Anonymous
Post 03/02/2012 09:34     Subject: Re:Start prepping ... NOW
My child sings in the chorus at school. Some kids open their mouths and beautiful voices pour out. I guess they must have come from some harsh environment in which they needed to sing beautifully to survive.


If you want to make a point. Use logic and support with facts. You appear like you are flailing with such ridiculous and nonsensical "fly by the seat of the pants" comments...Is this typical of the "gifted" NOVA elite or is this your unique "gift".
Anonymous
Post 03/02/2012 09:26     Subject: Re:Start prepping ... NOW
My child sings in the chorus at school. Some kids open their mouths and beautiful voices pour out. I guess they must have come from some harsh environment in which they needed to sing beautifully to survive.


Have you ever checked out the thickened, sclerotic and inelastic vocal cords, riddled with polyps in individuals who have spent their entire lives in mines or areas with tremendous enviromental polltution? When these individuals open their mouths to sing tis not beautiful melody that emerges. Damn those harsh environments!

The devil is in the details poster. You don't have a clue how voice is created or what the definition of beautiful voice really is, do you? But, if you don't take care of that voice it will betray you. You clearly are not a public speaker, singer, radio or TV announcer? If you were you would understand the influence of the environment on voice.

I will repeat for you again, the environment plays an important role in the final product (brain, brawn, bravado and the creation of booming and beautiful sound).



Anonymous
Post 03/02/2012 09:15     Subject: Re:Start prepping ... NOW
My child sings in the chorus at school. Some kids open their mouths and beautiful voices pour out. I guess they must have come from some harsh environment in which they needed to sing beautifully to survive.


I'll check the larynx, the structural and functional apposition of the vocal cords and her diaphragmatic pump and tell you whether you can bank on the kid making millions with that voice! No charge.


Anonymous
Post 03/02/2012 08:47     Subject: Start prepping ... NOW
My child sings in the chorus at school. Some kids open their mouths and beautiful voices pour out. I guess they must have come from some harsh environment in which they needed to sing beautifully to survive.
Anonymous
Post 03/02/2012 07:37     Subject: Re:Start prepping ... NOW
One of my kids is on the track team. All the kids on the team do the same workouts every day. They all work hard and train hard. They all improve over time when they work hard. But when you go to the meets, some kids always run faster than other kids. One of my kids is on the track team. All the kids on the team do the same workouts every day. They all work hard and train hard. They all improve over time when they work hard. But when you go to the meets, some kids always run faster than other kids. Sometimes a kid joins the team that has never been a runner before and blows them all away at the meets. I have a relative who was just born physically strong- she was climbing things and running faster than all the other kids as a toddler. She has always had an advantage when it comes to running because she was born with the physical facility to be good at it. Her ability was simply there- her parents did not put her into running training as a two year old.
We've all known people who learn things more quickly than others, who can instantly grasp a new concept, who are full of creative ideas. It's just like being born with an extremely strong body: they were born with extremely strong minds.


I know. In my child's middle school he tells me the kids who have never run cross country before or track that win their running matches were year round swimmers or soccer players each year. Guess what? If I didn't know the background of these children I would have believed they were all "gifted" and given up on my wn child's potential who neither swims nor plays club soccer year round! The devil is always in the details.

Some comparatively slow 8 year-olds now may become the swiftest and most gifted runners at 20. Who really is "gifted" ... the 8-year-old slow poke now the fasted runner in the land or the fastest 8-year-old that is merely average at 20? Conversely, many "speedy gonzales" kids at 8 may be no where on the scene at 20 or even only average runners. Don't give up on your child's potential so early in life (on the track or in the classroom) children develop and mature at different rates (brains and muscle). That bully and big 8 year-old may be looking up the the small tike during late adolescence when the testosterone, growth, strength and genital and facial hair kicks in. Have you heard of the concept of earlier versus late bloomer?

To laud over "giftedness" and "gifts" in children is really foolhardy if you can't define it, quantify or measure it in a 5 or 6 year old .... no matter how much faster the other child is compared to your 5-year-old?


