Bringing empirical science to how people view giftedness

Farrah Alexander…published an article…which she concluded[:]

“Every child is gifted and talented. So let’s stop distinguishing which children are gifted and start celebrating our children’s unique gifts.”

[N]aturally, this stoked the ire of large segments of the gifted and talented community, who already feel as though they have to constantly justify the existence of gifted…programming in school.

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What seems to be going on here…is that a sizable proportion of the gifted and talented community…fundamentally conceptualize giftedness as something very different than high achievement….

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[I]n order for this new conceptualization of giftedness to be tractable, it should have more clearly delineated properties, better measurement, and…also be more clearly tied to particular educational interventions…[T]here is not a single item on an IQ test that measures someone’s capacity to “live and experience life more intensely”.

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[I]f the field of gifted and talented education truly wishes to broaden conceptualizations of giftedness beyond academic achievement, or even cognitive ability as measured by IQ tests, it won’t hold water to say things like: “the gifted child lives and experiences life more intensely”.

The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. Read full, original post: Does Giftedness Matter?