Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums GT Research Opinion, nature or nuture

I am sure that some of this is how the families got into the study. gifted kids with highly educated parents are going to be more likely to have the traits that get them "discovered" as gifted (vocabulary, math knowledge etc) because of their environment. Also, they have been more likely to recognize the need for help and more likely to seek expertise.

It's a great story to share, Dottie. I'm glad you did. It really does illustrate that super-bright people aren't always IDd/aren't always obvious.

DH's maternal grandmother was "the smart one" on his side of the family, but she didn't even get a high school diploma. Even so, I think the GT genes on his side of the family probably came straight from her. In a different time and place, she'd have probably gone to grad school, but such a thing wasn't even considered for someone like her.

I think so. Heck, I'd probably really enjoy talking to your dad!

My DH's grandfather was a slave in Puerto Rico because his parents died and an uncle sold him to a sugarcane plantation owner as an indentured servant. He eventually escaped and stowed away on a freighter. He didn't even have any shoes. He came to the US and built a life in NY. He must have had some brains to survive all that...

My grandmother emigrated from Finland when she was fourteen after her family lost their wealth and estate due to civil war. Her family cleared and worked a small farm in N. MN where they lived in their sauna for the first year. She still managed to graduate high school by the usual age, and then wrote for the community news-paper until she married poorly (an alcoholic). My father, who grew up in poverty was the first of his family to graduate college. As I was growing up, my friends� parents (many who were university professors) would tell me how intelligent my father was. I assumed they were just being polite

Anyway, I always knew my grandmother was intensely intelligent (and didn�t suffer fools gladly), but for all appearances, she was just another poor, immigrant mother and my father was just another mid-level manager (who occasionally worked for well connected idiots).

I never take for granted that a laborer is less intelligent than a PhD.

Wowsa! Stories like that always remind me just how easy I have it. I mean, my DS3 kept me up last night. Well waaaah, ya' big whiner. Get over it! Some people have real problems!

Yes, it's a really good bit of perspective, I think.

My father is the child of very poor farmers, neither of whom seemed to be particularly gifted and none of his siblings seem to be gifted either, yet he is no doubt HG. He was the first, and only one to go to college. This discussion is making me wonder if maybe one (or both?) of my GPs were gifted (both died when I was young so maybe the great intelligence was there and I missed it) or maybe he is an HG kid of ND parents. I will definitely have to talk to him about this.

Thanks Dottie for bring this up. Very interesting stories from everyone - thanks for sharing!!!

I agree that they we generally have such an easy life in comparison to previous generations of our own families! I also consider their trials when I feel whiney.

I think farmers are very under-rated.

When I was in high school, I was in a gifted class with several really brilliant people. Amazingly brilliant. There was also another group in the class who had 'tested in' meaning they didn't have the IQ scores but they did so well academically either the school or the parents pushed to get them in our class. (I don't really know why, because at the time there was no room in the budget for a teacher so we just had a study hall together, unsupervised)
Anyway, none of the brilliant kids went on to college. Not one. They are all laborers now, in some fashion. All of the 'tested in' kids went to college, and are now doctors and lawyers and such. As for me, I just wanted to go to college to get out of that stifling small town- but I wasn't very inspired to go.
Anyway, because of that I don't worry about kids doing well in school- I worry about the ones who aren't!