I'm curious if anyone has insight from personal experience or, even better, links to articles and research about what happens to gifted kids who are left in unfertile soil, so to speak?
My mom was an unidentified giftie who responded by rejecting school and authority. As a result, she never had any idea that she had any noteworthy abilities whatsoever, and had very poor self-esteem. She spent her adult life in bad relationships and poverty, and drank herself to death by her mid 50s. It was only after she died, and my DD's school journey prompted DW and I to begin reading about the nature of giftedness, that I ever understood how much alike we really were.
So there's a worst-case scenario for you.
