See, and I don't view gifted as differing from highly intelligent in terms of a quantifiable thing. Traditional school may appear to be a breeze for a gifted child (it is for one of mine at least) but it also may be a breeze for a highly intelligent child. The gifted child probably is far ahead of what's going on in his/her grade at school, but a highly intelligent child may be as well. I don't differentiate btwn the two in terms of which child breezes along more easily or is further ahead of grade level.

I like Rosemary Cathcart's article that puts it in more qualitative terms: http://www.georgeparkyncentre.org/documents/high-achievers-pdf.pdf

I do suspect that the Title Nine list came from the place you mention -- higher income white families where all kids who perform above grade level are called gifted. I can see having a pet peeve about that. It reminds me of when we brought dd12's test scores (IQ & WJ-III) into her school when she was 7. The counselor at her school looked at them and then to me and said something like, "this really is a gifted kid, huh?" I imagine that people who live in communities where the word is overused grow weary and skeptical of the label.

The way she worded it makes it sound more like her pet peeve is regarding the idea that gifted exists at all, though.


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