From BooklistThe shelves are full of advice on nurturing gifted kids, but Streznewski is alone in addressing, for the general reader, what happens to those kids after high school. Writer-educator Streznewski interviewed a highly diverse collection of 100 gifted adults to see what her own gifted children--and her students--would face in the 'real world.' The author chose many interviewees according to informal criteria for giftedness that she developed as a teacher: curiosity and energy, speed, sensitivity, heightened perception, sophistication and humor, and some acceptance of the reality that one is 'different.' After defining giftedness, Streznewski examines old and new research on the nature of intelligence and other gifts and explores ways gifted people hide their talents. Other topics include special challenges within families, at school, as young adults, and in seeking challenging work; the plight of gifted dropouts and criminals; and how giftedness affects relationships, roles available to women, and the capacity of seniors to continue to contribute. Thanks to Streznewski's generous quotations from her interviewees, it is an involving study. Mary Carroll Product DescriptionWhat is it like to be smarter than 95% of the people you meet?Fifty-four-year-old Alison says, 'They told me I was smart and Icried. I wanted to be sexy, or glamorous!' Jean, 38, laments, 'Ilearned the whole job in six weeks, and now I'm bored.' From Publishers WeeklyAccording to Streznewski, gifted people constitute 3% to 5% of the population, are inquisitive and energetic, have rapid mental processes and a restless drive to enlarge their world. Among the 100 'gifted grownups,' ages 18 to 90, interviewed for this unsatisfying study, we meet a Wall Street lawyer, a machinist who writes poetry, a convicted murderer who's working on her autobiography, plus Ph.D.s, office workers, professors, dropouts, scientists and salesmen. Streznewski, who teaches gifted high school students, rather artificially classifies the gifted into three types: 'strivers,' high-scoring teacher-pleasers who go on to high achievements; 'superstars,' sociable scholar-athletes or popular personalities on a trajectory to fame and fortune; and 'independents,' inner-directed, creative intellectuals who challenge authority. Her contention that gifted adults ignore the conventional life stages and follow their own special rhythms, changing jobs and careers in spite of the cost to themselves and loved ones, remains speculative. And her lumping of 'intelligent criminals' into the sample, however well-intentioned, stretches her fuzzy definition of giftedness to the breaking point. The author, who considers herself, her husband and their four children gifted, tends to use vapid or slippery statements ('Let's face it, if you are a gifted person, you are, on the great highway of life, something like a Porsche... you have a high-performance engine between your ears'). She dispenses advice targeted to gifted women, gifted senior citizens, corporations, schools and parents in an informal, occasionally edifying canvas that's too superficial to serve as a comprehensive handbook. From Library JournalDebunking the myth that intellectually gifted people are either impractical social misfits or perfect specimens, Streznewski, a specialist in gifted education, presents a readable and poignant study of 100 people aged 18 to 90. Her criteria for inclusion were somewhat informal, based on the contemporary notion that intelligence is not merely a matter of high I.Q. However, a detailed set of indicators for giftedness was developed, and the study group included a wide range of individuals, from gifted women to senior citizens and criminals. Streznewski explores their experiences with schools, jobs, and in the social world. Lively personal narratives reveal how they adapt to their oddball status, determinants of their success or failure, and the structure of their high-powered interior lives. The original book is well referenced and contains enough practical advice to qualify as a self-help book for smart people and their families and teachers. Recommended for public libraries and education collections.Antoinette Brinkman, Southwest Indiana Mental Health Ctr. Lib., Evansville Review'I enjoyed reading this book. It is highly informative andinteresting.'