Experts tell us that the preschool years are of great importance in learning as the brain of those under six years of age is like a sponge in soaking up knowledge. Learning a second language is much easier at this age, so we are told. So we can see just how important it is to educate our children properly in those preschool years, but to do this we need excellent resources.
Many parents send their children to preschool, while others prefer to educate their children at home during these vital first years. When choosing a preschool for your child, make sure you look at the curriculum materials to see that they are both interesting and informative. If you prefer to educate your preschooler at home, there are many teaching resources to be found on the Internet.
While teaching resources are not difficult to find, there is the possibility that you may happily download in a hit and miss fashion and not even realise that many gaps have occurred in the child’s education. This happens because there are many topics to learn, but you will often be drawn to something that you or your child favours above others.
For instance, they may love fairies or dinosaurs so you will download everything you can find that has those figures in it. This will certainly keep the child happy, but may not teach them about other countries or introduce the basics of reading to them. To avoid this problem, try and find an interesting curriculum and stick to that - at least most of the time.
With a professional curriculum for your teaching resources you can relax, knowing that all the necessary elements of your child’s education will be covered. Teaching resources such as these have been created by professional educators and will be set up in a way that helps your child learn well and quickly.
If necessary they can be changed a little to add interest. For instance, if the child is really into dinosaurs you can get pictures and stickers of these creatures and use them for counting rather than using apples and oranges, if that is what the curriculum material contains.
Other lesson plans that can be found online may also be used as a supplement to the lesson plans in your teaching resources. In this way you can ensure that lessons for your preschooler are both varied and interesting, making their school time a pleasure. Then when they get to ‘big school’ they will be well able to handle lessons that are slightly harder.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
GED Accomodations for Disabilities
The GED gives adults who didn't graduate high school the opportunity they need to qualify for college and for more and better jobs. Taking the GED, though, can be difficult for people with disabilities. If you have a disability, it shouldn't stop you from taking the GED and showing what you know. The GED Testing Service provides special test-taking accommodations for GED students with many types of disabilities.Most people think of physical disabilities, when they think of test-taking accommodations. The GED provides accommodations for people with many types of disabilities, though, including physical disabilities, emotional and mental health disabilities, learning disabilities, and ADHD (Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder). The GED testing center can provide extended time, an audiocassette version, a braille test version, a calculator for the second math test, a talking calculator for the entire math test, a private room, supervised frequent breaks, or other accommodations specific to the disability. A qualified professional, such as your doctor, will need to provide documentation of your diagnosis and needs.One of the most common disabilities is ADHD, or Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. ADHD can often go undiagnosed, and cause people to perform poorly in school. People suffering from ADHD may drop out because school is so difficult when you can't concentrate, focus, or sit still. To get accommodations for ADHD, you'll need information from a psychiatrist, medical doctor, or psychologist who specializes in ADHD, along with information about your history and symptoms. You'll need to take a test of attention, like the TOVA Gordon Diagnostic Battery. The GED test accommodations you can receive (such as frequent breaks or extra time) will be based on your symptoms, and how they'll limit you during the test.Accommodations may also be given for learning disabilities, such as dyslexia (reading disabilities), dysgraphia (writing disabilities), or dyscalculia (math disabilities). For these types of disabilities, you'll also need a diagnosis from a doctor, who will need to report your scores on tests for learning and cognitive disabilities. Talk to your doctor if you feel you need accommodations. Discuss what tests you may need to take, and whether you need to see a specialist.Even with accommodations, the GED may be difficult for people with disabilities. Studying can also be a problem. The GED Academy strives to make its program as accessible as possible for students with disabilities. Go to the GED Academy website at http://www.passGED.com to learn more about our program, and how it's designed to help everyone learn.For more information and GED test-taking accommodation forms, visit the ACE GED Testing Service website: http://www.acenet.edu/Content/NavigationMenu/ged/test/Take/Accommodations_Disab.htm
Learning Disabilities
