# A Tale of Two Teenagers ![[Attachments/929bc39f7cec41f76585d20b7b6ccda0_MD5.jpg]] ## Metadata - Author: [[Aporia]] - Full Title: A Tale of Two Teenagers - Category: #articles - Date: 2024-01-09 - URL: https://www.aporiamagazine.com/p/a-tale-of-two-teenagers - [ ] #toFile ➕ 2024-01-09 - [ ] #toProcess ➕ 2024-01-09 ## Highlights added 2024-01-09 - . She had written a book a few years prior called *Gifted Lives: What Happens when Gifted Children Grow Up* ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hkhbqaq07wqbks9tar35yn47)) - I saw this first hand, this struggle to learn the game of school. A tricky task for gifted children generally, but especially for those with Asperger’s, the high-functioning form of autism ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hkhbtftac9pm0qvye6q488eb)) - Note: [[Autism]] - *nadpobudliwosc*, apparently poorly translated to English as ‘overexcitability’. Dabrowski described overexcitable people as: ‘delicate, gentle, sensitive, empathic, nonaggressive, industrious, wise though unsophisticated, never brutal, often inhibited, likely to withdraw into themselves rather than retaliate, having deep feelings, idealistic’. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hkhbw87wp4x4cjgce89ybjsv)) - His young mind is constantly searching for more stimulation and knowledge. He really needs an enriched and stimulating education. And he needs it all the time, not just in small bursts. Above all, he needs acceptance for who he is, his personality as well as his potential. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hkhbxp0cek4kn7q8h5bsgaah)) - I read Joan Freeman’s assessment, I discovered Georgios had an IQ of 145, a score in the top 1.33% for the test he took. Put simply, that meant that he was several “mental ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hkhc0tw9566x998hw4c39mrc)) - suddenly realised what it would’ve been like to hang around with Kant, Bentham, or Wittgenstein. In a word: draining. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hkhc4x1x6ybphrn206me9xtt)) - I would find out later that he was starved for intellectual stimulation at home, too. And so our conversation must’ve been like a supply drop of high-energy rations during an interminable war, a short reprieve from the daily failure to find a similar mind ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hkhc5jcffx1yfazrgbddr85j)) - Most gifted children are, in fact, gifted in only one or two areas, often underperforming in others, though not necessarily because they’re unable. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hkhc88ngfbj583300r24xxd6)) - So he did the thing we all do: procrastination. Except, rather than cleaning the kitchen or watching some junk TV, Georgios would learn different alphabets or memorise Chinese poetry. Anything to escape the dull demands of ordinary life. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hkhcq017rth4v30e4qne5bem)) - What’s more, there is also a deep unease I suspect many teachers feel when confronted by an adolescent who is clearly smarter and more well-read than they could ever hope to be. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hkhcrv71k3f01kdgnrvtzkq2)) - We tend to think that gifted children cruise through school destined for university and successful careers, but this is merely what psychologists call survivorship bias — a tendency to focus on *successful* gifted people while overlooking the ones who didn’t make it or perhaps did so, but *in spite* of the system, rather than because of it. The weirdest discovery, however, was that much of this had been known for well over half a century. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hkhn01x117n11hcvvjjje0sc)) - These are children who read classic novels under their desks yet are forced to circle adjectives in class. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hkhn0qfq7br8k04nspstnm43)) - Children who write twenty-page short stories about string theory, yet must endure mundane assignments about their summer holidays. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hkhn12xsg13zh6stkww99a68)) - Let us take a child of average intellectual ability, and when he is five years old, let us place him in a class of children with severe intellectual disabilities, children whose IQs are at least four standard deviations lower than his. The child will stay with this group for the duration of his schooling, and he will undertake the curriculum designed for the class, at the level and pace of the class. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hkjkc4z95n7dqan2yw8e9z2j)) - The foundation now works closely with over three hundred children who partake in advanced classes in robotics, physics, astronomy, and much more. CE ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hkjkfh2bpm8anv8m469hfn2h)) - Note that the spreadsheet’s eye view records his destination as expected, in line with his high IQ score five years prior. But the spreadsheet never records the journey, the missed opportunities for meaningful connection and intellectual growth. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hkjkj3tjs9srwb3t3dnqaj1t))