Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums GT Research Ruf's book question

It would seem that many of the Giga members would be Dutch or German, based on the language concentration for the testing.

Tara

They have a list of the members and their countries of origin posted on the website, actually:

Dany Provost, Canada
Evangelos G. Katsioulis, Greece
Paul Johns, UK
Andreas Gunnarsson, Sweden
Rolf Mifflin, USA
Thomas R. A. Wolf, Germany
Scott Durgin, USA

Oh, and the society's founder is Paul Cooijmans, from the Netherlands.

OK, OK, now I had to take a look. Here you go: http://paulcooijmans.lunarpages.com/org/giga.html

I am definitely NOT eligible for membership.

In all seriousness, if you follow through on the links, you will see that they distinguish between childhood and adult level IQ tests. They are clearly interested only in the latter, as they believe the childhood tests (they refer to SB) can't measure the highest level IQs - which is what so many of you have said in your various conversations on this board.

I don't know anything about the organizations for super high IQ. But I am willing to speculate a bit!

I'm sure you are all familiar with Mensa, the society for the top 2% in intelligence. I have been a Mensa member for many years, and I actually met my husband through this group. It's not a bad social scene for a geeky young woman. Mensa made me feel "cool!" Back in my single days, I also registered with one of the marginally higher IQ groups for those in the top 1%. I found that that club's membership was basically just a subset of Mensa members! They had fewer people and less to offer in terms of activities, so I let my membership lapse after that one year. I suspect that there are some high IQ groups that actually offer more than bragging rights, but for most outside of Mensa (which has the numbers to really do a lot) it is probably a challenge just to get enough volunteers to get a newsletter out!

edited: false alarm *whew*

Tara

I didn't where to post here or on my other topic of confused.

First, why I am discussing this I wrote in my last post. Where I thought DD was in the curve and issues of her development.

I thought advocacy was most important in that part of the curve as people in GIGA really don't need it.

Secondly, someone asked about my interest in Non-linear and linear. I think this is a very interesting topic.

Because we can easily provide for the linear. But non-linear is the strategic and analytical side. As basically a non-linear with the typical hearing comprehension issues that Ellen Winner comments on, and DH being the ultimate linear gifted type, with a fact file that rivals Brittanica, I am interested in suppporting DD's non-linear development. (long sentence, sorry)

And it boils down to motivation, or what I think of as hunger.

Here's something to think about. When DH went to Harvard, they used to try and get a broad reach of kids across the country with a set amount from Andover, Exeter and NYC. Now, based on the long term outcomes of success (I think this means end income levels and contribuations to the Endowment --my assumption) they would rather take more kids from NYC than a top achiever from MN.

I think the linear accumlulation is great if you want to become a physician (like DH) or teacher but if you want success as a corporate lawyer or on Wall Street, it is the non-linear development. You have to get the picture, not go step by step.

Anyway, I am going to follow up with Ellen Winner and see who I can find at Columbia. And will post my findings. Grinity, look forward to seeing what you find out.

Shall we start a new topic, based on findings of the GT levels?

Ren

Sorry, I was rushing at the end, at work.

I started motivation, ie hunger as a thought.

Because I think the hunger drives post school success, particularly as we go into the lack of jobs. NYU and Columbia dental and medical schools are 80% Indian and Asian by demographic and I don't mean born here and ethnic background, I mean not born here. Those populations are each 4 times the US and they are gaining material affluence, they want their kids educated and the university system has not been developed. But then they stay here. Job opportunities are getting very scarce. The recent generation is the first statistically to do less well than than the previous in terms of job salaries upon graduation. It is going to get worse.

There was an article I read about gifted and aptitude. And education to train for a job is not the current attitude. People think that you get educated for education sake and the job will come. But the jobs are not coming.

I want DD to be prepared in the best way. And if there are ways to help her, just like telling her now "drugs are bad" so that at 14 is is imprinted in mind, the most I can do to give her options for long term career choices, I want to give her as a parent.

Ren

Well, I would argue that no one knows if they're GIGA status until later in life. Everyone in GIGA started out as a kid with a ravenous hunger to learn and achieve that was fed well throughout their lives. I'm sure every one of them had a family that was extremely supportive of their emotional and academic needs. Not every PG++ child presents the same. Einstein for instance.

I do think there are kids HG+ that fall through the cracks that present as severe emotional problems, underachievers, etc. I think my brother and I were both unidentified HG+ kids that languished through elementary school for certain. I did ok in the end, but could have done better. My brother still struggles with anything that requires more than minimal effort. Lucky for him, he's a person with very strong social skills that get him by and he chose to kill off many of his brain cells in college. We went to a private school that touted itself on being academically challenging.

Your use of MN as an example is interesting. I think it is reasonable to assume that someone who lives on the coast, is making more money due to higher cost of living or greater "hunger", is more likely to send donations to Harvard. It's been featured on the news here and I cannot find a link, but it doesn't really pay for people to pay for Ivy League schools and return here. There is not a significant difference between the salaries of a U of MN grad and a Ivy League grad.

It is good to feed your child's hunger and present them with many opportunties in life. But at the end of the day, it really is all about them and what they want to do and where their interests and motivations lie. We know a couple in our neighborhood - both professors with PhD's and quite brilliant. They have 1 daughter who moved to Alaska and became an electrician. So - you just don't know until you get there! I have no idea what her childhood was like, but I'm sure it's an interesting story. I heard at woman speak at the NAGC conference and her child that read spontaneously at 2, dropped out of high school for a time and debates going to college at all.

Interesting post, kimck.

I definitely think there's more to life than feeling your own brilliance and chasing a high-powered career, if that's not where your heart lies.

It wouldn't be hard to look at my life and say that I'm underachieving, since I'm a SAHM and not out conquering the world as people thought I would when I was young. But I'd be miserable in that sort of life, and I'm happy as a lark in this life. If I get my novel published, I'll pretty much have everything I have ever wanted in life, though this isn't the life I envisioned for myself way-back-when.

<shrug>

I think it all comes back to what we value. If you think your child is "wasting" his/her talents unless he/she is in some high-pressure environment or top of the heap in a highly competitive field, then you may wind up disappointed and with a very rebellious, unhappy child who hates you for never understanding who s/he is.

I have my guesses about what my kids will become when they grow up, but that's just for fun, to see how close DH and I get to what they really wind up doing. My ultimate goal for both my kids is the same as it has been since before they were born: I hope that they grow up to be happy, healthy, well-adjusted, productive members of society, in whatever form that takes for them.

An electrician in Alaska? Sure! Great spot for us to take our retirement trips! A high-powered executive with his finger on the pulse? Yup, if he is able to do that and still find joy and balance in his life. A poet in a cabin in the wilderness? Sure, if that works for him.

I can't imagine anything productive that my kids could become that would disappoint me. I completely agree, kimck, that "at the end of the day, it really is all about them and what they want to do and where their interests and motivations lie."

In the end, it's not my life; it's my child's. They're all different. And thank goodness for that!