| Gifted student needs stimulation |
[16 May 2009|07:28am] |
|
http://www.uexpress.com/dearabby/?uc_full_date=20090516
Shows you that tutoring other students is NOT a substitute for proper intellectual stimulation.
Shows you that dumbing yourself down in order to fit in does NOT work in the short term or long run. And this also goes for women dumbing themselves down in order to not scare men off.
Gifted does NOT equal perfect home life/perfect behavior/Stepford/any of that. Many gifted people do not fit in for reasons like these.
And this is more proof that while everybody has potential and talent, NOT everybody is gifted and/or can handle higher level academic work.
|
|
|
[29 Aug 2008|10:46am] |
|
I don't know if anyone saw a piece on one of the educational channels recently - Discovery Health or Science or something like that - about this highly gifted 6 year old pianist. It was interesting seeing how passionate and talented he was at such a young age, but I also felt that by focusing a program on giftedness on one adorable, incredibly well adjusted little boy they made it seem like we're all these cuddly little prodigies who just need to be allowed to obsessively practice what we're good at and we'll all save the world. It was really one sided towards those who know their talent from a young age and are singularly focused on it, rather than what I would think is the more common route of having to spend a lot of time seeking the right path (with a substantial number never finding it). They also had some "expert" on giftedness talking about how all gifted kids need to be pushed towards their talent or something like that - either way it was a comment that completely rubbed me the wrong way. Does anyone else find that many "experts" on giftedness seem to come from a very outsider perspective? Then these people are consultants for these programs that aim to "explain" us but really just seize on one interesting example that doesn't necessarily generalize at all. I feel like most people would prefer to marvel at these examples than confront the fact that gifted education is often underfunded in favor of special education and what that says about our educational priorities in this country.
|
|
| giftedness |
[25 Aug 2008|08:46pm] |
I read a book called Misdiagnosis: Gifted Children and Adults and Bipolar, AD/HD, and other disorders. It says that giftedness can mimic things that are considered disorders. Gifted people often have a wide variety of interests, can hyperconcentrate on one task, criticize themselves, and can even have some socialization problems because they are different. Because of that many gifted people are misdiagnosed with mental or behavioral problems. I found that book to be interesting.
It is true that many gifted people are "twice exceptional". They are gifted and have a learning disability or disorder. Yet if giftedness can mimic some of these, the lines may be blurred.
I know that as a child I was an outsider. I was reading encyclopedias when I was 7 years old--for fun. I wrote my own stories and poems. People could have said I was crazy or something because I wasn't close to my peers.
Now as an adult my mind doesn't shut off. I am a light sleeper. I don't sit still. I have had trouble with employment because of my multitasking and lack of focus. I do wonder sometimes if I do have ADHD or Bipolar II disorder (mixed state). Yet I do know that maybe giftedness could be my "problem". I have taken various online IQ tests and I have gotten 125-145 for scores. I know those are above average and IQ isn't entirely measureable.
|
|
| !! |
[12 Jun 2008|12:22pm] |
Copy this, email it to all your friends, have them email it to their friends, etc.
Then in a couple of weeks gas prices should go down.
Just by way of following the logic for the huge increase in gas prices (50%)
The reason for the increase is cited as oil shortage due to the war with Iraq using so much oil.
The reason cited for the war has been found to be incorrect, if not an outright lie.
The person citing the reasons for the war is in all likelihood a puppet of people in the military-industrial complex, such as the people heavily invested in Halliburton (the oil company), such as Rupert Murdoch, who owns a huge quantity of shares in American Fidelity, which owns a huge quantity of shares in Halliburton http://www.halliburton.com/
May it be noted here that Rupert Murdoch in one way or another owns most of the news media.
The entity profiting most from the war with Iraq *AND* the increased gas prices is, of course, Halliburton. 600 billion dollars worth of taxpayer money.
In my view another case of the rich robbing the poor so that the rich may *own* the world.
