Gifted and Talented. I am Canadian. (And for people reading this in Canada, no, I am not referring to the beer commercial. For those of you outside Canada, ‘I am Canadian’ is a culturally specific reference. OK, this has nothing to do with being gifted, but the beer commercial to which I am referring was very popular here. Check it out – it’s a typical example of Canadian humour and an atypical example of Canadian patriotism..)
In Canada, we generally only use the word ‘gifted’ when describing streamed education and people with high IQ scores. It seems that internationally, the common term is ‘gifted and talented’. Most people who visit www.gifteduniverse.com are from countries other than Canada. If you are reading this from outside Canada, and are familiar with the gifted community, I was wondering if you could help me out. When is the term gifted and talented used in your country? In the US ’gifted and talented’ seems to be tied to a piece of legislation around education, is that correct? Is the term ‘gifted’ ever used stand alone or is it generally used in conjunction with ‘talented’?
Communication, always a difficult thing, becomes more complicated when you cross cultures. So I’m hoping to clarify: what does the term ‘gifted and talented’ mean in your country?
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Here in the US, gifted and talented is used interchangebly with gifted. We also describe it as GT or reversed to talented and gifted (makes a nice little accronym that way: TAG.) There is little rationale behind the choice except that different communities prefer different words.
We do tend to discuss areas or categories of giftedness, for instance ‘mathematically gifted.’ A person with an all-around high IQ would be ‘intellectually gifted.’ The “talented” designation might once have been made to distinguish artistic gifts from intellectual gifts, but those are just called gifts now: ‘musically gifted.’
Thanks Kathryn…I thought that might be the case in the US. The whole topic makes me think about the cultural implications of being gifted (and talented
)…no doubt there are constants cross culturally. I wonder what is culturally specific. Societies that value conformity vs individualism? Societies that value people who excel vs societies that don’t. Perception of gender?
I read an article (sorry I don’t remember where otherwise I’d cite it) that talked about how Canadian’s celebrate children who excel in hockey. (No, not everyone in Canada cares about hockey but yes it is a pretty big deal here). Bragging about your hockey star child (within reason) is acceptable. Suggesting your child is gifted (and talented
) is less so. I wonder if any country values exceptional intelligence as much as exceptional athleticism…..