Abstract
Most of the attention given to the gifted over the years has been devoted to gifted children, a population identified by unusual mental processing that sets them apart from the norms. Gifted adults, however, are recognized in our society solely by their achievements. The innate qualities of mind that are found in gifted children do not disappear as the children grow up. The unusual developmental trajectory of the gifted creates an extraordinary experience of life for the individual at any age, whether or not that individual is able to achieve in ways society recognizes and values. The achievement orientation that has always existed for adults and is now taking over the field of gifted education, makes it difficult for the gifted to understand the qualities of mind that make them different. Such an understanding is essential to honoring the self.
The first act of honoring the self is the assertion of consciousness: the choice to think, to be aware, to send the searchlight of consciousness outward toward the world and inward toward our own being. To default on this effort is to default on the self at the most basic level. To honor the self is to be willing to think independently, to live by our own mind, and to have the courage of our own perceptions and judgments (Brandon, 1983).
The experience of the gifted adult is the experience of an unusual consciousness, an extraordinary mind whose perceptions and judgments may be different enough to require an extraordinary courage. Large numbers of gifted adults, aware not only of their mental capacities but of the degree to which those capacities set them apart, understand this.
For many, however, a complete honoring of the self must begin with discovering what sort of consciousness, what sort of mind they possess. That their own perceptions and judgments are unusual may have been obvious since childhood, but they may have spent their lives assuming that this difference was a deficit, a fault, even a defect of character or a sign of mental illness (Lovecky, 1986; Alvarado, 1989). Thinking independently may seem foolhardy or antisocial.
Who am I? is a question they may need to ask themselves all over again because the answers devised in childhood and adolescence were inaccurate or incomplete (Silverman & Keamey, 1989; Tolan, 1992; Wallach, 1994).
Where Have the Gifted Children Gone?
Since the 1920’s thousands of books and articles have been written about gifted children. Organizations of educators, parents and others have been formed to protect, preserve and develop their potential. Factions have argued about definitions and terms, about whether it is nature or nurture or both that creates unusual intelligence, whether gifted children need or deserve special programs and educational resources.
Meanwhile, generations of gifted children have come and gone, moving through and beyond the educational institutions where they have or have not been identified, have or have not been appropriately served.
These gifted children have disappeared into the vast territory of adulthood. Have they disappeared in the same way prodigies do? No matter how powerful the adult talent of a grownup child prodigy, he is no longer a prodigy, because the term is linked not solely to ability, but also to age. The adult, even if continuing to excel in his earlier domain, is forever an ex-prodigy. Does the gifted child, grown up, similarly become an ex-gifted child? Having left childhood and school behind, has she also left behind the differences that were recognized in the “gifted” label? Or could she more accurately be described as a gifted ex-child?
What is Giftedness?
If giftedness is merely an artifact of rapid progress through normal developmental stages, it could be destined to fade when others catch up or even move beyond. If, on the other hand, it is a quality of mind that creates a genuinely unusual developmental trajectory, it would be a stable attribute, remaining with the individual throughout life whether outwardly evident or not.
Not everyone perceives giftedness in the same way. Some see it as the achievement of something out of the ordinary, essentially external. Others see it as an internal set of out-of-the-ordinary mental processes that may or may not lead to achievement. Traditionally, our culture’s perception has depended to some extent on the age of the individual under consideration.
Because childhood is inevitably and biologically a developmental period, giftedness in childhood traditionally has been seen in terms of unusual, measurable qualities of the developing mind. IQ tests were created to assess a child’s innate capacity to reason and to learn, and to the extent that they achieved that goal, they have been useful in locating children whose extraordinary potential requires unusual educational methods. The phenomenon of the “underachieving gifted child” obviously depends on our recognition that a child has unusual potential which is not showing itself in equally unusual achievement.
