I'm always trying to be radical about things, but I would say that intellectually gifted means "having a mind which natively prefers clear, deep thought, nearly all the time." I find I have a sence about someone really, really, really fast, and I'm unlikely to shift much after that, though it does happen. Numbers certainly would not make me think of changing my opinion.
I am becomming actively annoyed with the "academic precocity" definition of giftedness. Partly this is because of my pre-existing biases, but a lot of it is from watching my 3 yr old drool (ok, a little too literally) on anatomy posters _while_ a relative complains to me that I'm not teaching him kindergarden material. He cares about what an "ulna" is, he's not ready to care how to spell "ulna," and, frankly, I think that's partly _because_ he's smart enough to know his own mind in a rather literal sence. Oh, and partly becasue precocity vanishes, and I think giftedness is pretty fundamental to the self.
Anyway, why I define it that way:
1) A mind that NATIVELY prefers... Because some people cultivate the preference for clear, deep thought, but when they tire, they get less interested in it. Those people might well be smart, and I like 'em and they're "my people," but people I think of as _gifted_ are the ones who get nore deep and clearheaded when they get a little drunk or a little tired. I'm reminded of a young prof who, in a crisis of faith about academics, grilled some poor guy at the museum about an unrelated field, the poor prof just couldn't help but think about SOMETHING when he was that frustrated and miserable, and geologist boy was in just... handy. This may be a literalistic interpretation.
2) A mind that... PREFERS deep... This is the real core of it, I think. That the person would rather be thinking deeply and clearly than not. That it's a strait preference and not related to a feeling of duty or whatever. I guess I think I'm "gifted" partly because I'd rather be on here scouring my definition of gifted than... uh... well, I could be SLEEPING, eating my icecream, or drinking my wine right now
3) Deep and Clear thought... Because I think depth and clarity are what sets intellegent thought appart from garden variety "man it's cold in here" kinda thought. I'm reminded of DS taking his first look at a gorilla skeleton, and imediately noticing differences between it and human ones. There's depth: he had thought about human bones enough to spot differences from memory; and there's clarity: that differences in bones lead to differences in motion just made sence to him, he didn't need to be told that. Clarity is also something I think of when DH(mathematician) cuts though the fog of number in my head, and nails "no, that's definitly more, not necessarily much more, but more, becasue things just moved around over here, and you added something here." or "the Jack is the same as the king, because the Queen is gone"
4) Most of the time... Because I think pretty much everyone feels this way sometimes, and deeply gifted people have moments when they really are wanting something else out of life. But I think for gifites, deep and clear thought is the priority, well, most of the time. I'm not sure I have a good example for this one. It's a bit too fuzzy. Damn that "clear" thing I said up there... does 3/4's clear count as "most of the time???
-Mich (I'm gonna stop typing now.)
