Multi-gifted: a blessing or a curse?
At the beginning of a new school year the media pay a lot of their attention to school-related subjects. The headlines are usually being thrown at us. On September 5 of this year the most important Belgian newspapers wrote that one out of three children would suffer from learning difficulties. On the VRT evening news (VRT = the Belgian Dutch-speaking public broadcasting) of yesterday there was a report on multi- and highly gifted children. The report showed that this group of children find only little challenge in traditional education and that in the so-called Kangaroo Class these children are being brought together to learn at a higher level.
I always find it difficult to watch this kind of broadcasts. The issue is more than often elucidated in a one-sided way. This was also the case in yesterday’s report, where the multi- and highly gifted child’s situation was being romaticized: In the picture came the successful child, the child that (exceptionally) functions well, the stable child, the child that is able to handle the challenges that life is bringing to him.
Unfortunately, the good life is only reserved for a (small) part of the multi- and highly gifted children. These reports do not reveal the whole issue. The children that we are being faced with do suffer a great deal from their situation (and not only the child, but its whole environment as well). You could say that the problem level is directly proportional to the intelligence of the multi-gifted child (We make a distinction between multi-gifted, highly gifted and exceptionally gifted children). (Read the article)