--Alice Miller, author of Drama of the GiftedChild From the Inside FlapWhat is it like to be smarter than 95% of the people you meet? Fifty-four-year-old Alison says, 'They told me I was smart and I cried. I wanted to be sexy, or glamorous!' Jean, 38, laments, 'I learned the whole job in six weeks, and now I’m bored.' Gifted Grownups, Marylou Kelly Streznewski’s unprecedented, 10-year study of 100 gifted adults, examines how being identified as a 'smart kid' early on affects career choices, friendships, and romantic pairings later in life. Why do some talented and gifted people become Mozarts and Einsteins or corporate chieftains, while others drop out of school, struggle to hold down jobs, or turn to self-destructive behavior? What are the signs of giftedness, its pitfalls, and its promise? Marylou Streznewski provides answers to these and other questions, and creates an intriguing picture of what it is like to have an accelerated mind in a slow-moving world. Traditionally, the gifted were measured in terms of intelligence only, and anyone with an IQ score higher than 130 was automatically grouped in with that misunderstood minority. Recently 'giftedness' has been redefined to include qualities like extraordinary creative, leadership, or physical skills. Heightened perception, sensitivity, humor, and the ability to put complex ideas together quickly are also aspects of giftedness. These gifts affect the way talented adults react to their friends, families, jobs, and life challenges. Doing for gifted grownups what the best-selling Driven to Distraction did for adults with attention deficit, Gifted Grownups traces many types of gifted adults, including the high-testing, power-achieving Striver; the popular scholar or athlete Superstar; and the creative intellectual, free-spirit Independent. Here for the first time and in their own words, 100 gifted grownups, from ages 18 to 90, and a variety of family and educational backgrounds, occupations, social classes, and races, count the blessings and tally the costs of a high-powered mind. From the Back CoverWhat is it like to be smarter than 95% of the people you meet? Fifty-four-year-old Alison says, 'They told me I was smart and I cried. I wanted to be sexy, or glamorous!' Jean, 38, laments, 'I learned the whole job in six weeks, and now I'm bored.' Gifted Grownups, Marylou Kelly Streznewski's unprecedented, 10-year study of 100 gifted adults, examines how being identified as a 'smart kid' early on affects career choices, friendships, and romantic pairings later in life. Why do some talented and gifted people become Mozarts and Einsteins or corporate chieftains, while others drop out of school, struggle to hold down jobs, or turn to self-destructive behavior? What are the signs of giftedness, its pitfalls, and its promise? Marylou Streznewski provides answers to these and other questions, and creates an intriguing picture of what it is like to have an accelerated mind in a slow-moving world. Traditionally, the gifted were measured in terms of intelligence only, and anyone with an IQ score higher than 130 was automatically grouped in with that misunderstood minority. Recently 'giftedness' has been redefined to include qualities like extraordinary creative, leadership, or physical skills. Heightened perception, sensitivity, humor, and the ability to put complex ideas together quickly are also aspects of giftedness. These gifts affect the way talented adults react to their friends, families, jobs, and life challenges. Doing for gifted grownups what the bestselling Driven to Distraction did for adults with attention deficit, Gifted Grownups traces many types of gifted adults, including the high-testing, power-achieving Striver; the popular scholar or athlete Superstar; and the creative intellectual, free-spirit Independent. Here for the first time and in their own words, 100 gifted grownups, from ages 18 to 90, and a variety of family and educational backgrounds, occupations, social classes, and races, count the blessings and tally the costs of a high-powered mind. 'Highly informative and interesting.'—Alice Miller, author of The Drama of the Gifted Child 'This book was a delight. It affirmed my own experiences and observations. The author makes her study come alive . . . through the voices of real people talking about their experiences. . . . I highly recommend this book.î—Joanne Rand Whitmore, PhD, Professor and Dean College and Graduate School of Education, Kent State University 'Many readers will recognize their own experiences.—Lita Linzer Schwartz, PhD, ABPP Distinguished Professor Emerita, Pennsylvania State University. 'This thoughtful book . . . has taken us one step further in our understanding of how and why some talented individuals realize their potential while others do not.'—Dr. Sally M. Reis, Professor of Educational Psychology, The University of Connecticut. 'Gifted Grownups meets a long-awaited need. This book would be of interest, not only to gifted education professionals, but also to parents, teachers in general, and to gifted individuals of all ages.—E. Paul Torrance, Georgia Studies of Creative Behavior, author of Gifted and Talented Children in the Regular Classroom. ISBN 0-471-29580-9 About the AuthorMARYLOU KELLY STREZNEWSKI, MEd, is certified as a Program Specialist in Gifted Education and is a poet and fiction writer. She has taught gifted teenagers for 20 years, and worked with college students and senior citizens. Streznewski resides in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where she is at work on her second novel. |
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来自： tushuguancc > 《Gifted adults》
