When Gifted Kids Lack Challenge

Posted by Carla Marie Boulianne Jul 11, 2008

My last two years of high school were interminable. I only took tests, refusing to do busy work. I skipped boring classes and attended interesting ones all day. Teachers had no idea what to do when one of their brightest students was failing. Somehow I graduated. I cheated the system to earn an underserved diploma, but the system also cheated me of a rigorous education. There was ample opportunity to find trouble with so much time on my hands.

I made my way into college after a few years working. I was in my element, earning straight As, research grants, and alumni awards. For the first time in my academic life, I reached my potential. My efforts resulted in a National Science Foundation Fellowship and a graduate position in the Special Pathogens Branch of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. I was surrounded by our nation’s best and brightest. The disparity between my public school education and the opportunities they had been afforded in elite prep schools and gifted programs was astounding. I was always playing catch up with the students who had rigorous early educations. I had never been challenged before and lacked the resilience and study skills to deal with difficult materials and failures.

After reading Carol Dweck’s book “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success,” I realized that my early academic experiences had contributed to forming a fixed mindset of academic abilities. For years I avoided challenge, which felt foreign, and threw away homework that wasn’t perfect. I was a stereotypical gifted underachiever and despite college success still struggled with that burden.

When my gifted daughter outpaced the curricula in her school and experienced frustration and defiance, it was like déjà vu. I knew that I would have to retake my soapbox and advocate for gifted education.