In Alan Bennett's play The History Boys smart
students from an otherwise average high school have a shot at
places at Oxford and Cambridge.
The teachers provide unwavering support and guidance; the
librarian is busy with books checked in and out; there are day
tours and lectures and practice essay after practice essay.
Finally, the students sit their written and verbal exams and each
boy is offered a glorious opportunity: to be the first in their
families to attend a prestigious university.
Carried through the emotional journey taken by the boys, and
applauding their success to the end, the mood of the audience is
suddenly dashed when we learn what such an illustrious education
afforded the boys once they entered the workforce.
What kind of career does an Ivy League education buy? There's a
headmaster, a magistrate, a tax lawyer and a journalist. Not bad so
far but you might revise your opinion when you learn that those
students are the cream of this crop.
The next Oxford graduate we meet is the owner of a chain of
drycleaners who "takes drugs on the weekend". The last in the group
we learn has become a builder, constructing "affordable homes for
the first time buyer". "When I take the wives round the show
homes," he says, "I tell them I was at Oxford. I get f***s
galore."
This final scene gives pause to the question: for all the
attention, academic research, school curriculums and specialist
teachers, and the parental pride afforded our gifted children, what
happens to them when they leave the education system and enter the
workforce?
Are gifted children, who have been given every opportunity from
a specialised and accelerated education, expected to excel also in
their careers? And what sort of career might that be? Only the
professions and academia? Or is it okay to be an entrepreneur
running a successful company?
And for that matter, what is the definition of 'success' for an
adult who was once a gifted child?
As organisational leaders we single out employees for their
'talent potential'. Even in these times of economic downturn,
companies know that their most talented employees are the ones whom
they will need the most to help the business survive, and maybe
even to grow. But this is not the same as celebrating the smart
ones among the employee population, recognising their special
talents, and making sure they're always stimulated and
challenged.
So the question begs: Why don't we nurture our Einsteins in the
workplace?
The study of giftedness, and the incorporation of specialised
curricula in primary and secondary schools, dates to 1868, when
William Torey Harris, a superintendent of public schools of St
Louis, introduced the first systematic programs to educate gifted
students. Other research followed over the next 50 years, including
the publication in 1869 of the seminal work, Hereditary Genius, by
Francis Galton, who argued that intelligence was derived from
heredity and natural selection.
In 1916, the so-called father of the gifted education movement,
Lewis Terman, published the Stanford-Binet as a new method of
testing intelligence. Later, Terman began what was to become the
longest-running longitudinal study of gifted children. This
research was complemented by Leta Hollingworth's Gifted Child:
Their Nature and Nurture, which is considered to be the first
textbook on gifted education, published in 1926.
Over the ensuing decades, Western nations captured the best and
brightest students in accelerated learning programs. Enthusiasm for
the gifted education movement was dictated by key events in
history. One glorious moment was the space race when the United
States fell over itself to farm individuals of the highest
intelligence and talent (especially in advanced mathematics,
science and technology) in order to give the country the greatest
advantage over its key rival, Russia.
Today the gifted education movement is highly professionalised,
lobbying from within and without through specialised government
departments, associations and schools. Parents and their bright
children have access to volumes of information - books, journal
articles, specialist magazines and parent support groups.
Not surprisingly, the past 150 years has generated volumes of
research on what it means to be gifted. In summary, study after
study consistently finds that gifted children are critical thinkers
and are creative, rapid learners. They are curious, capable of
being highly communicative, extremely perceptive and able to retain
information easily. They show commitment to completing a task, and
are resourceful and detailed in pursuing it to the end.
According to Ellen Winner, Professor of Psychology at Boston
College, there are three atypical characteristics of gifted
children that go beyond a measurement on an IQ test. Firstly,
gifted children are precocious and learn more quickly and easily
than typical children. Maddeningly for their parents, they insist
on marching to their own drummer. This means they are able to learn
quickly on their own, and often make up rules as they go. Very
smart children solve problems in novel and idiosyncratic ways.
Finally - and this illuminates the entrepreneurial streak of some
of Bennett's History Boys characters - gifted children have a
strong desire for mastery. They are intrinsically motivated to make
sense of the domain in which they have shown precocity, which often
includes an obsessive and sharp focus on their own interests.
But what of the gifted adult that the gifted child becomes? One
imagines a child who has enjoyed an accelerated learning program
with special classes in mathematics, English, foreign languages, or
music or sport entering the average university lecture theatre for
the first time with hundreds of other first year undergraduates and
quite reasonably thinking they'd been had. Where is the one-on-one
attention? Why isn't everyone else keen to learn? And later, after
graduation, why does work have to be so boring?
The deep tragedy is that in the masses of literature that has
proliferated since this field of gifted education was
recognised, there is a paucity of advice on what these smart
children and teenagers might expect from adulthood.
The few studies that exist suggest that the common problems of
discrimination and social rejection that many gifted children
experience growing up don't diminish when they become adults. Being
gifted is a double-edged sword because being brighter than the
average means being part of a minority, and minorities are often
subject to ridicule, condemnation and rejection.
