saying `gifted` is never just one thing.

The Gifted Homeschoolers Forum blog hop for this month is titled “How do you say ‘gifted’?”  I will admit that despite having been part of the Gifted Homeschoolers Forum community for a couple of years now, it is still hard for me to say the word “gifted.”

There is an element in which it is easier to say a child is gifted if one can qualify it by talking about the challenges that giftedness brings. Giftedness does bring lots of challenges. Celi at Crushing Tall Poppies talks a bit about some of those challenges in her post “My Child is Gifted: Do You Think I’m Bragging Now?” Yet giftedness isn’t all about challenges either. For some people it does go wonderfully smoothly, and parents shouldn’t feel like only the challenges can be talked about. We should not have to act as though the challenges are negatives that equal out the positives of giftedness and thus let giftedness be a socially acceptable neutral thing.

So how do I say “gifted”?

I say “gifted” hesitantly. I say it hesitantly because not everyone needs to hear about it, because some people will misunderstand, and because I am fearful.

I say “gifted” proudly, because I am proud of who I am, and who my kids are. I say it because I remember all the weirdness of being different and knowing it is giftedness is like having a bubble shield to push away the hurt.

I say “gifted” fearfully, because I’m scared that I’m wrong, an imposter in the gifted online world.

I say “gifted” as rarely as I can.

Besides my involvement in the Gifted Homeschoolers Forum community, (and that includes writing about things here, during GHF blog hops), when or where do I talk about giftedness? I end up explaining about giftedness when conversations about homeschool curriculum let it slip that one of my kids is doing course work beyond his grade level. I end up explaining it privately when people wonder what is up with this kid who goes off on weird tangents, saying things that didn’t fit his age or apparent maturity level. I mention it sometimes when, in conversations with other homeschoolers, someone is sounding defensive because his or her child is not doing the same level of work mine is and I want the person to know the other child is not behind.