High Cognitive Minds

When a problem remains unsolved year after year, generation after generation, we need to consider whether there is something wrong with the process of problem-solving. Giftedness is a complex, multi-faceted problem with no apparent solutions. Which is, I suppose, one of the reasons why I've found it a source of endless fascination. Psychologists who believe that giftedness can be studied scientifically, have been no more successful in understanding it than anyone else. The parable of the blind men and the elephant doesn't even begin to convey the difficulties involved in thinking about giftedness.

What are some of the factors that stand in the way?
1. Professional biases
2. Dominant educational paradigm
3. Gaps in understanding the child-to-adult developmental continuum
4. Disregard of modern research in neurobiology
5. Disregard for the gifted, particularly adults, as a source of valid information and insights.

"There has not been much theoretical development of ideas related to the gifted and the talented, and, with some exceptions, no large bodies of data have been collected in order to illuminate the genesis of giftedness or to detail the components of giftedness and how they function. It is clear that a strong theoretical framework for considering the phenomenon of giftedness does not exist." The Gifted and Talented: developmental perspectives, Frances Horowitz, ed.