When I was little, I was very restless, sleep was not a priority, I always wanted to make something, and if my desire was not fulfilled – due to the lack of time or the perpetual fatigue (that’s how I felt) of my parents – I got very frustrated. I wasn’t the type of guy to spoil the cars I received, but rather I wanted to create one as I imagined it, not as I saw it ready to buy. It wasn’t until I was 3 years old that I started to speak, which brought me additional reasons for intense negative experiences. In kindergarten I was a gentle and quiet child. I was very focused on the work task, sometimes separating myself from the rest of the team, even losing track of time. I silently admired my restless and fickle colleagues. I was always seen as the small and wise one. I noticed almost everything around me, I didn’t talk much, but when I did I knew exactly why I was opening my mouth. When something boring to my concerns was discussed at length, I used to draw.

I used to do this as a refuge when I didn’t like certain subjects. My mother was very careful to find me a nice teacher with a calm temperament who would understand me. It was a kind of preoccupation with proving to her and her friends (she had many) that she was doing everything in her power to make up for her constant absence from my side. Up until the age when I entered school I was somewhat fine, with few exceptions. My parents seemed, from the outside, very attentive to my needs, but they had very high demands, which always gave me the feeling that they were dissatisfied with me at the time. They were always comparing me to other more confident boys. This bothered me a lot, which led me to be an introvert for a good part of my childhood. When I was at home, with the nanny, I would have her read to me from all kinds of encyclopedias, knowing that this invariably caused her to fall into a deep sleep, commensurate with her preoccupations, which enabled me to do what I pleased. I was saving the questions for an interesting discussion with Dad. While the nanny was resting, I was making all kinds of constructions: from paper, from cardboard, from lego – I didn’t have lego kits to build robots – I was reading comic magazines; I worked alone, on my own initiative, all kinds of logic games with fairly high degrees of difficulty; I drew a lot and imagined all kinds of scenarios with characters I invented. I was not yet old enough to master the art of the pen, so I had a notebook that was divided into chapters, and each one had an illustration, so that I would remember later what I was going to write. I got a lot of inspiration from my impressive comic book collection. I was analyzing everything, planning, strategizing from a very young age.

When I was 10, my parents took me for a psychological test. The result was surprising to everyone. I turned out to be a little genius on the logical-mathematical dominant (158), with very good processing speed (134), with a good memory capacity (127) and with a satisfactory linguistic intelligence quotient (112). From a psycho-emotional point of view it turned out that I am a kid open to new experiences, balanced, empathetic, altruistic, assertive, productive, determined, persistent, resistant to stress, disciplined and curious.

I can tell you that until then my parents didn’t understand why I did everything according to certain patterns, algorithmically, but I couldn’t perform in mathematics. I was finding all kinds of novel solutions to everything that was in 3D (space), but I was stuck in 2D (flat form). I needed the overall picture, to understand from the beginning the space, the goal I was heading towards, so I could see the meaning of things, but I found it more difficult to argue in words or in dry, meaningless notions, such as standard proofs in geometry, for example. I did very well when the learning was experienced by me, not exposed by someone else. Curriculum design in our case needs to be rethought. It must be designed taking into account the principles of Kolb, Zull, Renzulli and the stages of psychological development of children and adolescents. It seems difficult, considering that at the moment everything is designed without logical coherence, without impact studies, but rather out of inertia. It becomes even more difficult knowing how the teachers are trained in the faculties. It only teaches about the field of study, not about curriculum design or working methods for different age stages.

The discrepancies between cognitive and emotional intelligence deepened into adolescence, when my parents started looking for special programs for people like me. Naturally, at 14-15 years old, I had reached the point where I no longer believed that I was good in any field, that I would be able to succeed or that I would be able to find my way. To my surprise, most of the group had much the same confusion. Two of us had a different self-possession, a different self-assurance that I envied, in a positive way. They had taken it earlier with the development of the fields of passion, with the work of emotions, with the assumption of responsibilities in a team. You could feel this difference between us, even if the others also had interesting and original answers to various problems. The rest of us didn’t have the courage to speak our mind, we didn’t find our voices, we didn’t trust our intellectual capacities. For too long we have been pointed at. For too long we have been seen as misfits or as weirdos, with fixed and “curly” ideas.

