The flipside of reservation in the classroom.

There is a flipside to my previous post which I think I should explore.

Society can be most unkind to those it needs most. No-one is more necessary to the future progress of society than its most gifted members - yet, how are those gifted people, young and old, treated in the world's societies?

Well, many a gifted child finds out, quite quickly, through harsh social feedback that, in many societies, being gifted is about as acceptable as being a leper. The more outstanding a child, the more they tend to find that they are not accepted. Of course, there will be exceptions. There will be schools and perhaps even societies that are more welcoming but, in general, this is a global truism.

Ainan has learnt discretion. He has learnt to keep quiet with his thoughts, his observations, his knowledge, in a social setting. He has, it seems, absorbed the lesson that, to stand out, is to be excluded.

This is not as it should be. No gifted child should fear to be themselves and show themselves in public - yet, in so many parts of the world, they are. Giftedness is often something to be masked, to be hidden, to be denied, so that the gifted child might blend in and be accepted. Of course, in doing that, the gifted child is dying, day by day: they are denying themselves and, in so doing, are also destroying themselves. In time, they may forget who they once were. By submerging their gifts, over time, they may lose ready access to them. A child who doesn't express their gifts, is a child who is not developing them, either. The day may come when they truly do blend in - and what kind of victory is that? Their acceptance has been at the price of their true self.

No child, anywhere in the world, should have to hide who they are. I understand that that is an ideal statement that has little hope of being met by the reality of the world we live in, as it is today but, in time, the world may change. One day, the gifted children might be accepted as they are, in all classes, of all schools, in all aspects of life, in all nations, everywhere. I would like to see that world - but I may not live long enough to do so. Such deep change is slow to take hold in the world.

I coined a word, long ago, on this blog: "Giftism". I would say that Giftism is the last prejudice that still seems to be socially acceptable. It is time that it was no longer accepted.

Every gifted child should be free to be themselves, everywhere. They should not need to consider what is socially discrete - nor what is likely to win friends or lose them. They should just simply be allowed to be, free of any social encumbrance, hindrance or penalty.

Wouldn't that be a better world, than the one my son is adjusting to, in his ever-so-discrete way?

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and eleven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and four months, and Tiarnan, twenty-one months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)