1) CHILD GENIUS
Justin Chapman is the perfect example of a gifted person. He has made cases against discrimination, taken physics courses at the university level and made his own website. He has had the honour of speaking at the AGATE conference in Albany. In fact, Ms. Seitelman claims that Justin is extremely gifted. But what makes him so gifted. Many ordinary people have done these very things and received no such distinction. The difference is . . . Justin is only 7 years old. At one time he will be happily crawling under tables and playing like any typical child his age. At another he will be as serious as an adult as he talks about something important to him.
Ms. Seitelman thinks that up to 1 in 5 students are gifted. Most are not taking advanced courses like Justin, but have something that makes them stand out. Also, an unusually high IQ is not necessary for a gifted candidate. The funny is: there is one peculiarity associated with many gifted people. Although they have gifts, they also have disabilities. For example, Justin Chapman has speech problems and something people refer to as a speech-trap mind. This is nothing to worry about though.
Justin leaves with a bit of advice for everyone: “Everyone has a gift, but some of us don’t know how to unwrap it”
2) Mirman Private School in Bel Air
This elite school is almost forty years old. Don’t try to get into it unless you have an IQ of 145 or greater. Here your gifts will blossom as you learn with like-minded peers. In kindergarten you write about what you would do as president, in later grades you do advanced math, and by the time you arrive in high school, you are just about ready for university. This school is costly- you have to pay over 12000 dollars a year to be a part of the 350 students attending. At this school you don’t have grades but simply work in the class that has people of your abilities.
Sound like heaven? At first it might but there are some drawbacks. If you go to school with such children you yourself are not going to stand out in the crowd. Had you gone to a public school you would have been the top student, but here you are likely to be one of the crowd. As well, it can be disorienting. You lock yourself into an unnatural environment. Not everyone is gifted in the world, and you can’t hide yourself up in a group that is, only to come out and be
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