I can tell you that in this program, specially designed and developed for children with high abilities, I gradually came to rediscover myself, to become again, to believe in my potential. To learn to relate to who I was and to those around me. I came into contact with extraordinary trainers, with mentors from whom I learned in a one-hour meeting when I didn’t learn in a whole semester, I got to know the stories of many personalities who faced the same challenges we faced in school and us – Mircea Eliade, ThomasEdison, Benjamin Franklin, Steve Jobs, John D. Rockefeller, Walt Disney, Charles Dickens, Princess Diana.

Are we surprised that most of us enter with a thirst for knowledge and end up not wanting to go to school anymore?! Do we wonder why so many of us stop performing?

At first we are all curious to be shown, to be read to, to discover, to try to imitate writing, as in the example of adults, to discover the universe, to travel the globe, etc. Gradually, our eyes become sad, the first signs of success anxiety appear, we are devastated. Already, from the age of 8-9, we are all linearized, and those who do not succeed, because we are threatened with punishment, we refrain in the school environment, raving wherever we have the opportunity. After the age of 12, the fruits that the adults planted in the previous years begin to be seen. And hence our decline, of the many, emotionally abandoning school.

Our challenge increases the higher the IQ, appearing that gap (asynchrony) between the development of the limbic brain and the neocortex. (Steven Pfeiffer, Director, SENG- Social and Emotional Needs of the Gifted). Hence the trilogy of ages: cognitive, emotional and social. (ex: you can talk to a 6-year-old child with, say, a 9-year-old intelligence, but with 3-4-year-old emotional needs). How are you prepared, as an adult, to relate when the transition happens in split seconds? For these colleagues, the risk of emotional abandonment sets in much faster.

Text written by Simona Mitrea, PhD student at Educational Sciences, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Bucharest.

Articolul How do we identify certain characteristics of gifted children? apare prima dată în Romanian Gifted School -.

With this validation, the next step is to open the school in September 2020. We are often asked how our school system, specifically dedicated to children with high abilities, will work.

The answer is simple: just like any school accredited on the international curriculum, with the major difference in the way the classes and graduation years are organized. Children will not go through the school years linearly, but according to the areas of development on all three levels – cognitive, emotional, biological.

What we rely on:

• anamnesis
• psychological testing to identify cognitive intelligence quotients (fluid – logical and crystallized – acquired through language, processing speed, memorization quotient), emotional / social intelligence, temperament the SEM model, developed by Joseph Renzulli and Sally Reis
• piloting and adapting the SEM model through the Gifted4All program (the program is aimed at children from 2 to 17 years old)
• international assessments – here about the American Baccalaureate, and here about the International Baccalaureate
• the rules of the Ministry of Education for equivalence of diplomas
• lobby and advocacy for a paragraph to be inserted in the Education Act, at art 57 or 77, which would allow these children to take the summative exam starting at the age of 15 (see Education Act in Germany (Austria) 17, paragraph (4 ) APOGrundStGy idF v. 22.07.2011, zuletzt geändert am 28.06.2018)

“The acceleration principle starts with the individual’s strengths and is one of the most effective promotion strategies” (Heller 2001, 37). Acceleration means “going through a faster curriculum” (Ziegler 2008, 78), which in turn means, for example, enrolling in school early, skipping one or more grades, temporarily attending lessons in upper grades, shortening curriculum or learning courses. Richter (2003, 70) also adds curriculum expansion, early school completion, early university admission, self-selected learning pace and tutoring programs. According to Ziegler (2008, 78), scientific studies show that acceleration is the most effective of traditional support measures. If highly gifted students differ significantly from their peers in terms of their learning pace, a rapid succession of teaching steps meets many of their needs, and the content of curricula at all school levels does not meet students’ needs and is a challenge , then acceleration is recommended (Richter 2003, 70).”

