With or without the label and notable accomplishments

So much categorizing people as gifted children or adults emphasizes having achieved significantly, having some distinction – high IQ or SAT scores, having a bestseller book or movie or being a sport superstar.

And with perfectionism and high levels of self criticism, many gifted and talented people feel they don’t make it.

Actor Ellen Muth, who starred as George (for Georgia) Lass in the tv series “Dead Like Me,” has admitted she had low self-esteem, like her character, and also said, “But I still feel like I haven’t accomplished anything.. like I haven’t made it anywhere, I haven’t done anything, and I’ll never get anywhere in life, and I’m going to be a failure my whole life. And I know in the rational part of my mind that it’s not true.”

Earlier in her life, at 14, Muth gained widespread acclaim for her portrayal of the young Selena in the film “Dolores Claiborne” and her starring role in the “The Young Girl & the Monsoon” earned her the AFI Los Angeles International Film Festival Best Actress Award in 1999. She is a member of MENSA.

It can help us develop a more accurate self concept as a high ability person to garner awards and acclaim, but most of us do not get much recognition.

Cheryl M. Ackerman, PhD notes in her article Gifted Adults, “It is important to remember that just because a person was not identified as gifted when they were in school, doesn’t mean she isn’t a gifted individual.

“In addition, something that may seem as benign as whether or not a person was identified as gifted can have significant effects on the development of his self-concept and self-esteem.

She adds, “While the fundamental characteristics of gifted adults are the same regardless of whether or not they were identified earlier in life, those who were not identified face the challenge of making sense of their gifted characteristics without the gifted label to guide them in any way.”

And there are other problems with labels in adulthood, and earlier in life as students.

Daniel Koretz, a professor of education at Harvard, agrees “We need accountability in education, and standardized tests give comparable information from different schools.”

But, he cautions, “tests don’t measure things like complex problem-solving ability, creativity, and persistence. High-stakes testing puts pressure on teachers to take shortcuts to raise scores and can give an illusion of progress.” [Parade magazine, Jan. 11 2009]

His book is Measuring Up: What Educational Testing Really Tells Us.

The image is from the book The Global Achievement Gap: Why Even Our Best Schools Don’t Teach the New Survival Skills Our Children Need–And What We Can Do About It, by Tony Wagner.

One of the people in the book When Gifted Kids Don’t Have All the Answers: How to Meet Their Social and Emotional Needs, by James R. Delisle, PhD et. al., is Christine, 15, who asked, “Why is giftedness linked to achievement — that is, what I can or cannot do — instead of what and how I feel?”

As adults, we still are pressured to achieve.

Robert Maurer, PhD, in his article The Vision Thing notes, “Successful people are able to sustain their identity as separate from their profession and what’s happening to them. That’s particularly important in the arts, where what happens to you bears only faint correlation to your talent.”

Related article: Being gifted without the scores – by Nora Brahim.

More High Ability – gifted/talented articles.

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