National security is not and never was the objective. Vice President C was, before becoming VP, the CEO (Chief Executive Officer; guy in charge) of Halliburton. The only perceivable objective was the enrichment of Halliburton shareholders and making the military-industrial complex (about whom President Eisenhower warned us) even more powerful and feared throughout the world (i.e. Iran)
WHY the American public is not aware of this is incomprehensible. A short internet search of major shareholders of Halliburton and American Fidelity reveals it quite plainly. Therefore I am only citing knowledge which is already public.
The chain of logic is irrefutable: Serious conflict of interest. The murder of innumerable people for the enrichment of the already rich.
I once again repeat: "The government is supposed to be for *THE PEOPLE,* (the majority of whom are either middle-class or poor) not the minority rich. Capish? To recapitulate: We The People are being shafted.
But I honestly think that no one cares enough to do anything about it, and/or is too scared to do so. After all, the "King of the Hill" is rather tremendously large, and capable of killing whom he will.
I will likely not be available hereafter for comment, and this journal may soon no longer be in existence. Ciaou
∞
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0507-01.htm
"Prescott Bush was a director of Dresser Industries, which is now part of Halliburton. Former United States president George H. W. Bush worked for Dresser Industries in several positions from 1948–1951, before he founded Zapata Corporation.":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halliburton
"Halliburton is the largest oil-and-gas services company in the world and it is also one of the most controversial corporations in the United States.
The company has been the number one financial beneficiary of the invasion of Iraq, raking in some $18 billion in contracts to rebuild the country’s oil industry and service US troops.":
http://www.democracynow.org/2004/5/17/the_halliburton_agenda_the_politics_of
http://www.amazon.com/Halliburton-Agenda-Politics-Oil-Money/dp/0471638609
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/23/business/halli.php
http://www.ifg.org/reports/WTO-energy-services.htm
"This intriguing book shows readers where Halliburton has been doing business and with whom-topping the list so far are Iran, Iraq, and Libya. It also reveals how this juggernaut of a corporation has engaged in a cycle of profits that begins by selling products and services to potential terrorist states, contracting with the federal government during times of war against those states, then gaining valuable rebuilding contracts to help repair those states. It will also show how a Halliburton subsidiary, Kellogg Brown & Root, has become an indispensable part of the U.S. military, so much so that the two are indistinguishable at times.":
http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio?inkey=62-0471638609-0
(Is this guy still alive?)
This in The New Yorker
“There is not a reason on earth to sell gasoline at the price they did,” Youssef Ibrahim, the managing director of the Strategic Energy Investment Group, a consulting firm in Dubai, said. “Halliburton and their Kuwaiti partners made out like bandits.” A well-informed Kuwaiti source called the prices charged by Altanmia “absurd,” and said that Halliburton’s arrangement to buy Kuwaiti oil through a middleman, rather than directly from the government, was “highly irregular.”:
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/02/16/040216fa_fact
The above information is not secret. Just plug in "halliburton oil" in Google. There are 274,000 results.:
http://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&channel=s&hl=en&q=halliburton+oil&btnG=Google+Search
I can no longer afford to drive my car to work, a distance of 25 miles one-way. I need a motorbike or an electric bicycle.
Truck drivers in Spain are striking because of high gas prices. The price of *everything* is going up as a result. So we can't afford to buy *anything*. Are you yourself not disturbed?
If not, you must be rich.
I have posted the above as an alternative to calling the administration some very bad words. We are quite tired of being "shafted," if you get my drift. And this by our own government.
Tags: murder
|
|
| personality type |
[23 May 2008|11:43pm] |
I'm an INTP, enneagram type 5w4 sp/sx/so.
