But the last two books did change my thinking; they made me think that intelligence is more nurture than nature. Otherwise the Chinese wouldn't have such a high success rate. Otherwise movies like Stand and Deliver wouldn't be so powerful.
I disagree re intelligence being more nurture than nature - I define intelligence as an innate quality, something that each of us is born with, our potential. Knowledge can come with nurture and achievement can come with nurture, and both are also helped along by circumstances - we are limited somewhat in our ability to acquire knowledge by the things, experiences, opportunities we are exposed to.
I also think it's not as simple as stating "the Chinese have a high success rate" -a high success rate at what? How are you defining success? and on what terms are you willing to achieve that success? I've travelled to China and have quite a few Chinese friends, so mentioning China in particular peaks my interest simply because I have more knowledge of it than I do many other countries outside my home country. In my experience, it is very difficult to translate success from one country and one culture to another. I'm guessing here, since this is a discussion board addressing the needs of students with exceptional intelligence, you are drawing a conclusion that the students of high ability in China are better nurtured and educated? If that's your statement, I would disagree. From what I know of other people's experiences, students in the US and Australia, Great Britain, Canada also have a great deal more freedom in choosing their intellectual pursuits, including what they will study at the university level, which I believe is an important piece of nurturing high intellect. People in some parts of China have to pay to send their children to school, which means there are in some circumstances bright children who never go to school or don't get past an elementary education due to poverty. Take what I say with a grain of salt though, I am not an expert on any of this, just a person who tries not to draw broad conclusions about one country/culture vs another.
With my children, I seek balance through following where my children are leading. Let them explore what is interesting to thein the moment, listen to them when they are frustrated and try to do what I can to ease the frustrations within reason, and expose them to learning that is also fun and interesting to them. I've never seen it as a race to feed more and mor eknowledge into them - from my experience children, gifted children in particular, absorb knowledge. In early elementary it's easy to get wrapped up in quantifying where a child is at based on easily measured academic skills. That's not what true genius is about and that's not what is going to leave a mark in the world. Growing happy kids who are self-confident and comfortable in their own skin is what is important to me in raising my kids, no matter what their level of intellectual giftedness. And I beleive if I focus on that, meeting me where they need to be, then that will also be how they will be in a place to learn optimally too (not sayin' that finding a good school fit is easy though!)
polarbear
