Longcut, It is great to hear of an interview where she acknowledges the importance of gifted kids being "challenged and to have a peer group that is being challenged."
This concept - the need for ability grouping, and the idea that gifted people are, in fact, different - gets lost in the mindset literature.
What also seems to emerge in many of the articles that circulate (please don't ask me to quote them now!) is the assumption that gifted kids are at a disadvantage if they know they are gifted because that will create a fixed mindset and stall their growth.
What seems to get lost is the idea that:
1. Gifted kids benefit from knowing the reality of their abilities (since they already sense they are different anyway);
2. They need to be challenged, need to fail, need to take risks;
3. They can't readily learn to fail or take risks unless the system encourages this by actually challenging them, placing them in ability grouped learning environments, encouraging their creativity, etc.
It's almost a blame the victim mentality - "it's all the gifted kid's fault if he doesn't succeed - he knows he's gifted, that creates a fixed mindset, so he doesn't push himself. The schools are blameless. If no one told him he was gifted, he would push himself to succeed."
It's a simplistic and false dichotomy that may not be what Dweck intended at all, but seems to be what is emerging in some of the articles out there, and may be absorbed by teachers and school districts.
