Being ‘Gifted’

by LIZ O’MALLEY

If you’ve ever gone to CTYI, you’ll be familiar with the word gifted and there is a good chance you’ll hate that word. It’s apparently the neutral term who is brilliant at maths or verbal reasoning. I think it makes people sound pretentious but maybe that’s just me.

The Centre of Talented Youth Ireland is a summer camp for ‘young, bright people’ where teens who score well in the SATs can attend college courses such as legal studies and drama for three weeks. Many people feel it’s unfair to restrict the course to smart people but the point is that the course was set up with a purpose. Many of those who are intelligent don’t necessarily do well in school because they get bored in class and tune out as a result. Or perhaps they coast, doing the bare minimum knowing they can get away with it and when the time comes they can’t pull out the good results. CTYI was created to try and get students interested in learning again.

When I was in playschool the teacher thought I was dense. I would just sit in a corner every day doing polishing, not interested in class work. It was only when I got to primary school and the principal noticed my lack of participation did people realise I wasn’t stupid, I was just bored. I got moved up from the slow readers and afterwards I did a lot better. I began excelling at school.

The problem later was feeling like I was cut off from the rest of the class. The other kids would call me a teacher’s pet or say that I was a geek and I remember telling my mum that I wasn’t going to answer questions in class anymore because everyone else was making fun of me and who wants to stand out rather than fit in? It’s a lot lonelier. Of course she said that was ridiculous but I still did as I had threatened and once I stopped participating in class I started to do badly again.

This stuck with me until I went to CTYI when I was fourteen. I’d heard about the course from friends of the family and had gotten it into my head that this would be a fun place to go. I had no idea what to expect. I’m naturally shy so I was surprised by how nice everybody there was. People who had been there before just came up to you and talked to you like they had known you forever. By the end of the day I was playing a card game with five strangers and a couple of them are still friends today.

I went into Legal Studies class expecting it be like school, where the teacher talked at you. The first thing the lecturer, Eoin, did was outline a legal situation involving three men being stranded on a boat. One of the men was unconscious so the other two chose to ate him when they were about to starve to death. Eoin then asked us to decide whether or not the men were guilty. He went around to everyone in the class and they all said these incredibly smart things. I found that everybody put their hand up and if you did well people admired you instead of scorned you. Every day he’d ask us not only to think for ourselves, but when we said something he’d debate us over it and make us defend our statements.

Everyone else was in the same boat so making friends was a lot easier and for once I had the confidence to go up and talk to people I didn’t know and start up a conversation. I made friends I’ve known for years now and I did better academically afterwards. It wasn’t all about the academics though. I was much more confident and happy afterwards and I didn’t mind being seen as weird anymore.

At the end of every year we had to fill in this questionnaire and one of the questions was “Would you describe yourself as gifted?” It might have been the Irish modesty kicking in but nobody really wanted to call themselves gifted. It just sounded stupid apart from anything else. Nobody minded being called smart or intelligent but the gifted label wasn’t one that we wanted. ‘Gifted’ makes you sound like you’re different from ‘normal’ people. If you were told someone was gifted you’d imagine them shunning society and being a tortured genius. It’s not the kind of thing that would endear you to most people.

RTE have plans to do a documentary on gifted children and here’s some information they have about the series.
The programmes will be an honest and revealing insight into the lives of very special children as they cope with the highs and lows of being ‘different’.
Featuring a different family in each programme, the series will tell the stories of parents and children from different backgrounds facing very different challenges. Following them as they embark on a new set of challenges or hit a cross roads in their development, we will get to know the real people and remarkable lives.

Is it just me or does it sound like they’re going to be treating this like a disability? You already know my story but even though I too have had my ups and downs I’ve never classed myself as being different to ‘ordinary’ teenagers. CTYI, even though it has talented in the middle of its name, never propagates the idea that we’re different from anybody else. To us all it is is a place to meet good friends and to pick up some information along the way. If anything it makes us humble. I want to meet up with friends, go to parties and do well in school pretty much like everyone else my age. Nobody would want to see thirty minutes following my life because it’s nowhere near dramatic enough.

I’m different but as the famous ‘Life of Brian’ quote states – We’re all individuals.

Note from editor: that RTE series to be on hold for the moment. Will let readers know if/when this changes.

Posted: September 14th, 2009 under Gifted and Talented.