Gifted and Talented…

There is something that has really been bothering me lately, and I thought I’d share here on my little space on the internets.  Deep Breath… and here I go.

I have a problem.  Recently, I have heard from people I know and people I barely know about how awesome their kid(s) are.  That’s great.  Be glad your kid is awesome, it’s your right as a parent. 

But I'm tired of hearing how awesome your ‘gifted’ child is.  I’m tired of hearing how proud you are that they were chosen to be in their school’s gifted and talented program.  Actually, I’m not tired of it… I’m really rather angry.

I have three amazing kids, as most of you know.  I have one daughter that reads at an eighth grade level and one that reads at a third grade level.  Should I be be more proud of Bitty who, because of her reading skills, gets to attend ‘enrichment activities’ and is pulled out of her class to do higher level reading than her first grade peers? 

Because, if I’m being completely honest here… I had nothing to do with her extraordinary reading skills.  In fact, there is nothing Bitty did to reach that level of reading, either.  I taught her to read the same way I did with my older two and whatever God-given skills she has are inherent to her, she only enhances them with her go-gettem attitude.

That brings me to Lovely L… a girl who is in her school’s ‘reading help’ class because she has always struggled with reading and writing.  This is a child who will never be in any schools’ gifted and talented program.  And guess what?  That’s okay.  Because this is also a girl who has worked her rear off to get to the level of reading that she’s at today.  I am no more or less proud of either of my girls for what programs they may be in.  

My point?  I think pointing out how ‘gifted’ your child is belittles and unintentionally hurts other children, who through no fault of their own, will never be that ‘gifted and talented’ child. 

That’s not to say you shouldn’t be proud of your child’s accomplishments.  By all means, be proud!  But in doing a shout out on the internets, can you please refrain from letting everyone know how ‘gifted’ your child is?  Because, chances are, you (and your child) had nothing to do with do with getting them there.  God or (if you don’t believe in God) genetics did.

And because I’ve never ranted before (at least here on the blog ; ) and I’m feeling bad about it, here’s a picture of some penguins:

{Penguins are awesome}

Obviously, the middle penguin is telling the other two penguins that his chick just got accepted into the Gifted Penguin Program for Exceptional Chicks, and the other two are kind of offended.

Rant over…

But what do you think?  Am I being overly sensitive?