I might be in the minority here, but I do agree with some of what he's saying.
Potential- I learned to hate this word by the end of 4th grade. I still hate this word, and rarely use it. As a child and teen I constantly heard "You have so much potential!". This was always accompanied by "You just need to quit being so lazy". To me, having potential meant that there was something wrong with me. I could never live up to my potential and the expectations created for me. Having potential meant that I wasn't good enough.
Parents under/over estimating their child's abilities- I see this often. I have a friend with 2 kids- a girl age 5 and boy age 4. My friend believes her daughter is gifted and her daughter does do well in kindergarten. She is worried that her son might be slow and he loathes preschool. From my perspective, her daughter certainly is bright, but her son is probably smarter. He taught himself to use the computer, can get to websites that he likes, and has mad number skills. Its the boy who chose the animal encyclopedia from my bookcase and spends hours looking at the pictures and asking adults to read to him. I don't know whether either of those children is gifted, but I would be shocked if the girl scored higher than the boy on IQ tests. Their mother would be shocked if it were the other way around!
I don't agree with all of the author's conclusions, but I do think some have merit.