.
Anonymous
Post 03/02/2012 00:26     Subject: Re:Start prepping ... NOW
Aha, this makes sense.
Anonymous
Post 03/02/2012 00:16     Subject: Re:Start prepping ... NOW
It is amazing the skill sets the human brain, mind and body develop rapidly due to environmental conditions. The normal individual that becomes, blind or deaf at a young age, over compensates for this deficit and may develop acute and exquisite ability in other functional domains simply because of this environmental accident.

The boy born right-handed for several years that because of injury to the right arm or leg develops skills on the left side due to use and over compensation and ultimately ends up with a highly skilled ambidexterous left upper and lower extremity that the pro-bbaseball and basketball scouts marvel and drool over -- a "gift". If the kid had not had the injury of the right arm and leg and subsequent dysfunction for several years before recovery he likely would have never developed the skilled ambidextrous gifts on the left. ... and no Pro contract.

Environment plays a large role in the skills we develop. And you can trace these new changes (plasticity) all the way back to our inherited genetic material from the tissue, organ, cell and DNA level.
Anonymous
Post 03/01/2012 23:55     Subject: Re:Start prepping ... NOW
One of my kids is on the track team. All the kids on the team do the same workouts every day. They all work hard and train hard. They all improve over time when they work hard. But when you go to the meets, some kids always run faster than other kids. Sometimes a kid joins the team that has never been a runner before and blows them all away at the meets.
I have a relative who was just born physically strong- she was climbing things and running faster than all the other kids as a toddler. She has always had an advantage when it comes to running because she was born with the physical facility to be good at it. Her ability was simply there- her parents did not put her into running training as a two year old.
We've all known people who learn things more quickly than others, who can instantly grasp a new concept, who are full of creative ideas. It's just like being born with an extremely strong body: they were born with extremely strong minds.


Sounds like the Kenyans of yesteryear who never trained or ran track but you put them on an American track and they lapped everyone with holes in their shoes twice. Definetely "gifted" runners and track stars. I forgot to mention an important environmenttal fact; where they come from, there are no cars or school buses so they have to walk (or run) to and from the few distant schools for several miles every day. The weakest and smallest of the lot would win a Gold medal over here. How about that for the effect of environment and how it plays on the new found performance on brand new and shining American tracks. No running drills, no stretching and weight lifting, no coaching and no team. Just the plain old effects of their daily tasks and conditioning on the ability to later make money running in America and Europe. In the 70s, these guys and gals just trying to get to school had no idea they were ultimatley "training" and "prepping" for a track team. Most of the normal Kenyan school kids walking and running for miles daily to school to get an education because of local environmental conditions were all born "gifted" track stars.

Guys and gals, environmental conditioning over a long time plays a large role in the skill sets a human develops and perfects and can translate into your adolation and worship of a "gift" and the "gifted" as these youngsters speed around your tracks. None of the Kenyan boys and girls walking and running daily just to attend a crowded thought they were gifted track athletes at the age of 5 and neither did their parents or the school system.

I'm sure if our NOVA kids were running back and forth to school daily for miles out of necessity (like in some parts of Kenya and Uganda) they too would begin to join the ranks of "gifted" track stars later running around a polyester oval carpet. This environmental conditioning explains why many of our kids are obese here (cars, elevators, buses, nannies, video screens, plenty food and couches) and the kids over in Uganda and Kenya are generally thin. Do not discount what a harsh environment over time does in modifying the endowed genetic material of a population...it may make you a fast runner as you try to escape danger or get to school on time!
Anonymous
Post 03/01/2012 23:24     Subject: Start prepping ... NOW
PP - Finally something that makes sense.
Anonymous
Post 03/01/2012 22:38     Subject: Start prepping ... NOW
One of my kids is on the track team. All the kids on the team do the same workouts every day. They all work hard and train hard. They all improve over time when they work hard. But when you go to the meets, some kids always run faster than other kids. Sometimes a kid joins the team that has never been a runner before and blows them all away at the meets.
I have a relative who was just born physically strong- she was climbing things and running faster than all the other kids as a toddler. She has always had an advantage when it comes to running because she was born with the physical facility to be good at it. Her ability was simply there- her parents did not put her into running training as a two year old.
We've all known people who learn things more quickly than others, who can instantly grasp a new concept, who are full of creative ideas. It's just like being born with an extremely strong body: they were born with extremely strong minds.


