Parenting Thoughts: Giftedness and Underachievement

I have been reading about Giftedness and the Myths of Underachievement. 

There has been so much misunderstanding about giftedness - what it really is, how to recognise it and address the related issues. 

The term 'underachievement' referred to here, is about not achieving one's potential. It isn't about setting goals like the number of As to achieve in exams or passing a Grade x piano exam at age 5 for instance. 

One issue that I have particular interest in is about taking charge of my children's education. 

To me, it isn't about selecting a branded school, or what others deem to be the most expensive or best in the market. As advocated by experts and confirmed by so many books that I have read, we simply can't assume that the educators know best about helping our child reach his potential. It takes a rare educator to recognise giftedness and is trained enough to handle the related challenges.

By taking charge, it is about selecting an education option that best suits the child's learning abilities. As a parent, we should know our child's strengths and weaknesses better than the teachers. 

If schools aren't meeting the child's needs and when our child slides through school with easily obtained As from teachers who don't know the extent of our child's abilities, we also need to ask ourselves 'Is this good enough?'. Each child gets only one childhood. There are no 'do-overs' and no second chance to be a 5yo again.

The reason underachievement exists in some gifted children is because we teach them to underachieve by asking for little more than blind devotion to a curriculum that is either too easy, or too irrelevant.

Addressing understimulation and underachievement:

- eliminate or reduce significantly any work already mastered;

- allow independent projects on topics of personal choice;

- place your child with teachers who understand and appreciate gifted kids' intelligence, humour, and sarcasm;

- incorporate problem-solving techniques instead of rote learning to learn or practice needed skills; and 

- whenever possible, combine typical school subjects of math, science, language arts etc so that students see the 'the big picture' of how these areas overlap in real-life situations.

Learning should be fun, interesting and meaningful, with a bigger purpose than just obtaining good grades in school. 

My ultimate goal is to inculcate in my kids the desire to learn that is accompanied by a hunger for knowledge. I see my role as one to inspire my boys to have a natural and undying curiosity and interest about the world around them.

I've learnt so much more from reading and discussing with people in similar situations or those with relevant experience. However, this post is not meant to go into details but to highlight a few points for my own reminder.