Children Learning Disabilities may be caused by a lack of brain food to develop and maintain the nervous system including the nerve channels, brain and visual system. DHA is one of the important Omega 3 fatty acids of which the brain is composed. Without this essential fatty acid in the diet the brains development and functioning is adversely affected. Omega 3 fish oil supplements can increase the intake of DHA and improve the functioning of the brain to the benefit of children's learning disabilities.Starting in the third trimester of pregnancy there is an increased requirement for DHA for the development of the baby's brain, nervous channels and visual system. If this requirement is not met it can affect both the baby as well as the mother. Insufficient Omega 3 fats can result in decreased learning acuity and concentration skills in the child. It can also result in a higher possibility of early delivery and higher incidence of post partum depression for the mother.Studies which correlated the consumption of fish during pregnancy showed that mothers who ate more fish had fewer incidence of early delivery and less occurrence of post partum depression. Their babies also showed increased brain development and concentration ability in the early months of life.Children diagnosed as ADHD have also shown improvement when provided with Omega 3 fish oil supplements over a period of three to six months. Their ability to concentrate and their reading skills improved.Omega 3 fish oil supplements are manufactured from raw fish oil. The manufacturing process should remove any contaminants such as methyl mercury and concentrate the end product so that the user gets the richest concentration of the beneficial Omega 3 fats.When choosing a product examine the specifications of the product provided by the manufacturer on their packaging or web site. Specifically look at the levels of pollutants and the concentrations of the important Omega 3 fats such as DHA. If this information is not available look for another product.Children's learning disabilities that result from a lack of Omega 3 fatty acids can benefit from Omega 3 fish oil supplements. Omega 3 fish oil supplements offer a convenient option to provide these Omega 3 fats in their diet.Children deserve the best available supplements to achieve their full potential.
Home Schooling History
Centuries ago, in many countries and cultures, homeschooling was the only option available. Children were educated in a specific skill which would have lead to an occupation later on. For girls it was mainly about cooking, handwork and house management while boys were trained in the skills of the military. This differed from country to country and culture to culture. It was mainly elite groups that had the assistance of outside trainers such as the governess in the Victorian times.
Alexander the Great was homeschooled by Aristotle 2500 year ago and some resources see that as the first example of homeschooling. It is, however, so that many children were homeschooled until the late 19th century when governments introduced legislation that forced parents to send children to public schools.
Homeschooling as we know it today is believed to have started around 1960. John Holt’s name appears as the person that initiated the road back to homeschooling. He was a teacher and Ivy League graduate, unhappy with the public school system. Reforming the public schools was an impossible and task he started looking at homeschooling. He believed learning should be initiated by a child’s natural curiosity and not by a structured system. He wrote and researched this extensively over a period of 20 years.
Raymond Moore was another believer in homeschooling. His arguments against public schooling came from his Christian point of view. He believes parents should be responsible for children’s education to ensure that the education is morally and spiritually accountable.
Around the early eighties state laws in America that prohibited homeschooling started to change and today homeschooling is an acceptable alternative for parents. Tax regulations changed for Christian schools in the 1980s which resulted in some of the smaller schools closing down. Most of the parents affected by this chose to rather homeschool their children than sending them to a public school.
The internet has become a major resource for homeschooling parents with many useful websites and online curriculum
. A large number of support groups as well as news letters and other resources make it easy for parents who choose homeschooling. Parents have various reasons for choosing homeschooling of which religion and the deterioration of discipline in public schools are some of the most offered.
Research shows that by the end of 2009 up to 2 million learners in America will be in homeschooling.
Alexander the Great was homeschooled by Aristotle 2500 year ago and some resources see that as the first example of homeschooling. It is, however, so that many children were homeschooled until the late 19th century when governments introduced legislation that forced parents to send children to public schools.
Homeschooling as we know it today is believed to have started around 1960. John Holt’s name appears as the person that initiated the road back to homeschooling. He was a teacher and Ivy League graduate, unhappy with the public school system. Reforming the public schools was an impossible and task he started looking at homeschooling. He believed learning should be initiated by a child’s natural curiosity and not by a structured system. He wrote and researched this extensively over a period of 20 years.
