Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Wear the T-shirt or Not?

Definitely not a major issue, but something I've been thinking about.

DS 4 just completed his first week of camp through the Center for Talent Development (Northwestern University). Like all camps, he got the requisite camp t-shirt.

Do we wear it in "public" or not? (I wouldn't think twice about having him wear his zoo camp shirt all day, but it seems a bit pretentious to have him walk around in a shirt that basically advertises his giftedness!)

Looking forward to others' thoughts!

Kathie

Here's one vote for "pretentious." I would never have my DD hide who she is, and if I'm asked I'll answer honestly, but I'm very uncomfortable with advertising.

I don't know if I would say its pretentious but it does kind of open you up to comments. DS6 goes to a gifted school, he wears his t shirt on the spirit days and anyone who saw it would know he goes to a gifted school. He doesn't wear it casually though. And I am not big on advertising either. But somehow, camp feels different, maybe because its a choice? If you don't mind getting comments or questions then let him wear it, but if you don't want to be judged, and people always judge, then keep it in the drawer.

DeHe

I say let him wear it if he wants but be prepared (and make sure he is too) to answer questions. If you aren't prepared for the questions then perhaps you could do something else with it to keep it more as a souvenir. If you are a little crafty, or know someone who is, you could do something like turn it into a pillow or quilt.

Hmm...

well, I guess that the healthiest thing from a parenting standpoint is probably to treat it no differently than any other tee-shirt with similar origins. That is, recognize that to your child, it isn't (at least, it shouldn't be) really any different from a school, organization, or club teeshirt.

Pragmaticaly, though, I would probably be fairly selective about where and when, much as I like my high-flown advice above. After all, I'd probably be a little reluctant to wear an atheist tee-shirt to a friend's baptism, even if it is a regular part of my wardrobe otherwise. KWIM?

DS8 has some t-shirts from his gifted school and various gifted programs. I am kind of selective about where he wears them. For example, I wouldn't encourage him to wear them at big family functions, because I don't think his cousins are in GT programs and that would be awkward. Regular day-to-day stuff, I wouldn't think twice about him wearing them. Of course, they don't say things like, "I am smarter than you" on them. They just list the school or the program and most of them have bright and colorful designs on them.

I'd guess that most people don't know that summer programs for 7th graders who score at certain levels on the SAT/ACT exist. Our schools certainly don't publicize them. So if your child shows up wearing a CTY t-shirt it may make little impression. I'm aware of CTY, of course, and have written about the SAT being largely an IQ test, so to me, a child wearing a CTY t-shirt DOES make a statement about smarts. (Younger students will have taken another test such as SCAT or Explore, but they are all g-loaded.) I don't have a problem with that.

People wear clothing and attach bumper stickers with university logos, which is similar to going around with a gifted program t-shirt. I suspect that if parents were somehow forbidden to ever mention where their children were going to college, applications to HYPS would fall by a decent fraction . Advertising that one attended a gifted program does not seem better or worse to me than advertising the attendance of a prestigious university.

Yep!

On the one hand, it's just a shirt like any other. Unless the shirt emphasizes giftedness in a tacky way, it is unlikely to be an issue. If you or DS were questioned about it, it should be simple to refer to CTD as a fun and interesting summer camp for DS. I would just let DS choose to wear it or not with perhaps your veto power when the setting is clearly inappropriate/uncomfortable.

Despite and perhaps contrary to my opinion above, I am extremely selective about where I would wear clothing with my college logo. Having graduated from an Ivy and having dealt with people's reactions over the year, I prefer not to have those conversations. I find it completely different from wearing my college logo as a student, particularly on campus.

Thanks everyone! I really appreciated your thoughts. As for the t-shirt, it just states the program names, but also spells out "Center for Talent Development." I never want DS to be ashamed of who he is, but I also don't want to him to think he is somehow better than others, just because of his gifts of intelligence.

To add to my dilemma, I wonder if I would feel differently if DS made the traveling team (of course that isn't possible yet) for a sport? I don't think I'd be as self-conscious.

At least for us, I think the decision will be to wear it on camp days only, but not change afterward unless I know it would specifically make someone uncomfortable.