I think it's very important to acknowlege ability without making it better or worse than anyone else. It's like being born with blue eyes or black hair. It's a human characteristic.
I agree with this wholeheartedly. In fact, I usually say, "You wouldn't praise a kid just for having blue eyes. That's an accident of birth. So you shouldn't praise a kid just for being smart, which is also an accident of birth. But a child shouldn't have to pretend that s/he doesn't have eyes either, just because his/her eyes are different than most other people's. There's a middle ground there."
