Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums THINKING BIG About Gifted Education Homeshcooling

Here's one of their textbook vendors:
http://goodschoolsguide.galorepark.co.uk/textbooks.html

K. I'm done. Gotta go cook supper. Cheerio

Aww-- thank you...

Yes, though I'd probably say it's more akin to channeling everything through a particular route/subject/filter. The rain water still covers the same watershed as for the lake-- it's just directed in a much more obviously focused manner. The specialist kids tend to be the obsessive immersion learners, or those for whom 'all roads lead to ______' (interest du jour).

The generalists tend to see everything as interesting, but little as truly fascinating or obsession-inducing.

My hypothesis is that the former develop greater "surge" capacity and can handle much greater information loads and cognitive demand. Like a higher wattage rating. It isn't that the generalists can't learn pretty much the same stuff-- just that they learn it differently and in the case of complex material, slow and steady seems to work better for them than drinking from the firehose. I think this leads to some limits at VERY high levels in specialized disciplines-- that is, I strongly suspect that there are topics in math, chemistry, and physics that are akin to that carnival game where you have to ring the bell-- repeated taps aren't enough... you have to hit it with a sufficiently high force or the threshold isn't overcome. In my way of thinking, that may be where the generalists hit a cognitive ceiling and the specializers do not.

But that's my hypothesis, and it's not backed by anything other than my own peculiar observations, so far as I know.

Nice. As rare as that must be this would be impossible to find- do you suppose there are those among them there who can perform globally at that level? And is that high level you speak of theoretical ruminating or is there a job producing something that very few people in the end can be trained to do? I'm just being nosy, one of the reasons I love the net.

There are free online courses offered by many great universities. They offer the courses and the lectures, non-credit bearing, but with all the lesson plans, syllabus, materials etc. It may be helpful to you for Literature and other subjects. Here's a couple of sites:

http://education-portal.com/articles/Universities_with_the_Best_Free_Online_Courses.html

For Berkeley, the entire lectures are recorded for literature:

http://www.jimmyr.com/blog/1_Top_10_Universities_With_Free_Courses_Online.php

hope this helps!

Oh, I don't know. I've probably known a LOT of PG people in my life due to exposure to physicists and mathematicians and such. I've known a few of them that can have multiple areas of specialty-- but that does seem to be what it is. I don't think that it lends itself to "global" learning, because it's sort of the other style at that point.

I also think those are two extremes and there is a lot of middle territory. I'm definitely a hybrid person. There are areas where I'm truly obsessively interested, and I tend to go on 'jags' where I learn everything there is to know about ______, but I'm also someone who is just plain interested in everything from politics to enology to animal husbandry to ancient stonemasonry...

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Wow-- great links, mycupoftea! Thank you very much.

The Ph.D's that I know have a specialty, but also have knowledge in most areas. You would never want to play a trivia game against them.

They just store and access knowledge very well - almost a database.

Just saying, I have a PhD and nobody should fear playing a trivia game against me. I take inspiration from that bit in Sherlock Holmes where he castigates Watson for giving him the irrelevant piece of knowledge that the earth goes round the sun, and explains that he's now going to do his best to forget it.

My DS learns in sort of a generalized specialist manner. Something catches his interest, and we are on total immersion until the well is full. Then he'll just as suddenly walk away and never go back. There hasn't been anything that has stuck to this point.

I have considered that eventually one of these "sticky spots" will stay, but I wonder. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to what he chooses.

Yes, so far my DD11 is that way, as well, Shari.

LOL.... I'm one of those PhD's that you never want to play trivia games with. My family (seriously) even refuses to play with me anymore.



Mostly my database is miles and miles wide... but only a few inches deep in most places. I can seem like a globally 'smart' person, but I'm not. I know a little bit about a lot of things, but there are only a few areas where I know more than a "little bit." I'm just sort of curious about everything.

DH and DD aren't as much like that as I am.

I think that I ran across something today that might be useful to you!

The Great Courses has a few literature courses which offer exclusively British/English content. As I mentioned, they tend to break things out further, but the coverage looks good other than that, and you might be able to put together two or three of these to make up an entire indenpendent study course with the scope that you're seeking.



This one is pretty lengthy and thorough:
Classics of British Literature

These seem to be a little more in-depth coverage but with a narrower focus:

Lives and Works of the English Romantic Poets-- that one is only available as an audio download.

The English Novel

(Bonus-- that last one is on SALE right now... which I highly recomment with TGC/TTC by the way, as their materials are frightfully expensive when they are regular price, and they go on sale in rotating fashion throughout the year... I can also PM you the code for 99 cent shipping if you like.)