I also sit on both sides of the fence with these last thoughts.
I agree that intelligence is just another characteristic like blue eyes, and I've used that line (well, blonde hair) myself. Despite DS6's latest off-the-chart achievement scores, I was much more proud of him when he got a 2nd place medal at his first taekwondo tournament. In the first, he just took some tests and used no more effort than most children. Conversely, with tkd, he had put in a lot of hard work and perserverence to earn the medal, and that's more about character.
On the other hand, I also agree that our childrens' academic achievements should be celebrated just like that with sports.
I used to get so irritated because everyone likes to compliment baby pictures or gross motor skills, but you can hear a pin drop in playgroups when people discover that your toddler is ahead. Apparently, religion, politics, AND early/advanced achievements all make for bad conversation starters in most settings!
My entire set of in-laws poo-poo any academic excitement/early milestones we try to share. Granted, I think they do this because my 2 nieces are definitely not in the gifted spectrum, and my 1 nephew had brain cancer and is very developmentally delayed on the opposite side of the educational spectrum. They try so hard to show that they're loving all the kids equally that they respond to little (not even a response when I emailed them about YS). That's not fair to these kids, either.
I would think that celebrating these gifts in an appropriate way is important to showing we care and encouraging them. A gifted child who rarely gets accolades for their achievements has little motivation to keep reaching higher and continuing their potential. I also agree, though, that a gifted child who is underachieving due to laziness (without underlying problems) should not be recieving compliments merely because they are smart.
