Growing Expansive Minds

Am I learning, which I can justify, or simply shirking my duties to my house and job search?  That I do not know.  The kids and I are currently excited about an exchange student we'll be hosting later this spring which has prompted me to attempt to brush up on my very rusty German from college.  I'm having a great deal of fun reviewing the submissions of people who are learning English on livemocha which gives me tokens to do free German lessons.

None the less, my dog has decimated her stuffed toys in the living room, dishes need washing, and today is my one day off of my paid job this week so I probably ought to get off the computer and get to work around here.  I can recommend livemocha as a fun, free way to work on your foreign language skills if you are willing to help others with your native language in order to get access for free.  Otherwise you can pay for access.

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The kids and I have been out of town for a few days visiting family for the holidays.  We made it home today and are recovering from motion sickness from a bumpy flight and long drives to and from the airport.  Spread out family doesn't make for easy and quick visits, unfortunately.

Sales of my e-book appear to be slow but steady, which is nice.  Formatting is the one ongoing frustration I've had.  All of the places where I've uploaded it - Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords - had me upload a Word file and then their programs converted it into an epublication.  Bullets get moved, numbers and characters change, and all kinds of odd things occur.  I know that it is legible as my kids got Nook Simple Touch readers for Christmas and I've downloaded the e-pub file from both Smashwords and B&N onto them to see how it looks and I've "previewed" the other files online, but it has required a number of tweaks to make it more in line with where it ought to be. 

I'll be updating coupons shortly and freshening up content on this site over the next few days.  I need to be back to my paid job soon, but the break has been nice. 

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There have been numerous stories in the news as of late about the nature of giftedness, where advocates for gifted children should focus their advocacy efforts, and whether gifted is a set construct or something that can be taught.  The National Association for Gifted Children recently released a statement from their president that, "I suggest that we take a bold step and consider making talent development, rather than giftedness, the major unifying concept of our field and most importantly, the basis for our practice."

A North Carolina program, Project Bright IDEA, found that between 15-20% of previously academically low performing children could be essentially taught to perform at a gifted level in school both on achievement and ability tests.  The Wall Street Journal recently ran an article entitled, Ways to Inflate Your IQ, which indicated that major changes in IQ scores as well as functional abilities seen on MRIs occurred in many children over the course of their primary and secondary schooling.

Against this backdrop, I am left wondering about a lot of things.  The field of giftedness becomes ever more contentious and parents who want the best for their children continue to fight for inclusion under the umbrella of giftedness.  Students are coached, tutored, or simply change over time.

What I must come back to, though, as a parent and a person is that the children I want to advocate for are not only mine, because I am their mom, but kids like mine and like I was myself.  I, personally, don't care so much about talent development or eminence.  I do care about happy, intact adults who weren't scarred by their schooling.  I do care about supporting minds that process differently, see abstractions, and that may need something more than just more of the same faster.  Gifted in my mind isn't about finding a child who can perform more highly within the boxes that exist.  Gifted is about building new boxes, seeing new possibilities, being different not better.  And, if that difference leads to new innovations, great.  If it just leads to a normal life lived quietly, fine too as long as it is not lived in silent misery or feeling constantly misunderstood. 

I understand feeling different and not knowing if that difference is a result of something wrong with me.  I understand anxiety, pressure that is often self imposed, and not knowing how to study because I didn't have to learn until it was so late in the process that I fell flat on my face when confronted with the need to learn in college.

That is the group of kids for whom I wrote my e-book on study strategies for gifted children and teens.  It probably has a very small market.  That's fine.  I'd rather write what I want to write for a small percentage of the population than broaden the market and decrease the benefit for that small percentage.

I don't know if the experts and the advocates for the gifted will ever come to a consensus on what giftedness is, how we test for it, and how broad the umbrella should be.  Probably not.  The argument is as old as the nature versus nurture argument.  In the mean time, the rest of us will just keep plodding along supporting the segment of this ever growing group of kids whose needs call to us the most.

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We've been debating e-readers as the major Christmas gifts for our girls this year.  There is so much conflicting information out there about the Nook simple touch and the Kindle touch that it is hard to sort out which one is the better choice.  I was leaning toward the Kindle, but Barnes and Noble and Best Buy both appear to have the Nook simple touch on sale for the great price of $79 for black Friday so we are going that way.

I only hope that my youngest, who isn't as interested in reading as is my oldest, doesn't bore with it too quickly as it does not allow for games like Sudoku as does the Kindle touch.  I also hope that the few reviews I read about freezing screens on the Nook refer to problems that have been ironed out with the more recent software upgrades.  The Kindle touch has its own set of complaints online such as slow response of the touch screen and difficulty navigating.  I guess that one is always bound to find some unhappy customers with every product.  I just hope not to be one of them!

For now I am watching my girls "roast" vegan marshmallows over candles.  The potential for eating candle wax makes that unappealing to me, but they seem to be having fun.

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This is terribly last minute, but I just recently heard of a free program for middle and high school students in Colorado this upcoming weekend.  The University of Colorado at Boulder is running a program called Splash that offers pre-teens and teens the opportunity to spend a Saturday on campus learning from CU students.

The catalog of courses includes options ranging from belly dancing to probability theory.  Registration will remain open until classes fill or the day of the event, November 5th, whichever comes first.

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