Resources for Gifted Children and Parents of Same
We recently posted on the tragic story of child prodigy Brandenn E. Brenner, who graduated college at 10 and committed suicide recently at age 14.
Brandenn's suicide is unfortunately not a rare occurrence among gifted children. It is difficult for those who have not experienced firsthand the unique alienation of the gifted child to understand how someone so uniquely accomplished, so precocious, with such a bright future ahead of them could sink to such depths of despair.
Author Pearl Buck produced the best description I've seen yet of what life is like for these kids:
Marie Friedel founded the National Foundation for Gifted and Creative Children over thirty years ago in order to help gifted children and their parents deal with the unique challenges posed by extremely high intelligence. She is nothing short of a crusader on behalf of gifted kids, who are often the victims of surprising disdain and neglect in this country's educational system.
Friedel has been waging an intensive campaign against Ritalin and other behavior-modifying drugs dispensed to schoolchildren almost indiscriminately these days. She is also a staunch advocate of homeschooling.
If you've got a child you suspect might be gifted, be sure to visit the NFGCC website, download their information package, and check out their message board and parents' e-mail directory. You're not alone and these fine folks can help you ensure your child does not get lobotomized by our badly-broken public education system.
Brandenn's suicide is unfortunately not a rare occurrence among gifted children. It is difficult for those who have not experienced firsthand the unique alienation of the gifted child to understand how someone so uniquely accomplished, so precocious, with such a bright future ahead of them could sink to such depths of despair.
Author Pearl Buck produced the best description I've seen yet of what life is like for these kids:
The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this:
A human creature born abnormally, inhumanely sensitive.
To him...
a touch is a blow,
a sound is a noise,
a misfortune is a tragedy,
a joy is an ecstasy,
a friend is a lover,
a lover is a god, and
failure is death.
Add to this cruelly delicate organism the overpowering necessity to create, create, create--so that without the creating of music or poetry or books or buildings or something of meaning, his very breath is cut off from him. He must create, must pour out creation. By some strange, unknown, inward urgency he is not really alive unless he is creating.
Marie Friedel founded the National Foundation for Gifted and Creative Children over thirty years ago in order to help gifted children and their parents deal with the unique challenges posed by extremely high intelligence. She is nothing short of a crusader on behalf of gifted kids, who are often the victims of surprising disdain and neglect in this country's educational system.
Friedel has been waging an intensive campaign against Ritalin and other behavior-modifying drugs dispensed to schoolchildren almost indiscriminately these days. She is also a staunch advocate of homeschooling.
If you've got a child you suspect might be gifted, be sure to visit the NFGCC website, download their information package, and check out their message board and parents' e-mail directory. You're not alone and these fine folks can help you ensure your child does not get lobotomized by our badly-broken public education system.
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