What is Giftedness?

 

Identifying The Gifted


Albert Einstein was four years old before he could speak and seven before he could read.
Isaac Newton did poorly in grade school.
When Thomas Edison was a boy, his teachers told him he was too stupid to learn anything.
F.W.Woolworth got a job in a dry goods store when he was 21. But his employers would not let him wait on a customer because he "Didn't have enough sense."
A newspaper editor fired Walt Disney because he had "No good ideas"
Enrico Caruso's music teacher told him "You can't sing, you have no voice at all."
Leo Tolstoy flunked out of college.
Verner Von Braun flunked 9th grade algebra.
Admiral Richard E. Byrd had been retired from the navy, as, "Unfit for service" Until he flew over both poles.
Louis Pasteur was rated as mediocre in chemistry when he attended the Royal College
Abraham Lincoln entered The Black Hawk War as a captain and came out a private
Fred Waring was once rejected from high school chorus.
Winston Churchill failed the sixth grade.

Characteristics and Behaviors of the Gifted

What is Giftedness

What is giftedness? There is no universal definition. Some professionals define "gifted" as an intelligence test score above 130, two or more standard deviations above the norm, or the top 2.5%. Others define "gifted" based on scholastic achievement: a gifted child works 2 or more grade levels above his or her age. Still others see giftedness as prodigious accomplishment: adult-level work while chronologically a child. But these are far from the only definitions. Former U. S. Commissioner of Education Sidney P. Marland, Jr., in his August 1971 report to Congress, stated:
Gifted and talented children are those identified by professionally qualified persons who by virtue of outstanding abilities are capable of high performance. These are children who require differentiated educational programs and/or services beyond those normally provided by the regular school program in order to realize their contribution to self and society.

A group of respected professionals in the field of gifted suggest a definition based on the gifted child's differences from the norm:

"Giftedness is asynchronous development in which advanced cognitive abilities and heightened intensity combine to create inner experiences and awareness that are qualitatively different from the norm. This asynchrony increases with higher intellectual capacity. The uniqueness of the gifted renders them particularly vulnerable and requires modifications in parenting, teaching and counseling in order for them to develop optimally." The Columbus Group, 1991, cited by Martha Morelock, "Giftedness: The View from Within", in Understanding Our Gifted, January 1992

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