Frequently asked questions
Without guidance and support, gifted students may lose interest or underperform.
Gifted students need a high level of educational challenge, not just more of the same repetitive material.
To maintain high levels of achievement, teachers must adapt the program appropriately. Without intervention, gifted students may develop behavioral problems.
To maintain high levels of achievement, teachers must adapt the program appropriately. Without intervention, gifted students may develop behavioral problems.
Gifted students exist across all racial, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds.
Gifted students are often socially marginalized, especially in higher school grades.
Gifted students benefit when they collaborate with their peers.
Every child deserves an education tailored to their individual needs and they need special educational support.
When gifted students are constantly teaching others, they often don't learn anything new. This can create self-esteem problems for both them and the students they are teaching.
Aren't all children gifted?;
Some teachers find the terms «gifted» and «talented» a bit confusing. If we talk about «gifted» children, does that mean that some children are not gifted? Does that suggest that some children are less valuable than others? Aren’t all children gifted in some way?;
Let's look more closely at this distinction: First, the issue of value.
Recognizing a child as gifted does not mean that they have more value than other children, just as recognizing a child with a developmental disability or physical disability does not mean that they have less value than the rest.
Recognizing that a student has learning characteristics that are significantly different from those of the majority of their classmates is not a matter of value, it is a matter of necessity.
Gifted students and students with developmental disabilities have different learning needs than most of their classmates, and as teachers we must respond to these needs. Therefore, helping these students is our obligation.
Is it easy to recognize a gifted student?;
Until the mid-1980s, definitions of giftedness and talent tended to be based on academic performance and identified academically good students as gifted children. In theory, a gifted individual would perform above average for their age, but this is not always absolute, as there is the problem of gifted underachievement either due to learning difficulties or emotional reasons. Unfortunately, these rather stereotypical definitions tended to ignore gifted children who, for various reasons, had not yet managed to translate their high abilities into achievements.
There are several groups of gifted students who are at particular risk of not being recognized, such as:
Gifted children from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.
Culturally diverse students whose primary language is not Greek.
Children who are gifted but also have learning difficulties.
Gifted students with physical disabilities – for example gifted students with visual impairments or hearing impairments.
Gifted students in geographically isolated areas
Gifted students who had lost interest in learning due to a lack of motivation from the educational programs they were attending.
Gifted students who deliberately camouflage their abilities in order to enjoy acceptance from their peers.
Gifted children, therefore, do not always stand out so easily from their peers.
What are the emotional characteristics of gifted children?;
Emotional intensity. They often tend to experience emotional reactions on a deeper level than their peers.
Many gifted students have an unusually mature sense of humor.
An unusual ability to empathize with the emotions of other children or adults.
An unusually well-developed sense of justice. They may become angry and upset by incidents of injustice at school or in society.
Many gifted students enjoy books for older children. They may find it quite frustrating when their classmates are not at all interested in novels or series that they themselves find fascinating.
Gifted students often prefer the company of older students. Their advanced intellectual development, special interests, and relative emotional maturity may lead them to seek out students who are at similar developmental stages as friends.
Gifted students may develop strong attachments to one of two close friends rather than more casual relationships with a numerically large group.
Many gifted students, with good academic performance, feel pressure to moderate their academic achievements in order to gain acceptance from their peers.
So what are charisma?;
Gifted children and adults see the world differently, due to the complexity of their thought processes and their emotional intensity. People often ask them: «Why do you make everything so complicated?» «Why do you take everything so seriously?» «Why is everything so important to you?» Gifted people are «excessive» in everything: too sensitive, too intense, too dynamic, too honest, too idealistic, too moral, too perfectionistic, “too much” for other people! Even if they try their whole lives to fit in with those around them, they still feel different.
It is time, then, to recognize charisma and completely separate it from the concept of achievement and elitism.