“Ability differentiation means that high achievers can attend special classes for them, learning separately from the rest of the class in some subjects, or attend special schools for gifted children. (Winner, Ellen 2007, p.111) . Winner talks about the last option in particular. The success of graduates of special schools for children with high abilities is closely related to the innovation of the learning-education model. Gifted students do better in special schools than in regular schools.” (Winner, Ellen 2007, p.111)

Below we leave you the testimony of a teenage girl from Germany:

„Es hat mir so viel Spaß gemacht! Mich hat das Überspringen immer sehr motiviert. Ich war früher mit der Ausbildung fertig und früher unabhängig (…)“ Katrin, übersprang drei Klassen und machte ihr Abitur mit 16 Jahren. Zitat in: Heinbokel, A. (2016)

(translation) “It was so easy for me! That always kept me motivated. I finished my studies faster and this aspect helped me gain my independence faster (…) ” Katrin skipped three grades and graduated at 16. (quoted from Acceleration: Still an Option for the Gifted Annette Heinbokel)

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In conclusion, the school that linearizes (class 1 – 12th / 13th) does not meet these needs, however good it may be from a methodological point of view and the teaching staff. All the specialists who have been researching the phenomenon for more than 40 years have come to these conclusions.

Articolul Special school for “gifted” children or classic school with different teaching methods? apare prima dată în Romanian Gifted School -.

“Hundreds of evaluated children passed through my hands in the last 10 years. The boys’ parents bring them in for evaluation because they feel overwhelmed by their behavior—too temperamental or too shy—and would institutionalize them (in a school) quickly. The parents of the girls speak in laudatory terms and with some pride about them when they discover that they have above average abilities. If the first ones describe a child (boy) with whom they don’t know what to do at school, those in the second category describe some creative children (girls), attentive to details, obedient. This is specific to preschool age and the first years of school (6, 7 years old).” (Simona Mitrea, PhD student in Educational Sciences, Founder of RGS)

D, 3 years. “She recognized the Lion King soundtrack and started singing it in its entirety. I knew she will become a composer and a performer.”

M, 5 years. “She draws accurately, in the smallest details, she discovered the letters by herself at the age of 2, she knows the whole alphabet, she started reading by herself, she uses a rich vocabulary, she already does ballet, painting and piano”

Oh, 7 years. “She is bored at school. She already knows how to count with numbers over hundreds, even thousands. It even understands negative numbers.”

These parents describe their daughters at a time when brain plasticity is at its peak, when discovery learning is natural, when imagination is overflowing, and creativity helps them invent stories using a vocabulary adopted from the adults in their lives, which they decode through their actions repetitive things they do.

“I’ve found that as they approach preadolescence, girls also start to fight back, but in a way where they turn a lot towards themselves and their emotional needs.” (Diana Butnaru, psychologist)

S, 10 years. “She doesn’t like school at all. It closed a lot. From the child who was exploring alone, she now has no pleasure in anything. She sits and stares into space a lot. From an extroverted child, she turned into an internalized one”

C, 13 years old. “We don’t know what to do with her. She is always sad. Her school performance has declined, even though we know she can. She no longer finds joy in anything. Not even when we spend time together. “

At home, in a secure environment, at a young age they allow themselves to be free and explore, constantly seeking the approval and acceptance of their loved ones, falling, over time, into the trap of submissiveness and dependence on the opinion of those close to them.

At school, after the age of 8, they want to be like the others, not to differentiate themselves and to be accepted in the group of “cool, cool” girls. They begin to be reluctant to show themselves “different” by expressing information that indicates that they know something more than the others, thus bringing them rejection.

“Gifted girls are invisible in school,” says Barbara Kerr, Psychologist and Educational Researcher, University of Kansas

“A society that wastes female brilliance has made it the norm for gifted women to lead an average life, and gifted women have largely adapted to that norm” (p. 171).

Subliminal messages related to their school performance, beyond their emotional experiences, begin early and accumulate over time.

“Others, who know, guard it as a well-kept secret. This means that the abilities they could use to develop their potential are instead wasted on adjusting others’ expectations” (Judy W. Eby & Joan F Smutny, 1990).