In looking at adults, however, the focus changes. We recognize the existence of gifted adults, of course. They are the people who achieve spectacularly. And for those achievements we expect them to be rewarded with a Nobel prize, great fame, wealth, or eminence in their own field. We may know that some gifted adults are unlucky enough not to achieve the rewards their ideas or their products deserve but it is nevertheless the achievements or products that are the basis for our recognition of giftedness in adults. This focus is essentially external.
There is no readily accepted concept of “underachieving gifted adult” because the number of adults who have test scores or other standardized means of showing unusual mental processing other than through products is relatively small.
To society, then, the changing definition of giftedness from childhood to adulthood would make it appear that of the many gifted children who have been identified only a few have gone on to become gifted adults. The change in criteria from different internal processing to unusual external production was recognized by a frustrated Sophie, one of the female subjects in Lewis Terman’s famous longitudinal study of gifted individuals while the study was in progress.
To confound the issue further, it would also appear that there are gifted adults who seem to have sprung into the world full-grown, never having been identified or perceived as gifted when they were children (e.g. Darwin, Edison, Einstein). It is no wonder that there is some controversy and confusion on the subject for our culture in general and for individuals as well.
Giftedness as Developmental Difference
Recently a definition of childhood giftedness as “asynchronous development” was advanced to look at giftedness from a phenomenological viewpoint, considering what it is like from the inside. Throughout childhood asynchronous individuals reach noticeable and clearly defined developmental milestones and acquire various skills earlier than other children. But the difference is not mere precocity, not just “getting there sooner.” The child who deals with abstract concepts early brings those concepts to bear on all later experience. This different, more complex way of processing experience creates essentially different experience. The result is that the differences, far from shrinking as the child develops, are likely to grow larger. A child whose cognitive development is within the normal rather than the gifted range will not “catch up” with the gifted child any more than a younger sibling will catch up in age with an older sibling. The developmental trajectory diverges early and does not come back to norms.
“Asynchronous development” may not be as relevant in adulthood, because adult development is not as time dependent. It stretches over a far larger time span and is not so closely tied to physiological development. It is not necessarily a steady, upward progression which all adults experience at different rates, but far more than in childhood is a matter of personal growth and choice. We expect adults to be able to use abstract reasoning; we are not as likely to notice one whose reasoning takes him into complex realms where most other adults could not follow, as we are to notice a child who uses abstract reasoning long before other children can.
In adulthood we might refer to “differentiated development,” rather than asynchronous development, as the direction any individual chooses for his or her continued growth is likely to be idiosyncratic. This makes the difference between the gifted adult mind and others harder to recognize, harder to measure. However, the reality of giftedness remains a different experience of life, whether or not the individual is able to use that different experience to drive continued growth and learning, or to create products or perform in ways that the larger culture recognizes and rewards.
Childhood Characteristics
Some of the cognitive characteristics of gifted children that are differences in kind rather than in precocious acquisition are: extraordinary quantity of information; unusual retentiveness; advanced comprehension; unusually varied interests; curiosity; unusual capacity for processing information; accelerated pace of thought processes; comprehensive synthesis; heightened capacity for seeing unusual and diverse relationships; ability to generate original ideas and solutions; evaluation of self and others; persistent, goal-directed behavior. These characteristics not only persist into adulthood, but interact through time to create a geometric progression of significant differences from the norm.
In addition to these cognitive characteristics, many researchers have found in gifted children heightened emotional sensitivity and intensity (a characteristic that is likely to go underground in adulthood, especially in males), a keen sense of humor, an early and heightened concern for justice and morality and the desire to make certain that actions are consistent with values.
Socially, gifted children may have difficulty placing themselves with chronological peers, as their interests are likely to be different. Their emotional sensitivity and intensity may make social interactions, particularly in settings where emotions are distrusted, devalued or directly censured, especially complicated. Where their abilities cause jealousy in others there may be a powerful incentive to hide or disguise those abilities in order to “get along” more successfully. Sometimes this effort becomes powerful and long-term denial of their differences, particularly for girls during adolescence.