Raymond Moore was another believer in homeschooling. His arguments against public schooling came from his Christian point of view. He believes parents should be responsible for children’s education to ensure that the education is morally and spiritually accountable.
Around the early eighties state laws in America that prohibited homeschooling started to change and today homeschooling is an acceptable alternative for parents. Tax regulations changed for Christian schools in the 1980s which resulted in some of the smaller schools closing down. Most of the parents affected by this chose to rather homeschool their children than sending them to a public school.
The internet has become a major resource for homeschooling parents with many useful websites and online curriculum
. A large number of support groups as well as news letters and other resources make it easy for parents who choose homeschooling. Parents have various reasons for choosing homeschooling of which religion and the deterioration of discipline in public schools are some of the most offered.
Research shows that by the end of 2009 up to 2 million learners in America will be in homeschooling.
Advantages of Home Schooling
For a child who has been attending public schools since kindergarten, doing high schooling from a home school can be a difficult and an asking task to say the least. Most people who go for home schooling have been educated in that environment from the very beginning itself, and for such people home schooling the high school can be a piece of cake. But for those who have grown up in a public school environment, switching to home school can be a rather difficult task.The change associated with home schooling high schoolEach state has rules in connection to home schooling which must be followed, and therefore for those parents who are looking to home school high school their teenagers, researching on the requirements required for home schooling high school is a must. Rules pertaining to curriculum, high school teacher training and progress reports are stringent in some states and therefore, these rules need to be discovered and followed efficiently in order to ensure that the student undergoing home schooling high school gets a properly accredited diploma from the state education boards. You will need to prepare the necessary legal documentation and arrange for meetings with those who have undergone home schooling high school in order to get a precise idea of the kind of things required before you can actually proceed onto home schooling your child.After the formalities are over, you would need to do your homework on effectively teaching your child. Things like joining public forums on home schooling high school and participating in blogs and online discussion rooms would really help you in your venture to do effective home schooling for your teenager and would also help you in keeping up with the curriculum and testing exams that are conducted by the state boards once in a while to generate the progress reports of your children. Other than these things, you would need to keep the curriculum supplies like home schooling text books in full flow and might also have to develop a study plan for your child on a regular basis to keep his interest going.It might be cumbersome, but home schooling definitely has some advantages to offer such as, one-to-one attention for your child, wherein he can learn and develop at his own pace, keeping up with his own style of learning and studying. Home schooling high school ensures that your child is aware of all the skills needed before going into the college.
Successful Home Schooling
When it comes to homeschooling, there are lots of responsibilities. The comfort of the child in being homeschooled, the performance, the decisions and the outcomes are all dependent on the parent. Starting your kid on a homeschooling session and surviving it can take a lot of patience and endurance. Every single decision you take can affect the future of your child. So it is integral that, being the parent, you are familiar with some of the basic principles of surviving homeschool.
Here are some pointers to guide you towards successful homeschooling:
• Rather than focus on a particular area of academic study, let the child experiment, using their skills and interests in several areas of interest.
• When you are teaching your child you should not focus on their shortcomings, but instead you should guide them through appreciation. You should focus more on their successes than their failures.
• When you are homeschooling your child, you should not expect them to reach the goals of a public schooled child. The goals of a homeschool student are generally different and vary in each area of study.
• You should not evaluate a child using generalised norms; you should use specific goals set for that child alone. Each child is unique and homeschooling is aimed at nurturing their uniqueness.
• While homeschooling, consider not separating subjects in the curriculum. You can provide an integrated experience with learning that will help the students learn multiple areas of study at the same time.
• Do not concentrate too much on bookish learning. You should have more of learning-by-doing type lessons.
• You should not focus too heavily on ensuring that the child learns a particular subject. Instead you should ensure they develop the skills required to learn.
• You should not restrict the opportunities of learning for your child. Incorporate indoor as well as outdoor learning activities, and allow your child to mingle with other children to share ideas.
• Never try to formally repeat a grade as this may discourage your child. Always progress further with studies. You could try to have topics from areas of the child’s weakness but never repeat grades or subjects.
