..Because gifted children are able to consider the possibilities of how things might be, they tend to be idealists. However, they are simultaneously able to see that the world is falling short of how it might be. Because they are intense, gifted children feel keenly the disappointment and frustration which occurs when ideals are not reached. Similarly, these youngsters quickly spot the inconsistencies, arbitrariness and absurdities in society and in the behaviors of those around them. Traditions are questioned or challenged…
When gifted children try to share these concerns with others, they are usually met with reactions ranging from puzzlement to hostility. They discover that others, particularly of their age, clearly do not share these concerns, but instead are focused on more concrete issues and on fitting in with others’ expectations. Often by even first grade, these youngsters, particularly the more highly gifted ones, feel isolated from their peers and perhaps from their families as they find that others are not prepared to discuss such weighty concerns…
–Existential Depression in Gifted Individuals
I’m sure many of you out there can identify. I would like to think, more positively, that everything arbitrary about the flavour of our world is itself an untapped resource, an opportunity gap. But then I also want to believe that massive weight everything that’s arbitrary in our modern world and culture is also obvious – or even perceptible. As I see it
The trouble with gifted children
is that they have the imagination to just taste the flavours of what could have been. But are not in the position
to do anything about it.
As grownups we,
however,
are -or should be-
finally in a position
to DO
something about it,
if we can just recapture
some of that
imagination
or the wisdom to see
whether any given thing
is the way it is
just because it is
or actually because it should be.
The second paragraph resonates as well – but more about whether it’s even healthy/productive to worry about such things. Maybe there is no hope.
How do you see it?
Anyone interested in this topic may also find Alice Miller’s work pertinent. She is a psychologist who has written several books on the consequences of repression of children at the personal and societal level and the physical and psychological harm inflicted on children largely inadvertently by parents who themselves experienced abuse..and so on down the line. The Drama of the Gifted Child was first published in 1979 and has been revised and updated in 1997. Here she notes the gifted child is particularly sensitive to this repression. It’s not all doom and gloom however, as she does offer hope for changing these patterns.
http://www.alice-miller.com
Anyone interested in this topic may also find Alice Miller’s work pertinent. She is a psychologist who has written several books on the consequences of repression of children at the personal and societal level and the physical and psychological harm inflicted on children largely inadvertently by parents who themselves experienced abuse..and so on down the line. The Drama of the Gifted Child was first published in 1979 and has been revised and updated in 1997. Here she notes the gifted child is particularly sensitive to this repression. It’s not all doom and gloom however, as she does offer hope for changing these patterns.
http://www.alice-miller.com
Thanks mom! :p
Thanks mom! :p