Who is Gifted?©

Deborah L. Ruf, PhD, 2022

What is giftedness and what does it mean to be gifted?

Until recently, I thought what I think is gifted is simply correct and people who saw it differently were wrong.

I was sure I knew the correct answer. I personally thought that it was an inner quality, a form of intelligence that is different, more intense, and noticeable in how some people are. It’s about their essence.

And when I heard people talk about giftedness as being about getting good grades and being a person of high accomplishment, I simply thought they were wrong and that they didn’t understand. For years I held this view. But then, in 2020, I read Maggie Brown’s doctoral dissertation (linked below) and learned her Delphi study of experts in the field of gifted education and high intelligence indicates experts fall into at least two camps about what giftedness is. A Delta study, by the way, is an anonymous series of questionnaires that the lead author narrows down over at least three iterations to focus on what the respondents think about the topic being reviewed.

I am on the side of giftedness being about how someone is, “how they be.” As an example, someone who is very smart and not a good student is usually referred to as “street smart” and not “book smart.” In my mind, it means they are still smart but either didn’t have the opportunity for a good education or didn’t like and cooperate with the way the education was presented. This means that my approach to supporting gifted children and adults is focused on their social, emotional, and mental health, not their career status.

Others just as fervently see giftedness as measured by good grades, good scores, and adult career success measured by earnings and status. Their focus of support is on improving school performance and dealing with underachievement issues. When parents came to me for help with their under-achieving child, I focused on the environment the gifted child is in and whether it is the right one for that child. [I retired from that role in 2017.]

So, I think giftedness is complex, hard to describe, and confusing to measure. At the same time, you sort of know it when you encounter it, especially at the very highest levels. But, because of these different viewpoints about…