What's yours?
|
|
| New gifted forum |
[08 Apr 2008|03:20pm] |
|
My Gifted Life is a fairly new forum started by a former member of the SENG forum which has shut down. I think this might be the forum that I've been looking for--for how many years? It has a broad roster of topics already and is open to more. I've always thought that format has a lot to do with whether discussions flourish or not. As much as i like LJ, it's really not suited for finding and continuing discussion threads. There are plenty of us out there, but the fact that this community is usually more dead than alive seems to prove my point. My Gifted Life
|
|
| Bertie -(no spoilers) |
[27 Mar 2008|11:36pm] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
 blank |
] |
I'm wondering if anyone else really enjoys the character Bertie from the 44 Scotland Street series written by Alexander McCall Smith. Bertie is so easy for me to relate to. I can readily recall as a child being this mix of naive and precocious. It's validating to have a gifted character developed so richly and be presented as delightful. I can remember finding the actions of adults rather bizarre at times. They sometimes seemed to miss the obvious, which was very confusing. Actually, I still don't know whether what is obvious to me is as obvious to others. I so often feel that to explain something would be to talk down to someone only to find that, yes, I really do need to explain it. It's satisfying that these kind of experiences are so well captured in Bertie.
|
|
|
[06 Mar 2008|02:13pm] |
Hi,
I was a gifted kid and now I'm all grown up (at least on the outside), married to a bright man with different intelligences than mine (I'm very visual/verbal and he's very mathematical/spatial).
We're raising a daughter who has inherited some of each of our strengths (she's very verbal but also mathematical as well).
I'm trying to get her into the gifted program in our school district. The cutoffs for our school district are (imho) absurdly high: You have to score at the 97th percentile or higher of the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS) for the grade level above yours...just to be permitted to take the COGAT!
Anyway, not to brag (oh who am I kidding) but my kid scored quite well. She aced the reading portion but came in juuuuust under the wire for the math. So no COGAT for her...though we are permitted to appeal. (and you better believe we are going to...)
For those of you who are parents: Is your school district so limiting? Have you been in a similar situation? Have you had success in getting the rulings appealed? If so, what arguments worked for you?
Thanks!
|
|
|
[04 Mar 2008|04:04pm] |
So out of boredom I took a reading speed test. I have always known I read obnoxiously fast and can visually scan quite quickly (i.e. looking for a certain word in a long list). I took a few different tests and they put my words per minute in the 500-550 range with 90% accuracy for recalling content. Apparently this is twice the normal rate and I am part of the 1% of the population that reads that fast with a comprehension rate that high.
Woo hoo, I'm smart, right? Nah.
Now, I can't say this didn't help me when studying in school. It certainly explains why I was able to consistently get As even in the really hard classes where people claimed it was "impossible" to do well. For them, maybe it was, and maybe it was indeed unfair to expect average or bright students to be speed readers. I guess I always figured they just weren't putting in the same amount of time I was, but maybe they were putting in that much or more and still doing mediocre. I guess I can understand how that would be frustrating.
In the workplace, this means that I work much faster than expected since most of my job is reading emails, articles, pricing charts, etc. Which means I get stuff done insanely fast. Which then means I spend a lot of time bored and trying to amuse myself. I would ask for more work, but I'm not sure that there *is* more work. Everyone I work with is more educated than me and does highly specialized stuff, to the point where training me would be a hindrance to their productivity. And I don't want to force them to make up busywork for me when I am fully capable of doing that myself.
I mean, you know it's bad when your Ph.D. boss asks you to summarize a long chain of emails for him because he knows you can do it faster than him. I guess the skill comes in handy sometimes. Like once a week if I'm lucky.
I feel like someone who can do a really neat parlor trick. It's amusing and notable maybe, but what is it really worth? Anyone else feel this way about their "gifts" sometimes?
|
|
| On a lighter vein - any not-awful movies? |
[02 Mar 2008|08:09pm] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
 bleah |
] |
It snowed like mad here today so we decided to just stay in and watch a movie. I had "Casino", which was good, but depressing. I started thinking about it and realized that in many of the movies I've seen lately, the bright characters are also really awful people. Their ethics - if they can even be called that - are not anything I can personally identify with, and they end up in really horrid situations, mostly of their own doing. The movies are good, and entertaining, and interesting, but really depressing.
So I wanted to ask if anybody has seen and can recommend any movies, either new ones or things available on VHS or DVD, that show high-functioning characters doing GOOD works instead of provoking nastiness and evil.
