Mar 8 2013: This gap used to be filled in the traditional arts by a combination of the apprenticeship/journeyman systems from guilds and the patronage of the Renaissance. We could really use something like these systems in the modern age...hopefully without the flaws that these systems had, which led to their ultimate end.
Mar 8 2013: Thanks to you, and to the other wonderful people here, I no longer feel so alone in my difficulties. Your support and fellow feeling has helped a great deal, as has the support of everyone who has replied or agreed with my posting. Thank you all for helping me keep going!
Mar 8 2013: Thanks for your quick response James. I am trying hard to do some of the things you have suggested. I really appreciate the resource suggestions! I will keep on working on this.
Mar 7 2013: I have added replies to a few responses below. To sum up: I believe the potential to be gifted and talented is spread across all classes and groups of people. It is more often noticed in poorer classes because those that succeed stand out more than in richer ones, where a minimum level of gifted and talented ability is expected. Note that the reverse is also true: failure among the rich stands out far more than success.
My personal experiences as someone classified as gifted and talented have been less than stellar. My most pressing need that has not been met is that of guidance and support. Being exceptionally intelligent does not give one miraculous access to ideas on what to do when one grows up, nor does it guarantee financial, social or other success.
Like many creative and intelligent people, I am not easily fitted into a single box. I now realize that one of my strengths is in collation and correlation of seemingly unrelated details...not an easily recognizable skill since by definition it cuts across categories. However, sometimes seeing the bigger picture has been more of a hindrance than a help for me.
My own high standards and perfectionist tendencies have more than once led to my downfall, as I was overwhelmed by the number of potential options available, by the ability to perceive obstacles to achieving a goal, or by similar roadblocks to creative progress. What I needed growing up, and still need most, are practical problem solving skills, and ways to break up goals into manageable chunks.
I dearly wish for a mentor who could introduce me to the right people to get what I want done accomplished. What I needed growing up was a mentor who could narrow my potential and give me focus. I need a starting direction, and the support to follow that direction to the end. Deny me that support and I become an average Joe, waving my hands in the air, only worse because I know I could do, could be, so much more...which is unbelievably frustrating and depressing.
Mar 7 2013: This is why people who are gifted and talented need to be provided with support to reach their best selves, both in terms of mentoring and economics. Many gifts and talents don't fit in convenient "job boxes", and trying to stuff someone into such a box results not only in failure for the organization, but also disheartening of the individual. This can and will crush creativity in many people.
Mar 7 2013: This is a common misnomer...there is a more or less even spacing out of gifted and talented people between the rich and the poor...base level gifted and talented potential has nothing to do with any class as best I can tell from those who I have known to have it. It is simply that when a poor person makes good it stands out so much more, because they can be seen fighting the obstacles of their socioeconomic status, whereas when a rich person does well, it is because they were "expected to live up to the family standards," "got into a good school because of the family name," etc.
In other words, somehow a poorer person's success is always a surprise and therefore stands out, while a rich person's success is expected, and therefore remains unnoticed in the larger scheme. That's neither the rich person nor the poor person's fault...it's simply a result of perceived expectations.
Mar 7 2013: I have had similar problems...when asked "What will you be when you grow up?" I had no answer. The options available overwhelmed me, and I really didn't have any strong guidance. I drifted through school, and I have not been very successful, by many standards (eg. career, relationships, etc.) I have often been angry, and occasionally grateful, to my parents for insisting I stay in public education--angry because it was a great waste of time for me, grateful because it gave me at least a minimum level of social skills.
Additionally, my own abilities have worked against me in the sense that I have been burdened with the idea of my own intelligence. It is very hard when you know you are smart to accept failure. My lack of success has constantly been a boondoggle, hanging over my shoulder. I have always had the feeling that I am capable of so much more than what I have, yet what could that ephemeral thing be? I am capable of almost anything, and so I don't know where to turn to do something. Most of my life has been defined by what I know I can't do, narrowing the field, when what I so dearly want is some help figuring what I can do.
And knowing that I am highly capable in potential, I can be paralyzed by the fear of defeat, or the overwhelming view of knowing all that would be required to achieve a goal. Sometimes, someone far less "talented and gifted" than I can accomplish something that I cannot, simply because they do not see the great wave of obstacles standing before them. Taking things one step at a time, without consideration for these factors, is very difficult for me.
I am rarely satisfied, craving perfection and never achieving it. It is difficult, even, to find good conversation at times. So I post in places like this, or compile other peoples works. I long to be creative, yet I am not able to exercise creativity because I have suffered under the smothering effects of terror of failure for so long. Talking to you now is me trying to escape this terror.
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A reply on Conversation: What are the challenges that gifted and creative individuals face at present?
A reply on Conversation: What are the challenges that gifted and creative individuals face at present?
A reply on Conversation: What are the challenges that gifted and creative individuals face at present?
Marla
A comment on Conversation: What are the challenges that gifted and creative individuals face at present?
My personal experiences as someone classified as gifted and talented have been less than stellar. My most pressing need that has not been met is that of guidance and support. Being exceptionally intelligent does not give one miraculous access to ideas on what to do when one grows up, nor does it guarantee financial, social or other success.
Like many creative and intelligent people, I am not easily fitted into a single box. I now realize that one of my strengths is in collation and correlation of seemingly unrelated details...not an easily recognizable skill since by definition it cuts across categories. However, sometimes seeing the bigger picture has been more of a hindrance than a help for me.
My own high standards and perfectionist tendencies have more than once led to my downfall, as I was overwhelmed by the number of potential options available, by the ability to perceive obstacles to achieving a goal, or by similar roadblocks to creative progress. What I needed growing up, and still need most, are practical problem solving skills, and ways to break up goals into manageable chunks.
I dearly wish for a mentor who could introduce me to the right people to get what I want done accomplished. What I needed growing up was a mentor who could narrow my potential and give me focus. I need a starting direction, and the support to follow that direction to the end. Deny me that support and I become an average Joe, waving my hands in the air, only worse because I know I could do, could be, so much more...which is unbelievably frustrating and depressing.
A reply on Conversation: What are the challenges that gifted and creative individuals face at present?
A reply on Conversation: What are the challenges that gifted and creative individuals face at present?
In other words, somehow a poorer person's success is always a surprise and therefore stands out, while a rich person's success is expected, and therefore remains unnoticed in the larger scheme. That's neither the rich person nor the poor person's fault...it's simply a result of perceived expectations.
A reply on Conversation: What are the challenges that gifted and creative individuals face at present?
Additionally, my own abilities have worked against me in the sense that I have been burdened with the idea of my own intelligence. It is very hard when you know you are smart to accept failure. My lack of success has constantly been a boondoggle, hanging over my shoulder. I have always had the feeling that I am capable of so much more than what I have, yet what could that ephemeral thing be? I am capable of almost anything, and so I don't know where to turn to do something. Most of my life has been defined by what I know I can't do, narrowing the field, when what I so dearly want is some help figuring what I can do.
And knowing that I am highly capable in potential, I can be paralyzed by the fear of defeat, or the overwhelming view of knowing all that would be required to achieve a goal. Sometimes, someone far less "talented and gifted" than I can accomplish something that I cannot, simply because they do not see the great wave of obstacles standing before them. Taking things one step at a time, without consideration for these factors, is very difficult for me.
I am rarely satisfied, craving perfection and never achieving it. It is difficult, even, to find good conversation at times. So I post in places like this, or compile other peoples works. I long to be creative, yet I am not able to exercise creativity because I have suffered under the smothering effects of terror of failure for so long. Talking to you now is me trying to escape this terror.