• Always reward your children on successful tests or when they reach tough goals. This will great help them remain motivated to do more.
Apart from these there are also a few things you should do as a parent to motivate your child towards successful homeschooling.
• Provide required resources like books, stationary and reference materials. • Have regular field trips.
• Sit with your child regularly to talk to them and find out their attitude towards homeschooling.
• Have required furnishings like study tables and chairs, computer tables, table lamps to create a good study environment.
• Always track the progress of your child and try to reach predefined goals in the future.
Here are some pointers to guide you towards successful homeschooling:
• Rather than focus on a particular area of academic study, let the child experiment, using their skills and interests in several areas of interest.
• When you are teaching your child you should not focus on their shortcomings, but instead you should guide them through appreciation. You should focus more on their successes than their failures.
• When you are homeschooling your child, you should not expect them to reach the goals of a public schooled child. The goals of a homeschool student are generally different and vary in each area of study.
• You should not evaluate a child using generalised norms; you should use specific goals set for that child alone. Each child is unique and homeschooling is aimed at nurturing their uniqueness.
• While homeschooling, consider not separating subjects in the curriculum. You can provide an integrated experience with learning that will help the students learn multiple areas of study at the same time.
• Do not concentrate too much on bookish learning. You should have more of learning-by-doing type lessons.
• You should not focus too heavily on ensuring that the child learns a particular subject. Instead you should ensure they develop the skills required to learn.
• You should not restrict the opportunities of learning for your child. Incorporate indoor as well as outdoor learning activities, and allow your child to mingle with other children to share ideas.
• Never try to formally repeat a grade as this may discourage your child. Always progress further with studies. You could try to have topics from areas of the child’s weakness but never repeat grades or subjects.
• Always reward your children on successful tests or when they reach tough goals. This will great help them remain motivated to do more.
Apart from these there are also a few things you should do as a parent to motivate your child towards successful homeschooling.
• Provide required resources like books, stationary and reference materials. • Have regular field trips.
• Sit with your child regularly to talk to them and find out their attitude towards homeschooling.
• Have required furnishings like study tables and chairs, computer tables, table lamps to create a good study environment.
• Always track the progress of your child and try to reach predefined goals in the future.
Gifted Children- Why?
‘’Throughout the history of our species there have been only a handful of real human beings; for what are we, if not teachable beasts? Plant the seeds, and they will grow; but our minds could never have spontaneously generated them.’’ – Author Unknown, My Paraphrase
Methodology is trying to answer the most crucial issue of all in terms of education: what ought to be done if one wants to convey their knowledge onto their subjects? The question is of paramount importance, one cannot contend it. However, as it is typically solved in the course oh human cognitive development throughout the ages, the emphasis is placed on the mediocre aspects of our intelligence as a species. Individuals unfortunate enough to have been born with implicit genetic defects are often considered as well and taken into account when various methodological approaches are considered. A minority is willing to recognize the other ‘’extreme,’’ of the Bell Curve, to use the vernacular: the gifted. Even though one can observe different ways of nurturing the talented via the course of human history, like special peripatetic ‘’sessions’’ in ancient Greece where famous philosophers like Socrates or Plato engaged in discussions with those brilliant minds; or ancient China where the gifted were also recognized as bearers of enormous potential. It is not much of a conundrum to discern that most humans on this planet are within the ‘’mediocre’’ spectrum. This is not a flaw in any way, as some people have to be workers to sustain this civilization’s mundane operations. It can be said about the methodology as well: it adjusts to the modus vivendi present within the prevalent thought patterns of the population. Still, one could conject as well as contend, it is ironic: people that utilize today’s inventions are the same people that have been condemning its inventors for years. Perhaps a saying that ‘’the opponents of certain ways have to die out while the new generation is going to treat certain inventions/social trends as something embedded in their lives without giving much thought to it. If we move forward, we shall see that the latter is going to become the status quo which is going to be challenged by another hapless individual known as a genius. The perpetual cycle of despair continues. I think it is off the essence to present who the gifted are and how have they been treated in the contemporary era, i.e. the twentieth and the beginning of the twenty first century, as well as what can be done in order to improve the situation regarding the treatment of the gifted as well as the most pivotal issue of all: why does it simply pay to care for the gifted?