Effects in Adulthood
All of these characteristics, continuing into adulthood, create a different experience of life for the gifted adult, just as they do for the gifted child, whether or not the individual is achieving and being recognized as gifted, whether or not the individual understands and accepts his differences. Sometimes the different life experience is a positive, but not always. Sometimes it is painful or even destructive.
The cognitive differences can lead to high levels of career success in many fields. These are the specific abilities that so often produce the recognized gifted adult: the ground-breaking physicist, the great philosopher, the peacemaking diplomat, the successful entrepreneur. But for the adult whose life circumstances do not readily provide an arena for the positive use of these abilities, the result may be a feeling of frustration, lack of fulfillment, a nagging sense of being tied down, imprisoned, thwarted.
Examples include the middle management employee who can devise solutions but cannot implement them, the suburban housewife who feels restless when the children leave home, or the worker stuck in a menial job who lacks appropriate educational opportunity. Many such individuals may not understand the reasons for their dissatisfactions and may never think of themselves as gifted adults.
The gifted frequently take their own capacities for granted, believing that it is people with different abilities who are the really bright ones. Not understanding the source of their frustration, they may resort to alcohol, drugs, food or other addictive behaviors, or simply live in survival mode. Even those who achieve may feel seriously out of step and experience paradoxical self-esteem problems.
Emotional Intensity
Though adults often learn to control the expression of emotional sensitivity, they must still deal with the experience of that emotion. In some fields, such as the arts, unusual emotionality can be safely expressed and is a powerful asset. In most fields, however, emotions are suspect and expressing them may be disallowed. Many men suppress emotionality and suffer psychological repercussions; women may find suppression necessary to advance in chosen careers.
Moral Issues
The gifted adult’s moral sensitivity and concern for justice can lead to lives of service and achievement in diplomacy, law, medicine, philanthropy and other fields. However, this sensitivity can also lead to depression and other psychological difficulties, as the state of civilization and the condition of the planet can seem overwhelming to someone with unusual clarity of thought, depth of perception and strong empathy. Such people may find workplace ethical compromises intolerable.
Social Realities
Socially, the experience of gifted adults can be diverse. Those working with other gifted adults may experience intellectual synergy and a strong sense of belonging. For others, social interaction can be problematic: they may find it difficult to share important aspects of themselves, may have to simplify or hold back in conversation, and may leave events feeling isolated or dissatisfied. Lacking companions with similar interests, gifted adults may withdraw and live solitary lives.
Honoring the Self
There are many individual profiles of adult giftedness. The experience of giftedness in adulthood is more likely to be problematic and painful when the individual denies or does not understand his own giftedness. Not understanding, he feels alienated from others and from himself and does not know how to solve problems, heal wounds, fulfill or cope with the powerful internal drive.
Our relentless focus on achievement rather than the unusual mental processing that constitutes giftedness makes recognition and understanding difficult for many. It is critical for both gifted individuals and society that we expand our perceptions and continue to pay attention to the gifted when they have left the educational community and taken their place in the adult world.
We must also look carefully at the perception of giftedness in education, for it is in childhood that the gifted individual begins to form that critical sense of self. Many in gifted education now view giftedness even in childhood as definable by achievement rather than potential. The new focus on “talent” rather than “giftedness” expands the achievement/product orientation and devalues broadly based mental processing. Gifted children do not disappear when they graduate; they become gifted adults. If they enter adulthood blind to their unusual mental capabilities, they may go through life fragmented, frustrated, unfulfilled and alienated from their innermost beings. What is different about the gifted individual is his or her mind. Not understanding that mind makes it virtually impossible to honor the self.
It is apparent that the ‘self’…is our mind — our mind and its characteristic manner of operation (Brandon, 1983).
Mind makes us human; mind makes us individuals. From childhood through adulthood, to be themselves, to value and honor themselves and lead fulfilled lives, gifted adults must understand and come to terms with their own — unusual — minds.
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