Gifted Mind Bloghttp://highcognitive.squarespace.com/giftedmindblog/en-US2008-07-06T20:16:27ZSquarespace Site Server v4.1.2 (http://www.squarespace.com/)What Did You Learn in School Today?http://highcognitive.squarespace.com/giftedmindblog/2008/7/1/what-did-you-learn-in-school-today.htmlCatana2008-07-01T15:51:14ZLearning EducationTeachers want students to learn. But what does that mean? The child who asks “too many questions” wants to know more than the basic facts and definitions that he’s being taught. But if it’s not in the textbook, not a part of the curriculum, he can wind up being considered a troublemaker or a perfectionist. Either one is bad.

Even worse, such a child may expose the teacher’s lack of knowledge beyond the contents of the textbook. Then he is guilty of “challenging authority,” the official term that covers up the teacher’s embarrassment. And if that isn’t sufficient for the teacher’s fragile ego, the child can be disciplined for disrupting the class.

So what do teachers really want students to learn? To read the text, complete their assignments, and open their mouths only to answer the teacher’s questions

]]>Assumptionshttp://highcognitive.squarespace.com/giftedmindblog/2008/6/23/assumptions.htmlCatana2008-06-23T19:24:26ZArticles Creativity Testing Psychology
Eide Neurolearing Blog’s most recent entry centers on the Cookie Thief test. “When you show this picture to adults and ask them to describe it, the usual response is a dry recitation of what people, objects, and events are being seen in the picture.

“But in many kids (often creative ones, young engineers, artists, or gifted storytellers), we get the most insightful, charming, and sometimes downright devious responses.”

The assumption here is that adults have lost the ability to think outside the box. The Eides ask: “Why is it that kids seems so much better at out-of-the-box thinking compared to adults? One reason may be that common expectations of becoming adults include become more organized, being able to plan and anticipate more events, and become more consistent in our behaviors.”]]>From There to Here: And Beyondhttp://highcognitive.squarespace.com/giftedmindblog/2008/5/30/from-there-to-here-and-beyond.htmlCatana2008-05-30T18:08:32ZLearning Education Personal Issues Giftedness Psychology
It’s a truism that many psychologists start out with themselves as their first subject of interest. Which makes my current reading somewhat serendipitous. In the midst of trying to write this post, I started reading Wisdom, Intelligence, and Creativity, Synthesized, by psychologist Robert J. Sternberg. In giving a brief rundown on what led him to psychology, he turns out to be a perfect example of the truism.

His path started in elementary school, when his extreme test anxiety resulted in a low IQ score. As he put it: “For three years, my teachers thought me stupid, and I obliged, pleasing them by confirming their self-fulfilling prophecies for me.” But his fourth-grade teacher believed in him, and so he started believing in himself and became an “A” student. “By age 13, I was determined to understand why I was now achieving at high levels despite my low IQ...” That led to his learning about IQ testing, and tracking down a Stanford-Binet test and administering it to his classmates. He got in trouble for that, but that didn’t matter, because by then he knew where he was going.
]]>Where Do Westinghouse Winners Go When They Grow Up?http://highcognitive.squarespace.com/giftedmindblog/2008/5/14/where-do-westinghouse-winners-go-when-they-grow-up.htmlCatana2008-05-14T14:13:37ZArticles Science CareersIf you’ve ever wondered what happens to the young winners of prestigious science competitions, take a look at this new series of articles from Scientific American. “Where Are They Now?” profiles winners of the Westinghouse Science Talent Search. The first profile, of Nobel Prize-winning chemist Roald Hoffman, suggests that the series might offer some insights into the life paths of the gifted, at least those with a talent for science.

Chemistry wasn’t the first career choice for Hoffmann, who won his Westinghouse prize in 1955 for a study of cosmic ray particles. His parents wanted him to become a doctor. Inspiring college courses almost turned him into an art historian, but he had to compromise with his parents’ ambition for him. "I had enough courage to tell my parents I wasn't going to be a doctor, but not enough courage to tell them I wanted to go into the history of art. So I went to graduate school in chemistry," he says. "I fell into it, but I love it."

The profiles will be published on a weekly basis. I’ve set up an RSS feed on my reader so that I don’t misss  any.

The Watcher: Roald Hoffmann 

]]>A Brief Intermissionhttp://highcognitive.squarespace.com/giftedmindblog/2008/5/5/a-brief-intermission.htmlCatana2008-05-05T19:26:51ZOr not so brief. I'm having a hard time thinking about giftedness issues lately -- just too many other things buzzing around in my head. But I will get back to the There to Here series.

In the meantime... I just dropped into the Davidson forum, as I do now and then and discovered that Linda Silverman's Upside Down Brilliance is now out of print, and people are jacking up the price outrageously. I bought a copy some time back, and now I'm thinking seriously about copying the material I'll need for references and then putting it up for sale on half.com.

Since I'm not teaching or raising kids, most of the book is really no use to me. I never pass up a chance to turn over an investment at a profit, but I hate gouging people. Any ideas about a fair price, keeping in mind that it's currently going for $60.00 and up?

