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

My dad was the youngest child of 9 (I think?) and was put up for adoption when his birth parents finally split up. Dad was the lucky one according to his birth siblings. I'd bet all my money he's HG+, though apparently his birth parents didn't show GTness. All this is pretty new, as Dad just tracked down the family a year ago or so.

Nurture doesn't cut it either, as he was raised in a simple farm family, the first to go to college (though 2 younger siblings in his adoptive family did follow him to college). No one else in the adoptive family shows signs of being GT at all.

These are great stories! I love it. It really goes to show GT traits can be found anywhere.

Both of my in-laws are children of immigrants and had many, many siblings and very difficult upbringings. I suspect my MIL may be GT? DH has 4 siblings and I suspect 1 other may be GT. The other 2 seem to be ND. Although, some of their children seem to be MG. DH had to live at home and work his way through college and grad school to go. Only 1 other sibling went to college.

My mother was raised by a father that said girls aren't worth college tuition. My mom is HG, I am certain. Her mother never made it past elementary school. She is 86 years old and as sharp as a tack!

My father is also some flavor of GT and had to work his way through college. His father was a high school math teacher (very GT guy). His mother seemed maybe MG and was actually one of her husbands students. He'd go to prison these days!

Interesting stories!

My father comes from a highly educated family where everybody had a University degree (a 'simpler degree' for the girls, PhD or equivalent for boys).
My mother went to school only until she was 14 and then started to work. Neither her father, nor her mom (my grandparents) had high studies. Yet, now I recognice several signs of giftedness (and underachievement) in her and her family.

I think that while for having a PhD one must have at least 1-sigma above average, the oposite is not true: not having any higher education does not mean that one cannot be at 2 or even 3 sigma above.

Ditto the above sentiments - I enjoy these stories. I hadn't given much thought to GT family characteristics. Though I'll likely miss the mark, I'll give it a shot...

My mother is one of 8 kids (family of farmers in IL). My mom wishes someone had encouraged her to go to college. None of her siblings attended college. I was a bossy youngster. I didn't recognize how bright my mom (a legal secretary) is. She's an introvert and will let inaccurate assumptions about her slide.

I don't know my father, so I can't comment on him.

DH's parents are toxic and make some of the news stories look tame. DH took care of (tried to feed etc.) his 4 younger brothers, but he had to leave home at 15. DH worked 3 jobs during his time at UC Berkeley. He's not doubt HG+, but a biological illness + emotional baggage makes life difficult for him. Depression is an ugly beast.

One of DH's brothers is MG but the other 3 (I think) are ND - I could be wrong though.

DH wasn't tagged as GT in school (would change elementary schools 3-5x/year). However, I was tagged as GT in elementary school, and I'm not as smart as DH. I'm not sure why I was in the GT program. To this day I still don't get it.

DS2.5 is some flavor of GT, but I'm not sure what yet. Time will tell. I'd rather him be ND (w/o DH's depression) than HG+ (w/ DH-type depression).

I hope I didn't offend anyone.

It is what it is.

8 pages, and there is anecdotal evidence on both sides of the aisle, ceiling and floor.

Dillente comment: There are 80 genes for intelligence and you need 60 to be PG+ or something (don't hit me if I am wrong). You need the basic physical gift. Is it a diamond and withstand anything? Or is it like silver that needs polishing to shine? I think we heard both.

But the OLSAT results in NYC showed the highly educated areas of the city had many more high scores than children in the poor areas of harlem and the Bronx. Some of the poor areas did not have any kids scoring above 90 percentile.

Thanks OHG. I didn't intend to fast forward and borrow trouble (for DS), but I'd be lying to say that I don't wish some parts of DH skip DS. This has been a particularly rough year. I'm optimistic that the BP depression + history-linked-depression won't be as troublesome next year.

Okay, back to studying ... one more exam to go. I wonder what my classmates would think if I ran down the aisles screaming "I'm a covenant running with the land!" during the exam.

I have been observing testing at my son's school for 6 years. I can tell you that the kids who care about the test do better on the test and those who think it's a waste of time, tend to blow it off and not do well. Many of the kids who blow it off are smarter than the kids who do well. The social circumstances are very important and I be very wary of trying to say anthing about actually ability based on standardized test scores.

Ann: I can't imagine anyone would take issue with what you posted. Depression is an awful disease to deal with. I wouldn't wish it on my enemies, so I can certainly understand why you hope it doesn't affect your beloved son!

Now go kick some exam heiney, would you?!

These stories are all so interesting. It makes me think there are many families who are unaware of giftedness in their own families, but then after discovering their children are very GT, they look back and have an "i bet gramps was HG...that explains things!"

I come from a very blue collar family. My dad was one of 7. My paternal grandpa was a plumber, and all his sons are/were plumbers. Even the guys who married my dad's sisters all eventually became plumbers. If you can count quick witted humor alone as a sign of giftedness, then many members of my dad's family were GT. I find that I never paid attention to some of the extracurricular achievements of this family until after we found out our son was HG+. Now I suspect more of my relatives to be GT. I was the second in this large extended family to graduate from college (not counting trade schools, which my relatives didn't seem to think was as big of a deal).

My mom grew up very poor in a family struck by depression, schizophrenia, alcoholism. She spent much of her childhood in crummy foster homes. Until she went back for her master's degree when she was in her 40's, and aced every class, she didn't think of herself as all that smart. I know she is quite gifted. I suspect her dad was gifted also, but quite troubled.

My MIL is very intelligent, and after we found out about our son, we've had discussions wondering what could have been if she had been identified as gifted. She said she skipped school most of the time, and still did the best in the class, but they wouldn't make her valevictorian because she missed school too much. But she did very well for herself as it was. Never met FIL, but he certainly has the gift of gab (had a radio show). His mother graduated from high school at 15 and was known to be very smart. Both MIL and FIL grew up in working class families. MIL was first in her family to go to college, I believe. MIL said both DH and his brother tested gifted, and she told me their numbers. I suspect that the tester stopped when she discovered they were in the gifted range, based on stories from their youth and how they are now. I think DH is probably HG. I was identified as gifted in school, but never thought much about it until DS was identified and I read about underachievers!