I've really enjoyed reading this thread, and have been pondering the nature v nurture thing since we realized dd was gifted. I come from a 'line' of EG+ people on my father's side, though I have only recently discovered this. I was brought up by my bright (but maybe MG at most), mentally ill mother, who had no input in to my schooling. As I've mentioned elsewhere here some time ago, school for me was 'away from home', rather than somewhere to learn. I never felt smart, only different. I often found things very easy, but spent so much of my time trying to cope with life (I don't mean that in a 'woe is me' sense, I have a wonderful life now), put in so little effort and had so little support academically or otherwise that I was only ever an average student. I got in to a mid level university, dropped out because I was bored and went to work (where I always excelled, much to my own surprise and frankly, disbelief) and people would always comment on how bright I was, which honestly shocked me.

When I had my dd and found out about giftedness, it was like a whole part of who I was was brought out from under wraps. Discovering giftedness and the social and emotional aspects of it was wonderful - it was me! But it was also disappointing. When I speak to other parents of gifted kids - who were high achievers themselves at school, who are formally educated and work in professional fields - I realize how much knowledge passed me by, that I suspect I will never be able to pick up. When I read other posts by people using the appropriate term for particular maths functions, for example, I realize there is a whole vocabulary that goes with education that I don't have. I suspect I don't present as particularly bright to those who are well educated. This is where I suspect nurture comes in to it.

I eventually went back to study with great success and will do more. But I do feel that that lack of general education and the vocabulary that goes with it (and I don't mean the vocabulary of someone well read, I mean the jargon of education), along with the lack of early networks tertiary study provides can have a profound effect on someone's capacity to identify and access their potential if they are unknowingly gifted and/or unsupported. Though I am proof that it needn't be the end of opportunity.

What I do have is an intense understanding of life and people (which I suspect is why my lack of success at school didn't translate to a lack of success at work) - perhaps I got a different kind of 'education' caring for my mum and myself. A different result from a different kind of 'nurture'. I think this goes back to the post above where someone referred to their child's gifted nature. I guess from my point of view nurture gives you access (or not) to meeting a particular potential depending on the focus of that nurture, but it doesn't change that intrinsic giftedness and how that makes an individual tick.

In the case of my eg/pg daughter, I clearly see the benefits to her of being supported in her learning. When I see her challenged by something and what she can achieve when she's supported to work through that - and the other side; bored and in need of stimulation - it makes me very conscious of how much difference that support would have made to me. But I'm very much a middle of the road, moderation is everything kind of person, so no tiger mother for me smile

"If children have interest, then education will follow" - Arthur C Clarke