All people have gifts. Not all gifts are rare intellectual profiles in the top 2% of the population, the general working definition of intellectually
gifted. Giftedness may exist separate from
achievement.
Some children are
kinesthetically gifted,
musically gifted, or
creatively/artistically gifted, as evidenced by
achievement. Schools may invite them to try-out for possible participation in highly selective programs including varsity sports, travelling choir, 1st chair orchestra/band, lead roles in school plays, and opportunities to compete for top awards in art, Destination Imagination, Lego/Robotics, and Rube Goldberg, to name a few.
Some children are
academically gifted,
high achievers of average IQ, learning well those things which others tend to place before them, at the pace determined by others. The approaches which may be most effective in supporting these students to develop their potential may be quite different than the approaches most helpful in supporting the development of intellectually
gifted pupils (
cheetahs) in reaching their potential (as mentioned in the
study in
this thread).
Unfortunately, books like Gladwell's and others incite further controversy by creating an impression that anyone can be gifted if they just work hard enough.
Some may say that the encouragement to practice was an
achievement-based idea of reaching one's potential or level of mastery, rather than developing a
gifted intellectual profile. Others may say the ideas conflate
giftedness with
achievement creating a chicken-or-egg dilemma.
Similar things have been said about mindset, however one aspect or application of mindset is that gifted kids may stop taking appropriate risks in order to always be seen as "right" or "smart" or "making things look easy" and never be seen as "wrong" or "struggling" or "experiencing difficulty" or "expending effort" (as though effort was the antonym of gifted), and this may work against gifted kiddos as a fixed mindset and lack of resilience. The article at this
recent thread addresses a few highlights of differences between intellectually
gifted children and
high-achieving children of average IQ, who may often be combined together in classrooms for efficiency or economy of scale.