The Gifted – Who Are They?
Even among the gifted one can discern different layers of it. If one measures the level of giftedness by juxtaposing it with the ‘’average’’ population, then it becomes clear what constitutes a moderately gifted individual and what comprises an exceptionally gifted entity. One could content, quite understandably, that it is impossible to state with any certainty what the ‘’average’’ level is, and, therefore, what the ‘’gifted’’ level is. This argument is valid; however, each one of us can detect various differences as prevalent among various human ‘’archetypes’’ – even though the exceptionally gifted tend to be beyond archetypal malleability. According to the article entitled
‘’Exceptionally Gifted Children: Different Minds‘’
‘’There are few descriptions in the literature of the cognitive processes of exceptionally gifted children. This study, based on testing profiles, anecdotes collected from parents, and observations made during family and group therapy sessions with moderately and exceptionally gifted children delineates some of the characteristic modes of thinking that differentiate exceptionally gifted children from their more moderately gifted peers. “
In order to understand the differences, one should familiarize oneself with the following descriptions that present the differences between the moderately and the exceptionally gifted in a very conspicuous manner:
‘’Exceptionally gifted children often have difficulty dealing with material other gifted children find easy. The exceptionally gifted see so many possible answers that they are not sure how to respond because no one answer seems to be better than another. For example, Zachery, age 7, with an IQ over 200, was unable to answer the question. "What does a doctor do?" The moderately gifted children answered with any of several acceptable responses and did not find this a difficult question. Zachery, however, answered that there were so many different kinds of doctors, and they all did different things. Even when encouraged, he was unable to pick one kind of doctor and name something that doctor did. Zachery obviously knew the material but was unable to focus on a simple level. His response suggests a higher level of analysis and integration than the question required.‘’
One can easily infer from the above quotations that the difference between a moderately gifted child – that is a child said to be within the range of circa 150 IQ, and the exceptionally gifted one, that is a child with IQ circa 180 or higher – is akin to the difference between an average child and the moderately gifted one. The same principle applies to adults as well, but the concept of ‘’High IQ societies’’ is meant to rectify the situation. But the question inevitably arises : does it rectify anything at all? Alfred Binet devised the method of IQ tests in 1905 to as a means of ‘’detecting’’ genius children. Unfortunately, his attempt could/can be considered far from successful. How can one assume, based on the aforementioned statement, that the ‘’High IQ Societies’’ are any different ? Is it really possible to reach a consensus , as this is what the word ‘’society’’ stands for, when one is dealing with epitomes of individuality taken to the extreme level? Attempts at creating ‘’genius children’’ undertaken by Robert Graham ended as a total failure – even his own ‘’children’’ , among them Doron Blake, claim that playing the role of the Creator is a fallacious idea – at best - and should not be justified by someone’s higher notions.
