But better yet, the school system would have put him into a selective school where he'd be surrounded by peers who shared his enthusiasm for learning. In that environment, he'd learn to listen to others who had also read books and thought carefully about their ideas, and he'd improve his ability to reason by being challenged by other very bright kids and (ideally) teachers. Why do we deny this essential experience to the Georgios' of the world? And why do we pretend that they can fully develop their intellects if not properly challenged?
I’m not sure about the selective schools in your area, but here, in my part of Oz, they are mainly filled with students from highly aspirational families, with above average intellect which have been honed by hours of extracurricular coaching and tutoring. When my son was 9, he eagerly anticipated meeting like-minded kids in his Yr 5 opportunity class (primary school equivalent of selective secondary schools) but was disappointed to find that whilst they were more conscientious than his previous regular stream classmates, he essentially couldn’t discern much difference in intellectual quality and certainly none were capable of sharing and developing ideas at his level. For this reason, he decided it wouldn’t be worth investing his time in long commutes to selective schools for such peers and he would instead stay local and utilise his time as he saw fit.
In the second part of the linked article, siblings, Dafne and Andrew, had their father to guide them and that was the point I was trying to make earlier. Most gifted kids have, by the nature of genetics, one or both parent(s) who is/are gifted themselves and parents who have already negotiated similar terrain can offer advice from their own experiences, if not private resources to support them on their chosen journeys. My son was very much in Georgios’ position at school, but he’d quietly ponder concepts that he’d come across in Open University lectures and only actively contributed in class when his teachers (many had acknowledged that he was stronger in their subject matter area than they were) called upon him to do so. I do not believe these experiences hindered his development, rather, in addition to giving him plenty of time to muse, it afforded him the opportunity to take a ‘summit view’ of his surroundings and that perspective is/will be invaluable later in life when the EG/PG individual will inevitably find themselves at odds with ‘thought leaders’ who influence the majority.
My son also took the time and effort to reflect on how he could develop interpersonal skills to engage effectively with a broad range of people. He is now at college and the breadth, depth and heights of activities he is engaged in is quite breathtaking. Yesterday, he sent me some video clips of his college band’s recent performance, adding that they have been offered the facilities of a multimillion dollar studio to record their music, which for a self taught musician who’s never had a music lesson, is a nice enough compliment, but that he has so successfully engaged in quintessential teen activities is a personal coup.