I mean, maybe our society is set up to make the nasty characters the most interesting ones, but then what does that say about us? I enjoy movies and would really like watching things where bright and talented people use those talents to do well, instead of messing other people's lives up for a change.
Thanks.
|
|
| High Ability |
[16 Feb 2008|06:46am] |
I created an RSS feed for the website High Ability. It's a website centered around topics and resources for intellectual development and recognition for and in gifted adults...among many other things. It's a fascinating resource link and I am glad to see that there's a way to set up a syndicated account through the website.
Some articles have come through the feed already. So feel free to join if you are interested:  high_ability
|
|
| Introduction |
[07 Feb 2008|08:42pm] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
 confused |
] |
Hi all,
I've read a few posts so far and they resonate with me, so I thought I'd quit lurking and introduce myself. I've been told I was "gifted" since my early days in school. I went to public schools for a few years and thankfully my parents switched me into a great gifted school here in Colorado for several years. I would always do very well at anything I applied myself to, but I wouldn't say I have any ability that you would consider amazing.
I'm at a strange place in my life. I'm almost 23 and I'm about to finish my master's degree. I enjoy my field enough to be content with doing it for work. I really related to the post from a couple of weeks ago about potential and living up to it. I feel like in the right circumstances, I could do great things. The thing that really eats away at me is that I know I'm in a position right now to create those circumstances, but I have no idea what to do! I see comments from those of you in your 40s, 50s, and beyond, and in them I see myself 30 years from now. I know that I will be OK with wherever I end up, but I can't help but feel frustrated knowing that so much is possible right now with no specific place to direct my energy.
Anyway, to get off my soapbox - hello, and I'm glad to have found a community dedicated to this. I look forward to reading more posts here.
|
|
| The Backbone of Society? |
[23 Jan 2008|09:02pm] |
|
I recently interviewed Sylvia Sleigh. Sylvia was a very active feminist artist in the 60s and 70s. She has long fought against sexism in the art world... and in the world in general. She is over 90 years old now, but she took the time to answer my questions. If you are interested in reading her opinions about the art world today simply find her name on this page http://www.myartspace.com/interviews and click on it. I have also interviewed Julian Stanczak, Norman Carlberg, Thornton Willis and William T. Wiley... all older artists who have opinions about the direction of the art world at this time. I've also interviewed hundreds of younger artists-- we have a video interview with Anthony Lister as well. I feel that art is the backbone of society. I'm curious to know your opinions.
|
|
| Bobby Fischer Dies at 64. |
[18 Jan 2008|10:22am] |
By GUDJON HELGASON - Associated Press Writer
9:14 am PST Friday, January 18, 2008
Bobby Fischer, the reclusive chess genius who became a Cold War hero by dethroning the Soviet world champion in 1972 and later renounced his American citizenship, has died. He was 64.
Fisher died of kidney failure Thursday in a Reykjavik hospital after a long illness, his spokesman, Gardar Sverrisson, said Friday.
Born in Chicago and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y., Fischer faced criminal charges in the United States for playing a 1992 rematch against Boris Spassky in Yugoslavia in defiance of international sanctions. In 2005, he moved to Iceland, a chess-mad nation and site of his greatest triumph.
( Read more... )
|
|
|
[10 Jan 2008|10:20pm] |
As some of you may know, I'm working on a book about intellectual giftedness. I ran across a quote in one of my notebooks, and it started me thinking on a new track. The writer had been in correspondence with some Mensa members and said that many of them had regrets about never having fulfilled their potential, either as children or as adults. This is a topic that comes up often, but it suddenly hit me in a new way.
If you have a talent for music or sports, or poetry, or any specific thing, you can say eventually that you either did or didn't fulfill that potential. But if you're just gifted, without any specific talent or focus, what is your potential? You're told you have great potential and should accomplish a lot in life, but if your main accomplishment was doing supremely well in school, what is the potential?