It is noteworthy to bear in mind the following division of intellectual capacity as well:
Bright: 115+, or one in six (84th percentile)
Moderately gifted: 130+, or 1 in 50 (97.9th percentile)
Highly gifted: 145+, or 1 in 1000 (99.9th percentile)
Exceptionally gifted: 160+, or 1 in 30,000 (99.997th percentile)
Profoundly gifted: 175+, or 1 in 3 million (99.99997th percentile)
An article entitled ‘’Outsiders’’ which can be found on the website of the ‘’Prometheus Society’’ states, among many other issues it covers, what are the problems encountered by the gifted when dealing with mainstream society :
‘’Children with IQs up to 150 get along in the ordinary course of school life quite well, achieving excellent marks without serious effort. But children above this mental status become almost intolerably bored with school work if kept in lockstep with unselected pupils of their own age. Children who rise above 170 IQ are liable to regard school with indifference or with positive dislike, for they find nothing in the work to absorb their interest. This condition of affairs, coupled with the supervision of unseeing and unsympathetic teachers, has sometimes led even to truancy on the part of gifted children. (3)’’
Where does the problem with perceiving the gifted come from? It seems to stem from the collective proclivity towards stereotyping – the very word stemming from the Greek stereos, meaning a solid body. The first and foremost issue is drawing a parallel between IQ and giftedness. This excerpt clarifies the misconception - and the latter’s origins :
‘’For many years, psychometricians and psychologists, following in the footsteps of Lewis Terman in 1916, equated giftedness with high IQ. This "legacy" survives to the present day, in that giftedness and high IQ continue to be equated in some conceptions of giftedness. Since that early time, however, other researchers (e.g. Cattell, Guilford, and Thurstone) have argued that intellect cannot be expressed in such a unitary manner, and have suggested more multifaceted approaches to intelligence. ’’
It is unfortunate, as well, that the collective social psyche tends to view the gifted as physically weak individuals, very often conjuring up a picture of Stephen Hawking, confined to a wheelchair, to support their consensual perspective. The fragment below explains, yet again, that the truth is often located within the gray area:
‘’There was a time when all precocious children were thought to burn out the same way that Sidis (An American child prodigy from Boston, said to have had an IQ of 250-300, spoke circa forty languages and variations thereof fluently, corrected Harvard professors at the age of eleven; ended up as a counter clerk on his own volition to focus on his research more away from the people – My interjection) did. The man most responsible for changing this belief was Lewis M. Terman. Between 1900 and 1920 he was able to carry out a study of about a hundred gifted children, and his observations convinced him that many of the traditional beliefs about the gifted were little more than superstitions. To confirm these observations, he obtained a grant from the Commonwealth Fund in 1922, and used it to sift a population of more than a quarter of a million children, selecting out all those with IQs above 140 for further study. That group has been monitored continuously ever since. Many of the previously held beliefs about the gifted did indeed turn out to be false. The gifted are not weak or sickly, and although the incidence of myopia is greater among them, they are generally thought to be better looking than their contemporaries: They are not nerds. ( My Emphasis)’’
The gifted are often perceived as solitary individuals who tend to exhibit bizarre demeanor when faced with situations that ‘’normal’’ people take for granted. However, if one does not possess the capacity to comprehend what goes on within the gifted person’s mind, it is very easy to dismiss their behavior as a travesty of ‘’normal’’ human life. People need to remember that when dealing with a person who requires precision and sees many more facets of an issue than they do, it is essential not to judge based on superficial behavioral patterns – the very patterns that reflect a huge mental task which can bear an enormous strain on a gifted person’s mind. The article sums the problem of the gifted and their relations with environment in a very laconic - albeit appropriate - statement:
‘’But the point of this article is not that there's some special hazard in having an exceptional IQ: There's not. The point is that the danger lies in having an exceptional IQ in an environment completely lacking in intellectual peers. It's the isolation that does the damage, not the IQ itself. (My Emphasis)’’
The last sentence says it all. People that tend to perceive much more than others are not loners because they are arrogant, as they are so often seen: they are forced into solitude because they cannot find enough ‘’common ground’’ with individuals around them – apart from casual superficial conversations where the gifted tend to mask their true views in favor of the more acceptable ones – or the ones that will be more easily understood by their milieu.
As Oscar Wilde is purported to have said: ‘’People forgive everything, except genius.’’
