Great column about giftedness that a teacher posted in the main office of one of the schools I work at: [link]

Now that your children are back in school, there's something you should know. I'm afraid your kid isn't a genius. Chances are he or she isn't even gifted. Don't feel bad. By the most generous definition, only about 5 percent of kids can be considered gifted, according to educators. Even fewer rate as actual geniuses;

Bahahahahah... ballsy for a teacher to post it in the office of her school with the gifted/high ability magnet during application season.

Do you find that kids who parents think are "gifted" are actually just kids who are less dumb?

Speaking of short stories, today's Salon has an article up on the new collection of Connie Willis's short stories, which apparently includes both the wheat and the chaff.

Is it even remotely possible, allowing a certain amount of license for the hero of an action story, that my character can get off a Cutting Remark directed at the man who ordered him roughed up before he's overwhelmed by the pain and the extreme nosebleed?

Absolutely and totally. There are gradations of nose breaks. When I broke A's nose, she didn't even realise it. She just thought her nose hurt a lot. But I made her go look in the mirror because it didn't look the same as it had before I punched her. J had his nose broken twice--I was only there for one of them, but he was plenty vocal and sarcastic about it. There was a fair amount of bleeding and disfigurement. The second time was much worse--kinda splayed his nose across his face, and I'm not sure he was chatty then.

At our magnet school (which had it's own aerodynamics lab) we probably had one maybe two truly gifted kids. The rest of us were just really interested in stuff and/or worked hard.

Do you find that kids who parents think are "gifted" are actually just kids who are less dumb?

HA! Yes. And frankly, as a teacher I'll take the hardworking kid over the gifted one every time.

Perfect Xpost with DJ.

Huh. Now he's a surgeon in New Orleans.

frankly, as a teacher I'll take the hardworking kid over the gifted one every time

What about the kid who can perform B+/A- without working hard, and so doesn't? How much do you like them?

I'm not sure how hard I really worked, but I was really interested in most things-except biology. I always hated biology. It seemed so arbitrary, like "You need this body part, except when you don't."

ETA: Hee! ita is me!

ita, a kid who is at a B+/A- is at least doing the work. The kids who irk me are the "But I'm GIFTED" kids who do exactly zero work and get an F, but have been told their whole life how smart they are.