ORWELLIAN

Way beyond their age (Justine Ferrari, The Australian, March 7th, 2006)

Half the parents you've met think their little darlings are gifted. It's often a joking remark made between parents: "Of course, my child is terribly advanced, very gifted."

Of course, no one seriously considers the child actually might be advanced, which is why gifted-education expert Miraca Gross recoils at the anecdote. "It's a disturbing cliche," she says. "It's one of the reasons why it's so difficult for these children to be recognised.

"A parent trying to explain to a teacher why their child is bored and says they think he is very bright and you can hear the teacher thinking 'here we go again, every parent thinks that'. That's just not true. Most parents are realistic about their child's potential."

When Nadia Bloom was called to her daughter's school in Sydney to be told she should skip two grades, Bloom was initially against the idea. "They were the usual reasons that people always frighten you with," Bloom says. "That she's been hothoused because she's been pushed, that she wouldn't be able to make friends and the really big furphy that she couldn't go drinking with her friends - as if her life depended on that!"

But the principal showed her a long list of pros and a very short list of cons, so after only two weeks in Year 1, Jessica started studying Year 3. Now 14, Jessica will finish her Higher School Certificate next year at the tender age of 16 1/2 and her parents have never regretted advancing her.

With apologies to those few and rare parents of true prodigies, this whole issue has been hopelessly corrupted by the fact that “gifted’ has become the adjective of choice for dysfunctional parents and therapists describing troubled, underachieving children. Few proud, serious parents would describe their accomplished children this way, if only for fear the little nits would get swelled heads and slack off.