Methodology is trying to answer the most crucial issue of all in terms of education: what ought to be done if one wants to convey their knowledge onto their subjects? The question is of paramount importance, one cannot contend it. However, as it is typically solved in the course oh human cognitive development throughout the ages, the emphasis is placed on the mediocre aspects of our intelligence as a species. Individuals unfortunate enough to have been born with implicit genetic defects are often considered as well and taken into account when various methodological approaches are considered. A minority is willing to recognize the other ‘’extreme,’’ of the Bell Curve, to use the vernacular: the gifted. Even though one can observe different ways of nurturing the talented via the course of human history, like special peripatetic ‘’sessions’’ in ancient Greece where famous philosophers like Socrates or Plato engaged in discussions with those brilliant minds; or ancient China where the gifted were also recognized as bearers of enormous potential. It is not much of a conundrum to discern that most humans on this planet are within the ‘’mediocre’’ spectrum. This is not a flaw in any way, as some people have to be workers to sustain this civilization’s mundane operations. It can be said about the methodology as well: it adjusts to the modus vivendi present within the prevalent thought patterns of the population. Still, one could conject as well as contend, it is ironic: people that utilize today’s inventions are the same people that have been condemning its inventors for years. Perhaps a saying that ‘’the opponents of certain ways have to die out while the new generation is going to treat certain inventions/social trends as something embedded in their lives without giving much thought to it. If we move forward, we shall see that the latter is going to become the status quo which is going to be challenged by another hapless individual known as a genius. The perpetual cycle of despair continues. I think it is off the essence to present who the gifted are and how have they been treated in the contemporary era, i.e. the twentieth and the beginning of the twenty first century, as well as what can be done in order to improve the situation regarding the treatment of the gifted as well as the most pivotal issue of all: why does it simply pay to care for the gifted?
The Gifted – Who Are They?
Even among the gifted one can discern different layers of it. If one measures the level of giftedness by juxtaposing it with the ‘’average’’ population, then it becomes clear what constitutes a moderately gifted individual and what comprises an exceptionally gifted entity. One could content, quite understandably, that it is impossible to state with any certainty what the ‘’average’’ level is, and, therefore, what the ‘’gifted’’ level is. This argument is valid; however, each one of us can detect various differences as prevalent among various human ‘’archetypes’’ – even though the exceptionally gifted tend to be beyond archetypal malleability. According to the article entitled
‘’Exceptionally Gifted Children: Different Minds‘’
‘’There are few descriptions in the literature of the cognitive processes of exceptionally gifted children. This study, based on testing profiles, anecdotes collected from parents, and observations made during family and group therapy sessions with moderately and exceptionally gifted children delineates some of the characteristic modes of thinking that differentiate exceptionally gifted children from their more moderately gifted peers. “
In order to understand the differences, one should familiarize oneself with the following descriptions that present the differences between the moderately and the exceptionally gifted in a very conspicuous manner:
‘’Exceptionally gifted children often have difficulty dealing with material other gifted children find easy. The exceptionally gifted see so many possible answers that they are not sure how to respond because no one answer seems to be better than another. For example, Zachery, age 7, with an IQ over 200, was unable to answer the question. "What does a doctor do?" The moderately gifted children answered with any of several acceptable responses and did not find this a difficult question. Zachery, however, answered that there were so many different kinds of doctors, and they all did different things. Even when encouraged, he was unable to pick one kind of doctor and name something that doctor did. Zachery obviously knew the material but was unable to focus on a simple level. His response suggests a higher level of analysis and integration than the question required.‘’
One can easily infer from the above quotations that the difference between a moderately gifted child – that is a child said to be within the range of circa 150 IQ, and the exceptionally gifted one, that is a child with IQ circa 180 or higher – is akin to the difference between an average child and the moderately gifted one. The same principle applies to adults as well, but the concept of ‘’High IQ societies’’ is meant to rectify the situation. But the question inevitably arises : does it rectify anything at all? Alfred Binet devised the method of IQ tests in 1905 to as a means of ‘’detecting’’ genius children. Unfortunately, his attempt could/can be considered far from successful. How can one assume, based on the aforementioned statement, that the ‘’High IQ Societies’’ are any different ? Is it really possible to reach a consensus , as this is what the word ‘’society’’ stands for, when one is dealing with epitomes of individuality taken to the extreme level? Attempts at creating ‘’genius children’’ undertaken by Robert Graham ended as a total failure – even his own ‘’children’’ , among them Doron Blake, claim that playing the role of the Creator is a fallacious idea – at best - and should not be justified by someone’s higher notions.
