I liked this response to her in the comments:
"I see. So, labeling YOUR kid is OK because it "helps to discuss how differently his brain works" but labeling some other kid with a different label (gifted) for exactly the same reason is not OK? Why does this sound like the bitterness of a parent whose kid is not gifted but who still wants her kid to be "special" and to be excused for any failings? Your anecdote about Alexis is more about one mother who is a freak about her kid and less about the value of labels, ostensibly the point of your article. All parents of gifted kids are no more like Alexis's mother than all parents of little tennis players are like Richard Williams (feakazoid father of Serena and Venus).
Your article makes me think, as I have before, that maybe we SHOULD stop using the term gifted anymore, since so many people, especially educators who like to say things like "all kids are gifted," refuse to acknowledge that giftedness exists. So let's just start saying "some kids are smarter than other kids" and go from there. It's true, and this ridiculous attempt by the education establishment to pretend that it isn't so as to ensure everyone's strong self esteem doesn't change that fact. Most kids are, in fact, not THAT stupid, and THEY know perfectly well than some kids are smarter and some are dumber, whether educators acknowledge it or not. And on some level, specifically that of raw intellect, these exceptionally smart kids (aka gifted) ARE "more special than all the other children," just the way some children are more special than all other children in having raw musical talent or raw athletic talent. Schools don't have trouble acknowledging those differences, but for some reason cannot acknowledge differences in intellect, even though we all know they exist. So, Ms. Wickham, with the acceptably labelable son, how about you start saying smart instead of gifted. Will that make you feel better? And, more to the point, how about you acknowledge there are smart kids and start giving them the education they deserve instead of treating them as if they are the same as other kids while asking for special treatment for your son because he has "Executive Dysfuntion" but isn't all that smart?"
