Ups and Downs

I decided to ponder the Ups and Downs of being "gifted" as well as the myths and truths.

Ups:

• Homework in our regular classes is generally easier.
• We usually get better grades.
• We have chances of getting into better schools/colleges.

Because there aren't that many gifted classes in elementary school/middle school, the subjects are easier to understand and the homework is easier.  That can also be bad.

Downs:

• Expected a lot from
• Bullies
• Work is too easy/don't really learn

Sometimes, because we are smart, we are treated differently.  I have pretended to not know the answer before because I didn't want to be the only one raising my hand.  Also, sometimes I don't learn much in school because the topic they are covering in class is too easy.

Another category to think about are the Myths and Truths of being "gifted".

Myths:

• Gifted people always get As
• Gifted people get special treatment from teachers

Gifted people are treated the same way as all of the other students, if not harder.  As I stated previously, teachers expect gifted kids to do better than others and sometimes give us more challenging work.

Truths:

• Gifted people are better than average
• Gifted people are sometimes victims of asynchronous development- an example of asynchronous development is being super mature for an 8th grader, but being the size of a 4th grader

Gifted people are usually better at certain subjects than others, but on the downside, suffer from asynchronous development.

Never before had I really pondered the true meaning of being gifted.  Now that I know more about it, I now realize how individual each person is and how interesting studying them is.