It is noteworthy to bear in mind the following division of intellectual capacity as well:
Bright: 115+, or one in six (84th percentile)
Moderately gifted: 130+, or 1 in 50 (97.9th percentile)
Highly gifted: 145+, or 1 in 1000 (99.9th percentile)
Exceptionally gifted: 160+, or 1 in 30,000 (99.997th percentile)
Profoundly gifted: 175+, or 1 in 3 million (99.99997th percentile)
An article entitled ‘’Outsiders’’ which can be found on the website of the ‘’Prometheus Society’’ states, among many other issues it covers, what are the problems encountered by the gifted when dealing with mainstream society :
‘’Children with IQs up to 150 get along in the ordinary course of school life quite well, achieving excellent marks without serious effort. But children above this mental status become almost intolerably bored with school work if kept in lockstep with unselected pupils of their own age. Children who rise above 170 IQ are liable to regard school with indifference or with positive dislike, for they find nothing in the work to absorb their interest. This condition of affairs, coupled with the supervision of unseeing and unsympathetic teachers, has sometimes led even to truancy on the part of gifted children. (3)’’
Where does the problem with perceiving the gifted come from? It seems to stem from the collective proclivity towards stereotyping – the very word stemming from the Greek stereos, meaning a solid body. The first and foremost issue is drawing a parallel between IQ and giftedness. This excerpt clarifies the misconception - and the latter’s origins :
‘’For many years, psychometricians and psychologists, following in the footsteps of Lewis Terman in 1916, equated giftedness with high IQ. This "legacy" survives to the present day, in that giftedness and high IQ continue to be equated in some conceptions of giftedness. Since that early time, however, other researchers (e.g. Cattell, Guilford, and Thurstone) have argued that intellect cannot be expressed in such a unitary manner, and have suggested more multifaceted approaches to intelligence. ’’
It is unfortunate, as well, that the collective social psyche tends to view the gifted as physically weak individuals, very often conjuring up a picture of Stephen Hawking, confined to a wheelchair, to support their consensual perspective. The fragment below explains, yet again, that the truth is often located within the gray area:
‘’There was a time when all precocious children were thought to burn out the same way that Sidis (An American child prodigy from Boston, said to have had an IQ of 250-300, spoke circa forty languages and variations thereof fluently, corrected Harvard professors at the age of eleven; ended up as a counter clerk on his own volition to focus on his research more away from the people – My interjection) did. The man most responsible for changing this belief was Lewis M. Terman. Between 1900 and 1920 he was able to carry out a study of about a hundred gifted children, and his observations convinced him that many of the traditional beliefs about the gifted were little more than superstitions. To confirm these observations, he obtained a grant from the Commonwealth Fund in 1922, and used it to sift a population of more than a quarter of a million children, selecting out all those with IQs above 140 for further study. That group has been monitored continuously ever since. Many of the previously held beliefs about the gifted did indeed turn out to be false. The gifted are not weak or sickly, and although the incidence of myopia is greater among them, they are generally thought to be better looking than their contemporaries: They are not nerds. ( My Emphasis)’’
The gifted are often perceived as solitary individuals who tend to exhibit bizarre demeanor when faced with situations that ‘’normal’’ people take for granted. However, if one does not possess the capacity to comprehend what goes on within the gifted person’s mind, it is very easy to dismiss their behavior as a travesty of ‘’normal’’ human life. People need to remember that when dealing with a person who requires precision and sees many more facets of an issue than they do, it is essential not to judge based on superficial behavioral patterns – the very patterns that reflect a huge mental task which can bear an enormous strain on a gifted person’s mind. The article sums the problem of the gifted and their relations with environment in a very laconic - albeit appropriate - statement:
‘’But the point of this article is not that there's some special hazard in having an exceptional IQ: There's not. The point is that the danger lies in having an exceptional IQ in an environment completely lacking in intellectual peers. It's the isolation that does the damage, not the IQ itself. (My Emphasis)’’
The last sentence says it all. People that tend to perceive much more than others are not loners because they are arrogant, as they are so often seen: they are forced into solitude because they cannot find enough ‘’common ground’’ with individuals around them – apart from casual superficial conversations where the gifted tend to mask their true views in favor of the more acceptable ones – or the ones that will be more easily understood by their milieu.
As Oscar Wilde is purported to have said: ‘’People forgive everything, except genius.’’
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