Gifted Children: Myths and Realities

Have you ever had the feeling that you were different from your classmates-- that although you were in the advanced classes, you just didn't feel like you should have been there? Did you find yourself frustrated and bored because your teachers were explaining gravity, and you add to her lesson by talking about centrifugal force, and the teacher gives you a blank look? And were you one of those kids who teachers just didn't know what to do with? I am a student getting her Master's in Early Childhood Education, and we discussed Gifted Education in our Special Needs class. I chose this book to used as a basis for a project because it seemed to be very interesting. Not only did it inspire me to want to pursue further studies in Gifted Education, I finally recognized students like me in the book. I was not a prodigy, but I was gifted, and mislabeled by my teachers as "easily distracted," "uncooperative," and just plain mysterious. I was not scoring well in Math, so I could not be placed into the classes for gifted (whereas I tested on a senior level in Verbal abilities in the 4th grade), and so I was bored. This book helped me to understand who I was (am), and my persona was less of a mystery. My self-confidence has increased dramatically and has helped me to recognize who I am. If you have a child in your class that you suspect may be gifted, read this book. If you think you have a child who has not been identified as gifted or whom you think may not be in classes that are at his or her instructional level, read this book. And if you are just curious, and are like me, read this book. I swear you will feel much better when you do.

Gifted Children. Myths and Realities by Ellen Winner. New York: Basic Books,1996. This book addresses nine myths about giftedness including the myth of global giftedness, the myth regarding the driving parent, the myth regarding glowing psychological health, and the myth that all gifted children become creative adults. Subsequent chapters deal in depth with each of the myths. This is not a book for a newcomer to the field, but someone who has some background, parent or educator.

For a few years now, this is the basic book I push on friends and others who want to know how those professionals who care, but who aren't pretentious and don't promise to be fix-its, see giftedness.Such professionals want to tell you how to identify a gifted child with high confidence, and also how a gifted child differs from the general population in the course of a usual childhood.Winner does this well. It's hard to ask for more from a basic book.Rather than find another book on raising gifted children, one should look for those gifted adults who meet Winner's criteria, decide on their trustworthyness, and ask for their help.Then you'll be setting up a pattern the child can follow for life, and with a next generation of gifted children. An extended family-led pattern.To check if Winner's criteria are met, a simple trick is to teach a child to play chess. It's a game that rewards precocity, one's own drummer, and a rage to master very immediately.Networks of kids who play chess have many kids who satisfy Winner's criteria, whose parents might want to share tips.A small caveat to the book is that it should be updated for the Internet, which spans across school systems, to connect child to child, parent to parent, and child to adult, at low cost.The Internet may not be better than libraries below a certain age. But after that age, a gifted child will find it on his or her own.

"Gifted Children: Myths ad Realities," by Ellen Winner, is an excellent overview of what is currently known about gifted children, including their heredity, information about their early childhood, their learning patterns, their educations, and many more things. I recommend this as an introduction to the study of gifted children, or to anyone who wants to acquire a basic knowledge and understading of ths topic. There is a good balance in this book between individual examples and case studies and more general theories and studies. The author makes her points of view on this topic manifest in many parts of this book; it is not a dry textbook that pretends to be equally accepting of all beliefs. It also has a marvelous bibliography. I recommend to readers reading the bibliography of every chapter that you found interesting.

This is the best-researched book on this subject that I've ever read (the bibliography is 1/4 of the book). While the author doesn't provide any revolutionary insights of her own, she's done a terrific job of summarizing current research on gifted children, debunking commonly held stereotypes about giftedness, and translating researchers' insights into practical advice. While her style is rather dry, the book is accessible and generally free of psychological jargon. The book is a gold mine for parents and teachers, and a benchmark for researchers into giftedness.I was particularly struck by Winner's convincing data showing that gifted children's minds actually work differently from average children's; they're not just "more of the same." As a former gifted child who went through ten years of educational hell before finally hitting my stride in mid-high school, I think that this point can't be emphasized strongly enough. We're capable of growing up into swans; don't try to convince us that we're defective ducks!