mom, I'm not you--I don't like school the way you did." Sometimes I just want to shake them and say, "Look, there's an amazing world around you! Don't you want to know what makes it tick? Don't you want to know what has gotten us to this place in history? Don't you want to know where it is headed tomorrow?" They seem so jaded, and I don't understand it.

    So there's one of my Christmas wishes--that my kids would love learning!

    Joined: Dec 2005
    Posts: 7,207
    Grinity Offline OP
    Member
    OP Offline
    Member
    Joined: Dec 2005
    Posts: 7,207
    It's the old "road not taken" IMHO. I do hope to be given the "answer key" when I get to Heaven. That would be so cool!

    I want to point out that most of the poster who were able to entertain themselves are female. Most of the "I have my own agenda, and I'm really angry that I'm not getting it" children we wring our hands about are male. ((not all or always))


    The reason I'm always saying that parents of girls (and male "act-in"ers) have to be extra proactive and make sure that the child has lots of experience with true challenge, is that we females, with our fat cross brain-connections and fabulous multitasking abilities are much more able to both "self-differentiate" and to amuse ourselfs by goofing off.

    Conditioning or Genetics or both, for now, it's usually our boys who make a splash. Hey, I'm grateful. If it wasn't for my splash-y boy, I wouldn't never have gotten to know this particular dimension of myself. Can you all imagine a Trinity who never quite understood what was "wrong with her" to make her so different, and had only indirect outlets for all that intensity? I shudder to consider the possibility!

    Love and More Love,
    Trinity



    Coaching available, at SchoolSuccessSolutions.com
    Joined: Nov 2007
    Posts: 516
    Member
    Offline
    Member
    Joined: Nov 2007
    Posts: 516
    All right miss Dottie, the least you could do is SHARE your great underlining knowledge!! :-) (ya know I'm joking here right????) I can't believe you shattered a door!!!!!! LOL!

    acs said "This may be where my ambivalence about challenging my kid comes from. If I had been working to my academic potential I might not have gotten my treasured permanent hall pass!" Too funny that they gave you a permanent hall pass. I would have LOVED that. Sorry you had trouble with your skip too. My sister has turned out all right too so at least it didn't leave too many permanent scars.

    Kathi - my boys sound just like yours and it frustrates me so much. They want to do/learn what they want to do/learn and they just don't care that much about the rest of it. I always enjoyed learning just for the sake of learning but they aren't like that. They are thrilled to learn about whatever they are interested in, but they rest they can take or leave. That is hard since a lot of what they have to do in school is not what they love!!! I'm thrilled when their teachers do some fun science kit or some extra exciting math project though instead of just the same old, same old. At least there is enough of that to keep them engaged and interested but they definitely don't love it all like I did.

    Trin - Neither of my boys are "act - outers" in school. My older one lives in his head much of the time. I see him in class (I work in the room once a week) and he'll appear to be engaged in what the teacher is saying but I know by the dreamy look on his face that he is off somewhere in his head and not paying a bit of attention to her. It worries me that he isn't more attentive and I am trying to work on that, but it is hard for me to know what to do as I am so opposite of that. It's always something I guess!! :-)

    Last edited by EandCmom; 12/02/07 08:25 PM. Reason: to clarify
    Joined: Mar 2007
    Posts: 797
    acs Offline
    Member
    Offline
    Member
    Joined: Mar 2007
    Posts: 797
    Here is my melt down confession from 8th grade to go with Dottie's broken door. I was deep into reading some novel (Tolkien, I think)in my 8th grade language class. I would have been reading overtly in that class, as the teacher did not care. Part way through class the teacher decided that we should have a spelling bee and sent us all up to the front of the class. When we misspelled a word, we were supposed to go back to our seat. I had left my book on my desk and I really really wanted to get back to it. So when it was my turn I misspelled my word (intentionally, of course) and was sent back to my seat where I happily continued reading. But then the teacher realized what I was up to he made me go back up. I, of course, misspelled the next word that came to me, but he wouldn't let me sit down. So I picked up my book and stormed out of the room and went into the bathroom to read. Aside from feeling pretty embarrassed once I calmed down, there were no actual consequences, but in retrospect I feel really bad about the tough situation I put that poor teacher in.

    Page 3 of 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

    Moderated by  M-Moderator, Mark D. 

    Link Copied to Clipboard
    Recent Posts
    Testing with accommodations
    by aeh - 03/27/24 01:58 PM
    Quotations that resonate with gifted people
    by indigo - 03/27/24 12:38 PM
    For those interested in astronomy, eclipses...
    by indigo - 03/23/24 06:11 PM
    California Tries to Close the Gap in Math
    by thx1138 - 03/22/24 03:43 AM
    Gifted kids in Illinois. Recommendations?
    by indigo - 03/20/24 05:41 AM
    Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.7.5