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Nine Myths About the Gifted based
on the book by Ellen Winner, PhD: The
Reality: More often than not, children are unevenly gifted,often being
especially gifted in one area. It's
not uncommon to find them quite gifted in a specific area, but average
or learning-disabled in another. (She gives the example of adult
inventors with verbal IQ's of 60.) The
Reality: Specially talented children face the same problems as the
globally gifted. The
Reality: Once the IQ exceeds 90, a high IQ is irrelevant in the fields
of music and art. The
Reality: Families play a far more important role in the development of
gifts than do schools, and are essential to the development of the
gifted or talented child. Genius must be nurtured. The
Reality: The brains of the gifted are atypical. Their heads tend to be
larger, their reflexes are faster, and their brains show atypical brain
scan patterns. Brain
structure, brain size, brain speed, brain efficiency, bilateral
representation of language, language-related problems,
non-right-handedness, immune system disorders. Programs
such as the Japanese Suzuki Method of training students to play the
violin can elicit remarkable results in children, but they don't
produce musically gifted children. (Driven
from within, prodigies are their own taskmasters. If anything, these
programs testify to the biological basis of precocity.). Chinese
drawing instruction produces the same kinds of dramatic juvenile
output, but doesn't lead to true artistry, or to spontaneous learning
of artistic principles. The
Reality: Prodigies usually push their parents. The
Reality: As with a disability, giftedness can lead to unhappiness and
social isolation. With
adult minds in children's bodies, profoundly gifted children tend to be
persecuted by other children. They tend to find little commonality with
their age peers, relating to older children or adults. The
Reality: Nobody doubts that some children are musical or athletic
prodigies. Nobody expects a small kid to become a tight end, or a short
child to become a Harlem Globetrotter. Gifted
children are biologically different. If you doubt it, try to raise
someone's 90 IQ to 150. Dr. Winner cites the intriguing case of
Charles, versus Eitan and Peter. All three boys were obsessed with
drawing. However,
Eitan and Peter were far ahead of their years, whereas Charles, in
spite of all the drawing he did, never exceeded the norms for his age
group. The
Reality: Personality attributes more reliably predict what will happen
in adulthood than does the child's degree of giftedness. source: Wikipedia
page User:Jondel/Genius based
on Ellen Winner, PhD. Gifted
Children : Myths and Realities related pages : GT
Adults gifted/talented/high ability ~ ~ ~ |
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