Anonymous
Post 03/01/2012 21:30     Subject: Re:Start prepping ... NOW
Intelligence is apparently not fixed before or after birth!
Anonymous
Post 03/01/2012 21:28     Subject: Re:Start prepping ... NOW
I agree. A homo sapiens and being alive and "normal" is a basic requirement for the prize of "gifted" at birth. Then add environment, prep, focus, drive, dedication, preserverance, preparation, hard work and of course some luck and the skies are the limit.


We are learning the environment through modification plays a much greater role on the DNA inherited from mom and dad and how the code is read and translated into proteins orchestrating the function of our cells, tissues, organs and systems. And these include physical, physilological, mental, psychologic and intellectual functions. Imagine an intelligent couple that subjects a future pregnancy and their developing snowflake, their inherited, transmitted genes or DNA, to the ravages of alcohol and crack cocaine for 9 months in the womb + ... and the effect of this insult will have on the developing child's DNA and subsequent structural and functional products from that DNA. Or deprives the child of light, sound and noise for the first 2 or 3 years of life .... or appropriate nutrition, reading, music, and sound before sitting for the Cogat test at the age of 5. Can you imagine what the metabolic and physiologic brain image will show in these brains ... from normal parents before the experiments during pregnancy and after birth?
Anonymous
Post 03/01/2012 21:01     Subject: Re:Start prepping ... NOW
I agree. A homo sapiens and being alive and "normal" is a basic requirement for the prize of "gifted" at birth. Then add environment, prep, focus, drive, dedication, preserverance, preparation, hard work and of course some luck and the skies are the limit.


There is no correlation of the WPSSI, Cogat, NNAT, WISC or any other alphabet soup test result you can dream of in a NOVA 5-year-old that measures the future intellectual or other heights in life a NOVA child will reach or attain. Too many of you are plain drunk on the "test for giftedness" Koolaid in the D.C. area primary educational drinking water

I applaud young children who strive to put their best foot forward with preparation and prepping for whatever endeavour. God knows we need more of this. It beats being hypnotised like a zombie for hour after hour of TV, movie, video gaming and face booking for 24/7 if allowed.

Go ahead and prep for your tests. Who cares when you start, the night before or when your parent enroll you in serial summer camps and after school enrichment programs at home or through other vendors. Everyone in NOVA is doing it. Do not believe all the sneaky liars next door.

Anonymous
Post 03/01/2012 20:47     Subject: Re:Start prepping ... NOW
The "gift" is a necessary but not sufficient element of "success". The gift, coupled with hard work may get you there. Michael Jordan did not become the greatest basketball player ever just on the gift, but, others worked just as hard, but did not have the natural ability.

Similarly, I have worked with people that were hard working -- always hard working, but did not have the intellectual horsepower. There are people who are intellectually gifted and hard workers, and they are the intellectual leaders. As an example, Steve Jobs is notorious for his hard work. But, there are many people that worked just as hard that did not have his vision.

Hard work coupled with giftedness can make one a leader in the field, whether it be basketball, football, baseball, poetry, or physics.


I agree. A homo sapiens and being alive and "normal" is a basic requirement for the prize of "gifted" at birth. Then add environment, prep, focus, drive, dedication, preserverance, preparation, hard work and of course some luck and the skies are the limit.



Anonymous
Post 03/01/2012 20:37     Subject: Re:Start prepping ... NOW
In the transplantation community extended life is the gift and a donated organ is that gift of life ... and future potential. I would submit too many of us are hung up on "gift" and "gifted" on the basis of a faulty test that can not even measure, quantify or predict future success, performance, and intellectual and academic capacity.