Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion stronger motivation trumped higher IQ

This is interesting to me because DD's gifted magnet makes a big deal of emphaszing "leadership." It strikes me as a bit odd. Just because you're very bright doesn't mean you're a leader.

I almost feel like they are trying to create some sort of weird sense of "noblesse oblige" in these kids.

I thought one of the points of being more intelligent than everyone else was that you were obligated to take on the heavy burden of leadership in appropriately managing the direction of humanity.

That being said, what if Wren's daughter aspires to be nothing and chooses to live at home watching pro-wrestling and eating cheesy-puffs?

Or retired as a coupon clipper? If she wants to be a coupon clipper, she only really needs financial assets, which means that the most important thing is to transfer assets to her, rather than prepare her for anything.

They may in fact be unapologetically grooming kids for Ivy League colleges, which are at least as much about hooking into the power elite as they are about getting a good education.

Here's a very interesting piece that speaks to this:
http://theamericanscholar.org/the-disadvantages-of-an-elite-education/

The first several paragraphs are rather dull, "educated people don't know how to talk to the plumber" kind of stuff, so I recommend starting at the 12th paragraph ("The political implications don't stop there . . .")

"Leadership," just as much as ability, is exactly the point at some of these universities, and at the feeder schools that start the culling process.

I have a friend who is an astrophysicist at Columbia. Lovely woman but you haven't heard of her. But most of us have heard of Brian Green. Even when you watch the Fabric of the Cosmos, you see the ones that break ground, take risks, travel to deliver their ideas. Leadership doesn't necessary mean money or politics. It can be showing leadership in thought.

(BTW DD7 is doing astrophysics at amnh next semester)

Lucounu, you really have it out for Palin. There is the thought that she is gifted, just super lazy. All those colleges etc. Couldn't apply herself. I think she is just a universal oddity of success without applying yourself at all. I don't want my kid to be like that.

Lots of kids at the Ivy schools will feel funny if they don't make it into the U.S. Senate within a few years of graduating college. The grooming is not an unalloyed positive for many of them.

DeeDee

So you admit that you are ruling out "coupon clipper" as a profession for her.

You're right, she is gifted. My bad, or bag, as the case may be.

I never had an opinion, just commented on the comments. I have no idea what her IQ is.

I published the link because I thought it was interesting. And I do not think that high IQ negates leadership or vice versa. To make a broad sweep and say that CEOs and politicians generally have low IQs is silly. You can say that Romney is a fool because he says stupid things, but I doubt he is a fool.

Obama is truly brilliant yet made stupid decisions. It took him 3 years to get his game on. Maybe leadership skills isn't such a bad plan.

Hello everyone,

Per the board rules,

"Avoid discussions about politics and religion, unless they specifically pertain to gifted education. There are other online resources for these subjects." (http://giftedissues.davidsongifted.org/BB/ubbthreads.php/ubb/boardrules/v/1.html)

In other words, please only bring up politics when discussing gifted ed legislation or policy (with info on it here: http://www.davidsongifted.org/db/StatePolicy.aspx - shameless plug).

I don't want to lock this thread, but please try to refrain from political discourse. As always, please send me a private message if you have any questions.

Thank you!
Mark

Here's an article today that unintentionally highlights some more of what your article discusses regarding the elite and their sense of entitlement: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/where-s-the-boss--trapped-in-a-meeting.html

The unacknowledged takeaways... CEOs report a 55-hour work week... poor them, right? 5 hours of that is "business lunch." For the ordinary worker, that's called "lunch," but the CEO takes it as a paid perk, a tax deduction, and alleged working hours which cannot be counted by the rest of the employees against the workday, no matter how many workers they eat lunch with, how often their lunch is interrupted by work concerns, or even how often their managers keep scheduling meetings with them over their normal lunch times. Another 20 hours is "travel, exercise, personal appointments, and other activities." In other words, "the things everyone else is expected to do outside of normal working hours."

This leaves these entitled beings only 30 actual working hours a week, consisting mostly of sitting in meetings where little of value is accomplished.