pumpkinstrokemarrow

Moving beyond the gossip, prompted by the TLS to read a readable book called 'Gifted Lives' by one Joan Freeman who appears to be something of an expert in these matters. World expert in fact. An expert who has put together all kinds of reports and statistics about the fate of the gifted: not that this book is really in that category. More a collection of cautionary tales. Part of the attraction being that I used to be a moderately gifted person myself, although second division person to the premier division people which are the subject of this book - that is to say somewhere in the top 0.2% as measured by IQ. No idea what mine might have been, but it was not that. Don't think I went to school with any either. But there are connections nonetheless.

The source for the book is a sample of some 200 children which Freeman has followed since 1975, all with fancy IQ's and many with serious musical talent. The substance of the book is 20 vignettes drawn from the 200. I have not found any words about how representative or not the 20 might be of the 200. Nevertheless, I share some factlets, in no particular order.

Of the 20, a good proportion fall by the wayside. Some fall into trouble, some have ordinary - possibly happy - lives as adults- and just some are extraordinary as adults. While the Bell Curve pair - Herrnstein & Murray - might well argue that IQ is positively correlated with outcome, a very high IQ is clearly not a sufficient condition for a very high outcome.

There is an element of hot housing in the better schools. Gifted children are treated like race horses or boxers and, with great care and industry, brought to the right pitch for the day of the examinations. But the gifted children going onwards and upwards afterwards is another matter. They may just have peaked early. One is reminded of the habit that plants bought at the end of fancy garden shows have a habit of snuffing it a few weeks later. Whence, presumably, the phrase 'hot housing'.

There is a problem with labelling. If one says the gifted word to a child or a parent, all kinds of expectations my be set up. Expectations which can result in all kinds of damaging behaviour. On the other hand, pretending that a gifted child is normal doesn't work either.

There is a problem with accelerating, moving children up through classes faster than their years, once thought to be a cheap way to cater for gifted children. Something which happened to me in a small way. The catch being that such acceleration is apt to mess up the child's social life and development.

There is a myth, mentioned above, about gifted people being mentally defective. The Freeman story is that gifted people are, if any thing, in better mental shape (on average) than normals. But their gifts result in all kinds of pressures and problems arising externally. So maybe not mentally defective but there is a risk that they will be made so.

My only comment on the book would be that, as directed as much at the US and Canadian markets as the UK market, the text includes quite a number of irritating explanatory chunks for the benefit of transatlantic readers; chunks which irritated this UK reader and which would have been better as footnotes at the bottom of the page. For example, an explanation of what goes on in the city. Something for the next edition?

It would be interesting to read about people who are similarly and precociously gifted for football. They must have many of the same issues. But I bet you don't get to read too much about it at http://www.premierleague.com.