Do you find that kids who parents think are "gifted" are actually just kids who are less dumb?
I wonder if it comes from the same place as the grade inflation/C is no longer average place. I remember being surprised that within about 6 years the valedictorian at my high school went from a person with a 95 average (my graduating year and those before it) to someone with a 95 average not even being in the top ten of the school (a younger family friend) In 1991 our school's top 10 ranged from 92 - 95, while 6 years later the top 10 ranged from 99 - 100
I mean, if A level work is "gifted" and everyone gets A's, then is everyone gifted?
I don't like pushing past my comfort zone of Stuff I Know(TM) and flailing about to try new stuff, because I don't like looking like an idiot when I'm "supposed" to be so smart.
This is me. And I sometimes go to ridiculous lengths to figure things out myself to spare myself the humiliation of revealing ignorance.
On some levels, until I learned to skate (which I unfortunately haven't had the money/time to get back to since AB was born) and started writing novels, I'd never done anything that was hard for me. Emotionally trying, sure, I'd lived through the normal share of difficult experiences. But before skating I'd never pushed myself to do anything physical that didn't come easily to me. And before my first novel, I'd never pushed my writing ability past the effortless point.
I'm glad I learned to work. I just wished I'd done it sometime before my 30th birthday.
Most people can learn how to draw accurately, its drawing expresively that's the tricksy part.
This. I've found that if you can get them to look at an object upside-down or from some other unusual angle most people can learn to do an accurate rendering. It's a matter of getting them to stop seeing their symbolic mental image of whatever it is and actually look at it. Now drawing something from memory, or something they've imagined rather than seen, is where the need for talent comes in.
It would be nice if art teachers acted from that premise. As far as I can see, kids are allowed to draw badly, because some people just aren't good at drawing. Which you're not allowed to say about reading.
Well yeah and it would make drawing classes seem less like woowoo-only-certain-people-can-do-it bullshit. We had a teacher at my first school who was awesome at teaching people to draw. When kids struggled she would tell them it wasn't that they were bad at art, but that they were looking too fast and their eyes were moving faster than their hands. She suggested first off that they slow down and it did get easier. She was wonderful.
Math is this weird place where we do allow people to stop engaging in learning it because they aren't good at it innately. And it's something we wouldn't let reading teachers get away with.
Muffin (it's my noodle)! He's the ultimate in new things with the new mother and country and language.
ok, perhaps I do tend to forget the big picture wrt to mac. it's good for me to keep the perspective.
jesse - I emailed you at your addy... keep getting 'undeliverable, still trying' messages
Weird. Must be a livejournal issue. I'll email you.
Math is this weird place where we do allow people to stop engaging in learning it because they aren't good at it innately. And it's something we wouldn't let reading teachers get away with.
What about writing? And where does talent fit in? Is there a difference between "gifted" and "talented?"
And why not just say, "your kid has a talent for math"? It sounds different in my head, meaning-wise.
perhaps I do tend to forget the big picture wrt to mac. it's good for me to keep the perspective.
I hope I didn't sound like I was reproaching you.
Can you bring Mac to LA? It's a crime that I've never hugged him.