Dr Kate Distin, a counsellor for the National Association of
Gifted Children in the United Kingdom, alludes to the social
phenomenon of the Tall Poppy Syndrome as the reason why we shun our
best and brightest. But a more accurate explanation is much more
complex, touching on issues such as how we deal with difference,
and why we rail against those whom we regard as having an unfair
advantage. "Successful footballers, famous pop stars or celebrity
gardeners are admired and idolised rather than resented; whereas
successful businessmen are fat cats, famous politicians are derided
and 'intellectual' is rarely a compliment," says Distin. "Why
should this be? Perhaps because money, power and brains are seen as
possessions to be coveted because they give someone an advantage
over others; whereas great sporting or musical talent is seen not
only as unattainable by the majority, but also as something quite
separate from most people's daily lives."
Gifted children - and their adult counterparts - are in constant
anguish. Do they remain true to their gift and accept the social
rejection it may cause, or do they ignore their talents to please
others but risk intellectual atrophy? "The dilemma of the gifted
adult is whether to hide the insights and respond superficially to
the social façade, or to use the gift and risk rejection,"
concludes an American study on the social and emotional needs of
gifted adults. "Either course may produce constraint and difficulty
with spontaneity. Finding interpersonal support is a major priority
for these gifted adults; the risk is fear of closeness and
intimacy."
A typical story is told by one individual in the US study who
was participating in a dinner-party conversation about restaurant
hygiene when he mentioned two contrasting Chinese restaurants in
Oxford. He was momentarily floored by the bitter reaction of one of
the other guests, a woman he barely knew: "So is that where you
went to university? Well, that must look good on your CV."
Barbara Warren, now head of corporate performance at the
National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA), has firsthand experience
of both sides, having taught gifted and talented students in
secondary school and met them later, as adults, in NIDA executive
performance classes.
"After a while the pressure to be the same kicks in," says
Warren. "There's an incredible element of fear around anyone who is
smart. If you are someone who is a quick thinker, driven and
spontaneous, you can be incredibly challenging for someone who
likes things run in a certain way. In order to find refuge, gifted
and talented adults are forced to live in what many have described
to me as a 'beige mentality'."
Warren cites the example of an executive who attended NIDA for
public performance training. Two things about the man were evident:
he was very smart and he was very unhappy. Asked what it was like
for him at work the man replied: "It's like I'm sitting in a room
without any windows."
One way for a member of a minority group to cope in the wider
world is to pretend they're part of the herd. An intellectual
high-achiever will deny their gifts in order to find acceptance,
and maybe friendship, rather than resentment and hostility.
However, this choice can be a short-term solution as the
frustration and anger about being inauthentic can lead to illness,
absenteeism and low productivity.
"Little research has been done concerning how being gifted
manifests itself in the arena of work and how the gifted individual
experiences work," says a Norwegian study. "However, it is
increasingly being realised that gifted individuals have the
capacity to help solve complex problems. Many are functioning at a
high level. But just like a number of gifted school children, some
gifted employees do not function adequately and are unhappy as a
result. Some even become ill."
There are two common career paths an intellectually capable
adult who is intent on being true to their gifts will pursue. The
first option is to continue to follow the beat of their own drum
and to start their own business - at least then they can dictate
the workplace culture. The other option is to find a company to
work for that has a culture of accepting and valuing smart
people.
It takes a clever boss to hire an individual who is cleverer
than he; it takes a boss with a high self-esteem not to be
intimidated by an employee whose brain is so much larger. But those
companies that foster intellect know that the ideas and concepts
that a thinker can bring to an organisation often manifest in new
products and services, higher profits and a rising share price.
After all, intellect is just a commodity, something over which
battles can be fought and won as this story about two boys, James,
aged six, and his four-year-old brother, Anthony, illustrates.
Anthony was the youngest by 18 months but this didn't stop him
believing he was smarter than his brother. One day, Anthony decided
he was a king; James retaliated by promoting himself to emperor.
Anthony upped the ante and claimed a neighbouring empire. James
threatened war. The argument simmered for the week during which
time James' pre-school class was introduced to the Creation story.
Anthony knew that threatening James further meant resorting to
fisticuffs and he would lose to his physically bigger and stronger
older brother. But he was still not prepared to back down.
That night, in the privacy of his bedroom and not realising his
mother was listening, the little boy quietly told himself, "In the
beginning, Anthony …".
References
"Can you hear the flowers sing? Issues for
gifted adults", by Deirdre Lovecky, published in Journal of
Counselling and Development, American Counselling Association,
Issue 64, pp590-592, May, 1986.
"Gifted Adults at Work", by N Nauta and F
Corten, published in Journal for Occupational and Insurance
Physicians, 2002, 10 (11) 332-335.
Gifted Children: A Guide for Parents and
Professionals, edited by Kate Distin. (Jessica Kingsley Publishers,
2006)
Raising Gifted Kids, by Barbara Klein.
(American Management Association).
Gifted Children: Myths and Realities, by
Ellen Winner, (Basic Books, 1996)
