I think that many of us would not feel the need to use the gifted label if our kids' needs were being met in the school system. It is not my fault that child would rather read a history book over Dr. Suess or gets aggravated when the school spends weeks teaching the principles of division when she figured it out her own years before.
I agree 100% that IQ is only one measure of person, and when used alone it is low measure of a person. Which is why Davison requires more than IQ for proof of extreme abilities. But the fact remains, no matter how extreme my child's abilities are, unless she gets the minimum IQ score, required by the school to be labeled gifted or ESE, her needs will be lumped in with what's best for majority. So, in our case the label is needed, not for bragging rights, but for the legal guarantee of an appropriate education.
I believe that many of us with precocious children don't like the labels either. In a perfect world our education system would put more focus on the individual and less on sorting out the low and high from the average, which would eliminate the need for labels entirely. However, I don't that happening in the near the future and we don't live in a perfect world.
I am curious do you also disagree with a low IQ score being used to identify a ESE child?
