So 1) How do you encourage your children to not hide their gifts? and 2) combat ridiculous stereotypes that gifted children are socially awkward?
I have no idea. Honestly, people who don't know my DD very well are completely astonished to learn just HOW gifted she actually is. She can even fool those who know her for years. She is so lightning fast at gauging what will make others uncomfortable that her default setting is to give them precisely what they want/expect from her, and nothing else. Her emotional regulation is so sophisticated that it's nearly super-human even by adult standards, so-- really, I have given up TRYING to change this about her. As an adult, this is a skill set that will pay dividends so profound that I have trouble really wanting to ameliorate it completely.
Being able to make others comfortable around you IS a good thing. It allows for leadership and team/collaborative activities that are productive, and it also allows you to be flexible and versatile interpersonally and professionally. So I guess my answer is this:
I quit trying to change who/what my daughter is, and I started realizing that my job as her mom is to make sure that others don't dismiss or underestimate her so significantly that she lacks appropriate challenge or opportunities to learn. On the other hand, this most recently meant GOADING her into challenging what she was initially told even during college registration. I mean, sure-- we coach assertiveness with her, but the bottom line is that she is reluctant to wield it effectively on her OWN behalf. (She has no trouble doing so on behalf of others, though, so we know that she's capable-- just mostly unWILLING to make others uncomfortable.)
I joke that my DD is PG, but with a Deanna Troi exterior. She really is. When you finally see that about her, it immediately eclipses every other aspect of her giftedness, as formidable as those things are. THIS is what separates her from the rest of the human race, basically. Seeing that light dawn on others (which is rare, because she's so tightly buttoned down that most of them NEVER realize it, which is DD's intent) is one of the most interesting things I've ever witnessed.
I have learned that DD, once comfortable, is still enough a child that she will do things that ARE NOT possible for anyone who isn't PG, and she won't realize what they signify if nobody calls them out. In other words, getting to know her slowly is convincing enough for most people to slowly warm to her LOG. Usually they wind up accepting that she's "probably HG." The PG stuff, she generally does in such a way as to provoke cognitive dissonance in others, but the surface is otherwise so placid that most people who aren't themselves HG+ write it off as their imagination. KWIM?
I've quit telling DD to not hide her LOG. She knows better, and she's right, when you get right down to it. There are not a LOT of situations in life that actually call for PG intellect, and there are in point of fact a lot of instances in which it is counterproductive and alienating. {shrug}
