It is my understanding that some people do not perceive or accept that the gifted have naturally occurring differing educational needs, and that this MAY include needs for both advanced academics and also support/remediation for disabilities (twice exceptional or 2e, which may be thought of along the lines of an intersectionality).

Rather, some people perceive the designation of "gifted" as an honor to be grasped at. Educational systems purposefully creating too few seats in gifted programs generates competition, lotteries, and feeds into the sense of "gifted" as something desirable rather than a range of needs to be met.

Unfortunately, some parents of gifted children may feed into this conflation of gifted -and- high achieving. Examples of useful search terms to learn more about this may include Tiger Parenting, Tiger Moms, hothousing, helicopter parents.

Following along this line of thinking, some people may be inclined to believe that giftedness is not naturally occurring throughout the population but rather is a result of social/cultural conditioning created by the wealthy for benefit the wealthy, to the exclusion of others.

To assist parents who may be unfamiliar with giftedness, with recognizing some of the early traits and behaviors which may be observed in young children, this roundup of links may be of interest: http://giftedissues.davidsongifted....p_of_traits_is_my_baby_o.html#Post248478

This old post, from a thread discussing gifted myths, may also be of interest: http://giftedissues.davidsongifted....t_Should_Everyone_Know_a.html#Post161756