I don't know if this is denial or clarity of thinking, but dd is not over the top in IQs. She is only 146. I can understand why a 160 might need more acceleration, but dd isn't topping out her testing.
I think that it's possible to lose perspective on what a "high IQ" is, especially because people have a natural tendency to compare themselves to others who are more talented/faster/have higher IQs.
As an example, a sprinter finishing 50th at an international track meet is at risk for thinking "I'm not very fast; almost everyone finished ahead of me." In this situation, it's easy to forget that if the whole world had run the race, billions of people would have finished
behind him.
Sure, someone with an IQ over 160 will learn faster than someone with an IQ of 145. But the point is to understand that compared to a student population where the average is around 100, and only 1 kid in a grade of 50 students has an IQ of 130, 146 is very high indeed, and requires a special environment, even compared to the special environment needed by kids with scores of 130. A school with a thousand kids might only have a few with IQs over 140.
I don't know about anyone else, but I'm still learning about what "gifted" means. I've taught my own kids, but almost no others below the college level. Most of my other knowledge about learning comes from books I've read and this board. The focus has primarily been on gifted students. So my perspective is skewed.
This translates to a lack of a big picture of how quickly or slowly most other students learn, and makes it easy to forget what 130+ really means.
The best analogy I can come up with is this. Some people are born with great eyesight and others with poor eyesight.
Like good vision, High IQ brings a different way to see the world. Because high IQ, it becomes very easy to see things that others can see only with difficulty or not at all. It is like a telescope, a microscope, and all kinds of seeing devices wrapped up in a mind. The possessor of High IQ, just like the owner of a seeing device, has to learn to operate their abilities. You need to learn what you can see, how to filter mirages, and how to use it.
I like this analogy, and will use it in the future! Good one.
Val