Suddenly I'm thinking that being labeled gifted is a ticket to a self-induced guilt trip. So I'm going to ask a weird question, if nobody minds my doing a bit of research here. If you were just gifted, not some kind of exceptional talent that everybody oohed and aahed over, do you feel that you let yourself and others down by not living up to expectations? And did you ever have any idea (or have it now) of what that potential might actually be?
What I'm getting at is that being gifted should mean you're especially good at something. Just being a good learner and making top grades isn't exactly a blueprint for a life of achievement. So, have we failed, or have we been failed by a system that says "you're wonderful; now go and do wonderful things," but doesn't provide any guidance.
|
|
| Catching up - new website |
[07 Jan 2008|05:20pm] |
I didn't look in here for most of the last month, so I missed an interesting discussion. Reading partway through Lady Lucretia's post about eugenics made it pretty clear that there's still a huge amount of misinformation about heredity and environment. In spite of the numerous studies, including adopted twins, that show that heredity trumps environment, people still insist that it's possible to "create" brilliant children by giving them plenty of enrichment when they're young. But I'm not trying to get into a discussion about that.
This post is actually to update info on the Gifted Minds blog. It's still up at wordpress.com, but is no longer being updated. I copied all the posts over to the new website, High Cognitive Minds, and hope that you will all visit. Moving to a website is allowing me to develop all sorts of material that wouldn't fit into a weblog. It's a work in progress, and probably always will be. And of course, the blog is continuing. I really welcome suggestions for additions to the site, which you can leave in the guest book.
|
|
| coping with differences |
[13 Dec 2007|02:26pm] |
I was wondering, what do you guys do now that you know about giftedness and the reasons for your differences with other people. How do you cope with them, how do you spend your free time?
I feel that in practice the problmes that my 'giftedness' gives me are far greater than the benefits I get, partly because it is other people who benefit from my qualities more than I, partly because I live in a culture where differences are scorned as a basis, and a communistic view predominates.
Moreover if I was just a little different I could live with it, I could still explain most people what it means. But I am extremely different, which means few people can even get an idea of what it means. What do you suggest?
|
|
| 'Super'-heroes |
[04 Dec 2007|03:29pm] |
This might seem like a silly analogy.. but I was just wondering, have you ever noticed how people make up stories and fables about super-heroes.. human beings with 'super-human' powers who, due to their goodness and endless drive for justice and wish to help others, keep ameliorating society regardless of the prize they get (or even the punishment and rediculment at times).. Anyhow people dream of heroes, hope they exist. Yet in our world there are so many of them. There are so many people who have extraordinary powers, who have amazing gifts and on top of that who use those gifts for the benefit of people around them, or in some cases, for an entire society.
In most hero stories the hero does not get rewarded for his deeds, on the contrary he most of the time has to deal with attacks of people who are jealous, who want his or her powers for their selfish and evil goals, and even by the ordinary people who, as soon as the hero fails to save a bunch of people as usual, stop believing in him and disregard, even condemn him. I don't remember reading many stories of a hero that is compensated for what he does, that is accepted with his real identity and is able to lead a pleasurable life in society, or who really enjoys being a hero after all.
That might be just the way it is. Having special gifts is a double-sided coin. On one hand you have special abilities you can use to do extraordinary things, you can do much good and help people around you. But on the other hand it takes a lot of pain to stay good hearted and on the path to justice and altruism. Because you know there aren't going to be rewards for you, but mostly incomprehension and attacks. You know people are never going to be content enough with you, they will want more and more. And you can chose this kind of life, or you can chose to not use your gifts for the good of people.
I think there is a hero in all of us. For us who are reading these posts, who are part of this list, and who call themselves gifted. But you all know better than I life isn't easy for us at all. The question is what choice to make. Should we keep hiding, or should we take the harder choice of giving ourselves to society, knowing the consequences? I want to hear your comments.
|
|
| navigation |
| [ |
viewing |
| |
most recent entries |
] |
| [ |
go |
| |
earlier |
] |
|
|
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small}
giftedadults