Keeping up with gifted kids
Friday August 31, 2007
"You really shouldn't push your child. You should just let him be a kid."
Most parents of gifted kids have heard comments like these at some point or another. These comments inevitably come from people who either have no children at all or from parents of children who are not gifted. These people generally assume that a gifted child is showing advanced abilities because the parents of that child have been pushing that child, depriving him or her of a fun childhood, making the child slave away at lessons instead of going out and playing in the sunshine.
What these people don't understand is that parents of gifted children are more likely to have to push the child to play outside than to have to push the child to learn. Parents of gifted children are also much more likely to feel exhausted as a result of trying to keep up with their children. I always say that gifted children are not usually being pushed by their parents; they're dragging their parents behind them. Parents of gifted kids are too exhausted from trying to keep up to have the energy to push!
That is what I hear from most parents of gifted kids. Is that true of you? Take the poll and let us know!
Poll: Do you have trouble keeping up with your gifted child?
View Results
Have more to say? Share your thoughts.
More polls from your guide
Most parents of gifted kids have heard comments like these at some point or another. These comments inevitably come from people who either have no children at all or from parents of children who are not gifted. These people generally assume that a gifted child is showing advanced abilities because the parents of that child have been pushing that child, depriving him or her of a fun childhood, making the child slave away at lessons instead of going out and playing in the sunshine.
What these people don't understand is that parents of gifted children are more likely to have to push the child to play outside than to have to push the child to learn. Parents of gifted children are also much more likely to feel exhausted as a result of trying to keep up with their children. I always say that gifted children are not usually being pushed by their parents; they're dragging their parents behind them. Parents of gifted kids are too exhausted from trying to keep up to have the energy to push!
That is what I hear from most parents of gifted kids. Is that true of you? Take the poll and let us know!
Poll: Do you have trouble keeping up with your gifted child?
View Results
Have more to say? Share your thoughts.
More polls from your guide
Comments
I just came upon this article and I am printing it out for a meeting today with my sons school. They have no support at all for gifted students who start to slip academically ,claiming they have the ability to grasp the subjects better than other students. The mentally gifted programs are two hours once a week. That is it. This is the special learning enrichment he gets. He struggles in math, and they offer saturday school to other children who are failing, but yet, he does not qualify because he is in the gifted group? This is a public school systems, and our taxes pay for an equal education, for ALL students.