gifted phraseology

something that has to be said . . . I wish whoever coined the phrase 'talented and gifted' and applied it to the people who score above the 97th percentile in standardized tests, would have chosen a more neutral word. In the broad sense of the words, all children are talented and gifted. All children have abilities and potential. So when I talk about my gifted kids, in the clinical sense of the word, it sounds like I am bragging or being an elitist. I am not. In the technical, diagnostic sense of the word, my children are gifted. This is not to say that I think they are better than other children or have more potential for success in this world, it just means that their brains work in a way that is different than most people's brains.

Do I think they are fabulous individuals? Yes. Do I sometimes brag about them? Yes. Do I occasionally want to shout to the world how amazing they are? Yes. Do I sometimes wish we could just blend in and do things the way other people do? Yes (but only once in a great while!)

So when I say my kids are gifted, I'm simply saying that they have very absorbent minds and learn things at an accelerated rate. Their true gifts, in my mind, lie in how they use their talents. And those are the gifts that need need to be nourished and practiced.