Open Letter to a "Gifted" Teen
by Teresa Currivan
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Dear "gifted" teen,
I put the word gifted in quotes because… you may not like it. Most adults still don’t fully agree on what it means. You don’t like the word, and perhaps it doesn’t resonate with how you see yourself. Or maybe it does. It doesn’t matter.
What’s important is that you know that we are all living in a time when teens know so many things that the adults don’t quite understand yet—probably including your parents and even your teachers.
Maybe your parents are stressed about your plans for college, and so you are, too. Maybe none of this makes any sense to you. Maybe all you want to do is skip class, drive around with friends, and then come home and start a business that you have an idea for. Or maybe you want to learn more about a very specific topic such as microbiology or psychology…. Or whatever!
Please know that you are not alone. I hear this from others as well. And even among these others, I see so many different struggles. If I put you all into a room together, you may not recognize it right away, but after talking for a bit, you might recognize something similar or familiar. I can’t put you in a room, but when you find someone who seems familiar, please feel free to mention something unusual that you struggle with. See if there is a glimmer of recognition. If not, move on. If so, talk about it. Laugh about it. Stay in touch if that feels right.
Even if you come from very different worlds. Even if they are eighty and you are sixteen. Even if they are a jock and you are a theater type.
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We are living in a time when unlikely friends—like those videos and pictures of animals who seem like surprising pairs (like a deer and a dog)—are hanging out together, and so are we. We need to have faith in who we are, as weird or strange as that may seem, and it helps to connect with others like us. Sometimes they are not wearing a similar outfit.
Fight to do what you are interested in. If you like physics, and your school’s physics is boring, know that you still get to like physics. Watch YouTube videos about it until you find something better. Fight for a better school. If your parents have the resources, look for an alternative school that is a better fit or for alternatives to school. Pass the high school exam and take college classes. Find a mentor and start your business now. Get a job and start saving money for your dream. Start putting into action a plan that goes with what is important to you. The adults won’t fully understand, but they will love your initiative. We all get depressed. Especially in these times. But having a goal, even if it is to hang in there through high school so you can go to college and finally study what you want, can help lift the depression. Know that you are not alone. There are many others out there. I know. I’ve talked with them. They don’t like the word “gifted” either. It doesn’t matter. Maybe the word is more for the adults to understand. Keep moving towards what you believe in. Keep the faith in yourself and in the world.
Best,
Teresa
(mother, therapist, gifted coach, friend, human)
©2019 Teresa Currivan
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Teresa Currivan lives in the San Francisco, California Bay Area with her husband and son. She's a mother, licensed marriage and family therapist, and parent coach at
Help My Child Thrive Coaching
. She is the parent support specialist at Big Minds Unschool, a K-8 school for twice-exceptional children, and leads parent support groups there and in her private practice. In addition to parent coaching, she works with children, teens, and adults. Her specialities are giftedness and twice-exceptionality. Teresa has been published on sites such as
Mother.ly
and
Filter Free Parents
. She's also a writer for GHF Newsletter and a blogger at Hoagies Gifted Education Page. You can find her articles on topics ranging from gifted testing, sensory disorders, appropriate diagnoses, and parenting the gifted on her website,
https://helpmychildthrive.com
.
Follow her on Facebook at
fb.me/TeresaCurrivanCoaching
. Teresa offers free 20 minute consultations by phone. You can email her at TeresaCurrivan@gmail.com. She would love to hear from you.
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CONNECTING WITH DABROWSKI'S THEORY OF POSITIVE DISINTEGRATION
By Christiane Wells, PhD
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I’ve learned, during my work over the past few years, that most people in the gifted community are unaware of the origins of the overexcitabilities as disintegrative elements within the theory of positive disintegration. One of my goals with this column is to introduce the aspects of Dabrowski’s theory that haven’t been explored in the gifted field.
It's an honor to have this opportunity to share my work...
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GHF Membership
GHF connects all sorts of people who love gifted learners. We offer both family and professional memberships to support individuals working to create new ways of educating gifted learners. Our members homeschool gifted and 2e kids, run homeschool co-ops and micro-schools, mentor students, teach online classes, and more. We'd love for you to join us.
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A Response to "Everyone Is Gifted in Some Way"
by Stacie Brown McCullough
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“Everyone is gifted in some way . . .”
Cringe
. ShUdDeR.
The "everyone is gifted in some way" myth makes it difficult for actually-gifted people to get their needs met. If everyone is gifted in some way, then no one is; therefore, gifted people don’t really need any special considerations.
Wrong.
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Stacie Brown McCullough is a GHF Writer and content creator for the GHF Learners’ Writing Team. She is a published author of multiple essays and articles, introverted gifted adult, secular homeschooling mom, a psychology student, and multipotentialite.
Since beginning her writing career in 2001, Stacie’s publications have appeared in college textbooks and instructor manuals by Bedford’s/St. Martin’s and Cengage Learning, marketing campaigns, and blog articles. Her work has earned multiple awards and won several contests. She has a handful of works-in-progress, including two fiction novels.
In addition to her writing pursuits, Stacie started MMc Metal Designs, LLC, with her husband in 2015. She lived an underwhelming life in rural America until 2018, when she learned her oldest child is twice-exceptional. Thus, she connected a lifetime’s worth of dots and launched her own journey of self-discovery, founding
The Secular Gifted Network
and establishing
SECTX Homeschool
.
When not busy life-ing, Stacie can be found reading all the things, gardening, and guiding her own gifted/2e children toward their educational goals. She lives in small-town, Texas, with her husband, kiddos, three cats, and a Pookie dog. Find out more at
www.staciebrownmccullough.com
.
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ABOUT GHF
GHF connects all sorts of people who love gifted learners. We offer both family and professional memberships to support and encourage adults working to create new ways of educating gifted learners. Our members homeschool gifted and twice-exceptional kids, run homeschool co-ops and microschools, write to foster understanding of gifted and twice-exceptional learners, mentor students one-on-one, teach online classes, provide services specifically designed to meet the social and emotional needs of gifted and twice-exceptional learners, and more. We'd love for you to join us.
GHF is a 501c3 organization. Please consider supporting our community with your most generous gift today. For more information on our organization, please feel free to contact us at info@ghflearners.org Thank you!
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