For “gifted” girls, the asynchrony between cognitive ability and self-image can take various forms, corroborated with temperament:

• It seems normal to them to perform, without realizing the effort put in, considering it absolutely normal (performance anxiety appears)
• They sabotage themselves when they fail, seeing themselves as underachievers (mental illness occurs, depression occurs)
• They choose the intellectual ceiling, in favor of socialization, acceptance in the group (somatizations appear, the impostor phenomenon)

These behaviors are the alarm signals by which they show us that something is wrong with them on an emotional level. In adolescence, these girls self-mutilate, and in adulthood they become severely depressed (Wellesley College Center for Research on Women 1992, p. 2).

Girls often fall into the category of “prodigy” children who are lost in time. If they retaliate in class, like the boys – to talk without being asked, to leave the bench, to make a less than appropriate joke – they are charged as ill-bred, rude, aggressive, pushy, insensitive. These labels cause deep wounds in their soul and mind. It increases their sensitivity to criticism, leading over time to play tricks on their own minds. Internal conflicts increase with age, if there is no intervention in their developmental environment.

High-ability girls learn not to ask for or receive help. They do not receive as much emotional support as boys, because they remain silent, submissive and deep in their own feelings.

Unfortunately, many of the adults in their circle of trust do not understand their unique sensitivities and encourage their destructive behaviors. Unfortunately, too much validation of her capabilities and work doesn’t make her flexible and doesn’t help her realize when she needs help.

Ellen had this problem. She had considerable musical talent–at a young age she had perfect pitch and played quite expertly on the piano, but she couldn’t read music. No one taught her because she already seemed to know how. When she tried to persuade adults that she couldn’t, they would actually say things to her such as, “Oh don’t be silly; of course, you can. Look at how you play!” Her desire to please increased her fear of failure and, eventually, of having her “flaw” discovered. The expectation that she should be able to do something which she had never learned to do set up her faulty, but not uncommon, logical model. Before too long, any gap in her knowledge made her feel that she was really a fraud. Not being able to read music sowed the seeds of low self-esteem, which her musical talent only intensified. People continued to expect her to perform at an extremely high level, while she herself struggled against this missing piece of musical education. Ellen came to expect extraordinary performance from herself, without having taken the steps or experiencing the freedom to learn and secure a solid musical foundation.

To discover that a girl has high abilities, pay attention to a few signals. They appear very early, at preschool age:

• Read and remember many details
• She expresses her ideas quite well
• She has analytical and conceptual skills quite early
• Explores a situation from multiple points of view
• Expresses unusual points of view
• Demonstrates above average skills in the visual arts
• Shows talent in theater, music, drama, dance
• She has the ability to improvise

Above all, let’s also pay attention to the emotional aspects:

• Low self-esteem
• Apathy, based on resignation or feelings of inferiority
• Fear of not taking risks
• Excessive concern about acceptance among peers
• Ambivalent feelings about personal potential
• Conflict between his status in society and school performance

Examine the potential signs of giftedness in girls. While each girl expresses talent in unique ways, there are some common indicators:

• Discrepancies between performance and self-image
• Discrepancies between average or low school test scores and exceptional originality, imagination, and insight in independent projects or assignments
• Refusal to participate despite signs of success
• Sudden, inexplicable appearance of a certain ability in a seemingly average girl
• Classroom misbehavior that shows ingenuity (despite its disruption) or reveals leadership ability
• Remarkable contrast between school performance and skills, achievements and/or activities reported by parents or community members

Overall, boys with high intelligence are 20% more likely to be diagnosed with autism, 80% more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD, 83% of girls are more likely to be diagnosed with anxiety, and 182% more likely to develop at least one behavioral disorder.

In conclusion, if we do not identify them and provide them with that stimulating environment for cognitive and emotional development, they remain stuck in their own experiences. They underperform, remain in the shadows and pay dearly for their exceptional achievements. In adulthood, when they come across a person who begins to encourage them, they are shy, with little confidence in their potential, and work for years to recover from gaining freedom of expression in all its forms.

They need adults who are sensitive to their needs, caring and discerning. The connection with the father plays, again, a central role in their development.

Let’s discover them together and help them spread their wings as high as they can!

Articolul “Girls are not gifted” apare prima dată în Romanian Gifted School -.