"All children are gifted"

"All children are gifted", you may hear your gifted child's teacher say, if you try to raise the issue of their gift. She may smile as she says this, as if to say: "How silly of you to think your child was special."

"All children are gifted", is a poisonous politically correct lie, that is often said to silence the mother or father of a gifted child. Why do teachers do this? They do so because they are told so by their superiors and by the educational establishment of many countries. They are told that all children are gifted, and that no child is special, therefore. I do not know why this is done: perhaps it is a misguided attempt to treat all kids equally, by stating that all kids are equal. They are not. In my life I have worked in many areas. One of those areas is teaching - and I can tell you without doubt, that very few children, of any age, from primary one to young adult, is at all "gifted". There is a huge variability in their native ability, their intelligence, originality and personality - but one thing is very clear, and that is that few of them are distinctive enough to be called gifted.

If your child is gifted, therefore, in any way, whether as moderately gifted, highly gifted, exceptionally gifted, profoundly gifted, a child genius or child prodigy, know this: they are special, and never let a politically correct educator try to convince you that their gift is an ordinary thing, an everyday occurrence because it is not. Every gifted child is unique, every gifted child is special - and every gifted child is most definitely not ordinary.

Happy parenting.

(If you would like to know about my gifted children, including Ainan Celeste Cawley, six, a scientific child prodigy, then go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html )