I'm with SPG. Critical thinking and perseverance are still on the list, even -- maybe moreso with the highly gifted. When the answers just don't pop into her head, DD's first inclination is to leave the task. She loves it when the answers just pop in, like some adrenelin high. But when she has to work through it and know the mechanics, is like I am torturing her.
I remember a friend turning to me in high school and asking, "are you going to use your brains for good or bad?" Because I was really smart, somehow I had that option -- like a cartoonish evil scientist.
DD learned to manipulate early, because she could. But kids may not be able to out strategize her, they know when they are being manipulated and there are a slew of lessons I need to teach her to get along in society and, in the future, in the workplace. Though I think medicine is probably the best career for the HG+. They get to be their own boss and pretend to be God.
A neighbor at the beach is head of pulmonary transfer at a IVY college hospital. Super rich people all over the world come to him and then after offer him vacations at their estates. I can understand how an HG+ kid could get into that.
Getting egos in line with expectations of life is a big challenge with these kids. Especially as they get it as we obsess with getting them the right education and acceleration. They think they deserve special treatment at 5 or 6 years old. That is lesson they will hold onto forever.
What happens when they meet a whole bunch of themselves at college? Well, depending what college they go to.
I think it is a real challenge to raise DD5 (almost 6) going into grade 1, who is a star at the Music School because she is talented and is 2 years ahead in math. She knows she got the 99th percentile for the public gifted school and a close friend only got 97th. And she qualified for DYS. Because I mentioned doing the test (really for CTY) that she could get into a club for the smartest kids in the country. My mistake.
Anyway, I am rambling.
Ren