]]>From There to Here: Omnivorous Readerhttp://highcognitive.squarespace.com/giftedmindblog/2008/4/25/from-there-to-here-omnivorous-reader.htmlCatana2008-04-25T12:50:19ZLearning Education Science Personal Issues
I was a typical early reader, indiscriminately devouring whatever reading matter came my way. And while it’s impossible to prove that any one book or subject was influential in a major way, there were patterns of interest that developed fairly early. In retrospect, it’s easy to see that those patterns eventually resolved themselves into an ever-narrowing set of interests which led me to where I am today. But it’s also easy to see that the final determination of what I would focus on was pure accident.

The error, for those who would like to be able to predict and guide the intellectually gifted thinker, is the belief that a strong focus in childhood is dependably indicative of a future career path. And the error is compounded by evaluating intellectual interests only in relation to their relevance to known career paths. My own winding path shows both the impossibility of prediction, and the difficulty of making a final choice from among many possibilities. Of course, we’re talking here about high cognitives with no apparent talents, but it also tends to be true even of wunderkind who show very strong preferences and talents for particular subjects.]]>From There to Here: Critical Invisibleshttp://highcognitive.squarespace.com/giftedmindblog/2008/4/17/from-there-to-here-critical-invisibles.htmlCatana2008-04-17T15:28:22ZLearning Personal Issues Careers
A recent post on the Eide Neurolearning blog discusses the development of fluid reasoning in children, and the consequent capacity for analogical thinking. “In our clinic, we often see wide variations in the abilities of children to reason analogically. And as remarkable as it is to see a young child able to reason fluidly, it's equally surprising how this gift may be missed or under-appreciated by even the most well-meaning teacher and parent.” Because “Analogical reasoning is important for virtually all inventive or creative work.” the failure to identify this ability fairly early can have future consequences.]]>From There to Here: Themeshttp://highcognitive.squarespace.com/giftedmindblog/2008/4/11/from-there-to-here-themes.htmlCatana2008-04-11T15:07:59ZPersonal Issues Psychology
I can look back now and recognize that I’ve been “doing” psychology my whole life. Many of my earliest memories are about being engaged (involuntarily) in activities that I didn’t understand, with strangers who seemed to know exactly what they were doing, and who were enjoying it. Unlike them, I was confused, and even afraid, but tried to follow their lead and do what was apparently expected of me. These were my first reactions to school and to places that my mother apparently thought were the right thing for a child. Why did I understand so little of what was going on around me, and why did everyone else seem to be in the know?]]>Getting From There to Herehttp://highcognitive.squarespace.com/giftedmindblog/2008/4/8/getting-from-there-to-here.htmlCatana2008-04-08T20:49:41ZPersonal Issues Intellectual giftedness
We’ve learned not to talk about our intelligence, our knowledge, our hopes and ambitions. We learned that lesson in a variety of ways--by being ignored, criticized, or made fun of. By being accused of snobbery, showing off, or of thinking that we know everything. For many of us, school taught us much more about the need to stay hidden than it did about developing our abilities or finding a path that we could devote ourselves to. If you’re accomplished and famous, it’s okay to write about your childhood, the books you loved to read, and the strange ideas that you had about how the world worked. If you’re not famous, your autobiography would get comments like “Why should we be interested in this nobody?” Or “A boring display of ego.” And then it would sink like a stone, going into the remainder bins, and then off to the shredder.]]>Nature or Nurture - a different lookhttp://highcognitive.squarespace.com/giftedmindblog/2008/3/27/nature-or-nurture-a-different-look.htmlCatana2008-03-27T15:02:41ZEducation Giftedness EnrichmentIn his book, Intelligence: a New Look, Hans Eysenck makes a point that has been stated by others, in the ongoing discussion about whether genetics or environment is more influential in giftedness. “ Children, as they grow up, increasingly choose their environment; the choice itself is driven by genetic factors. And they interpret their environment in terms of their genetic contributions.” One example that he selected, from the many possible, was the life of the mathematician, Michael Faraday, who came from a poor family and had almost no schooling except for what he managed to scrabble for himself.

Similarly, Dean Keith Simonton, in The Origins of Genius: “if the parents had not provided opportunities in the home for the desired stimulation, the children would probably seek out stimulation elsewhere.”

“...a child with certain inborn talents may soon put pressure on the environment to make it conform more closely to feed those talents. To the outside observer it may appear as if the environment is influencing the child’s development, but instead it is the child’s genetic disposition that is influencing the home circumstances. The research literature on child prodigies is replete with examples of future geniuses who insist on pursuing specific enthusiasms even in the face of parental discouragement.” Simonton’s example was Pascal, another mathematician from an unpromising background.

 That is a quite different position from one that was fairly common about twenty years ago:  “...giftedness cannot be understood solely as a cognitive trait, but rather must be understood as a complex interaction between a peculiarly supportive environment that the individual helps create, but over which the individual has only limited power.” Frances D. Horowitz, The Gifted and Talented: developmental perspectives

I suspect that research done since then has encouraged many writers to modify their view, but it still has enough support to influence ambitious parents of gifted children. And it isn’t a simple matter of whether a supportive environment is or isn’t a necessity. There is, today, some question about how much influence a highly enriched intellectual environment actually has on future achievements. I don’t think there’s any argument that an enriched environment is a benefit, regardless of whether the child is gifted or average. The confusion about its value probably lies in what effects it's expected to have.

That’s a subject for another post.

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