I'm not going to include the spoiler code in this post as you already wrote spoilers in the subject line but if you think I should let me know and I will revise this post.
I'd say masking our posts with spoiler alerts is really not necessary, but I thought I'd mention it because it is sort of fun and different.
I had some interesting discussions with my kids about it...
That is the true beauty of this movie, IMO... the many jumping off points for conversations on topics which may usually be considered "things we do not talk about".
interesting that they included a scene where she felt that her classmate's diorama was better than hers (so not gifted at everything)
spoiler 1:
I embraced that moment: after her perfunctory apology, when she asked if she could now say something she really wanted to say... !
her reaction was pretty right on (overreaction?) when it came to fairness
Yes! That gifted sense of justice. spoiler 2:
I appreciated the movie's depiction of adult conversation on this... the dilemma of the clash between the "violation of rules" and the "I'm so proud of her".
A common trait in gifted children, often listed amongst identifying characteristics, which is alternately described as "
advanced moral reasoning", "
well developed sense of justice", "
moral sensitivity", "
advanced ability to think about such abstract ideas as justice and fairness", "
empathy", "
compassion". Links to lists of gifted characteristics include several articles on the Davidson Database
here and
here,
SENG (Silverman),
SENG (Lovecky).
I also liked that they included that neither the uncle or the grandmother had the right idea in how to educate Mary (they were both too far to one side or the other), but in the end the compromise looked promising as being a pretty good solution- even if it was a simplified one.
spoiler 3:
The second, re-neogiated compromise, right?! Out of foster care and back with the uncle... taking college-level math...
At the end of the movie, I thought... this could easily have sequels... as no doubt Mary's education plan would need to be re-worked for the next year... and possibly each year thereafter. There was also great potential for growth among several of the characters (most notably Evelyn).
even though Mary was obviously profoundly gifted in math, someone still taught her strategies in math (and she read books on math) so she didn't learn advanced math in a vacuum... genetics played a role.
Ah, yes... nature and nurture... giftedness and opportunity. spoiler 4:
We noted that the "genetics" also had a component of several generations knowing what resources would be recommended for nurturing Mary's interest and talent in math. For families without this lineage of giftedness in the same domain, I believe Davidson does a good job of trying to help inform parents of "what's out there"... however that will never be as instantaneous as having family members who already know "what comes next" and are therefore providing what some may call an enriched environment, in which the child may practically learn by osmosis due to the variety of resources available in the home.
This is major.
I believe this also played heavily into the scene in which the public school principal announced that they cannot educate Mary, but the local gifted school (Oakes Academy?) will provide a full scholarship. IRL, there are not many schools for the gifted, and few students receive a full scholarship. No doubt the offer of a scholarship to Mary was due, in large part, to the child's mathematical gift having already been nurtured to college level at age 7.
BTW, Evelyn mentioned an out-of-print book, "Transitions in Advanced Algebra". Does anyone know if this is a real book? A web search does not return this exact title in the results list.
What did you think? I was actually a bit worried that it would be too cliche and give my kids the wrong message, but I think it actually did a good job at the story it was trying to tell. Mary was still very much a kid. A gifted kid who really really liked advanced math but also needed to have friendships with kids her own age.
So many thoughts here. spoiler 5:
I think it was good that the movie mentioned Diane's social awkwardness... and suicide. Just like every other kid, gifted kids need both appropriate challenge and academic/intellectual peers... its just that their "
appropriate challenge and academic/intellectual peers" are not typical.
Diane unfortunately had a weak support system... consisting largely of Evelyn who seemed focused entirely on pushing Diane to eminence
*, and seemed to care little to nurture Diane's other interests or potential relationships.
BTW, Evelyn seemed to display a good amount of relationship awkwardness herself!!!
It was also very telling that Mary said her best friends were her cat Fred and her landlady/neighbor Roberta. It was unclear whether the lack of close same-age-friends was due to having few kids in her neighborhood, being new to school, or lack of deeper common interests and conversational topics with other kids. Regardless, I thought it was good to point out that gifted kids may have friendships with adults.
*eminence... and defining giftedness in terms of achievement:
...eminence ought to be the chief goal of gifted education. (Couldn't you picture Evelyn saying this? This sentence seems to embody her view.)
...
To frame our discussion, we propose a definition of giftedness that we intend to be comprehensive. Giftedness is the manifestation of performance that is clearly at the upper end of the distribution in a talent domain even relative to other high-functioning individuals in that domain. Further, giftedness can be viewed as developmental in that in the beginning stages, potential is the key variable; in later stages, achievement is the measure of giftedness; and in fully developed talents, eminence is the basis on which this label is granted.
Equating giftedness with eminence may
conflate giftedness with opportunity.
