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Show Gifted Child Often Hard to Recognize, Pamphlet Points Out "Even the fondest and brightest bright-est parents sometimes miss out in recognizing a gifted child. Though most bright children are ambitious, sometimes an IQ of 125 or higher is concealed under a mass of poor grades, indifference indiffer-ence to learning and even resentment." resent-ment." Numerous suggestions for parents par-ents who think that their Johnny may be a potential genius in dis-girse dis-girse are contained in a new amphlet. Your Child May Be a Gifted Child by Ruth Carson, published by the Public Affairs Committee. "Parents are proud when the school reports or outside testings show they have a gifted child. Some get panicky, too. How to treat this special creature?" "Just like any child," Miss Carson Car-son says. "Gifted children are like all children, each with a special individual in-dividual something to offer and each in need of reassurance, understanding, un-derstanding, and support at home." "Researchers have peered at gifted children from all angles, trying to pin point common characteristics. The most important impor-tant thing the happiest and most successful ones have in common they report, is a warm support ing home and parents who love , to read and learn. ; "The day of the child prodigy, pushed and prodded by parent, is we hope over. It is up to the school and parent to encourage, encou-rage, suggest and stimulate, but never to push," Miss Carson asserts. as-serts. After discussing the various ! techniques which schools are using to stimulate gifted children chil-dren and enrich their training, Miss Carson points out that many schools are still not providing sufficient opportunities for their brighter children. Nevertheless, "many children receive wonderfully rich educations educa-tions in spite of meager fare at school," Miss Carson adds. "This is due to their own lively efforts and to their families. Books, including in-cluding encyclopedias, atlases and dictionaries are an essential part of their household equipment. equip-ment. Family trips search out museums, theaters, concerts and art galleries. "Summer jobs can help young people learn more about fields that might interest them: store, camp, hospital, laboratory, plant, office. One college girl interested interest-ed in international relations got a summer job at the UN, after teaching herself Italian, shorthand, short-hand, and typing. "There are still skeptics," the pamphlet author admits, "who think that all the fussing around over gifted children by schools is unnecessary, especially if it costs money." "The accomplishments of students stu-dents who have been given special spe-cial work has been compared with the accomplishments of groups, equally intelligent, who went through school in the regular regu-lar way. The records are conclusive," con-clusive," Miss Carson reports. "They show consistently that more, in proportion; of the special spe-cial students go on to college; win outstanding honors; become leaders in their fields; show ability abil-ity to think keenly; are mature and happy in their family lives. "The records show also that every school system that has striven to help its gifted students has automatically raised standards stand-ards for everyone," Miss Carson stresses. "The whole school population pop-ulation has risen to the challenge." |