I really enjoyed the December 1995 issue of Bright Ideas. One article wondered about what engineers do, another mentioned a take-apart party and pizza. Having recently retired from my first engineering career of 25 years, I can attest that engineering and take-apart party are related. My parents will confirm that one of the tell-tale signs that your child may become an engineer is a need to take things apart.
I did that and still do, take a look around my house and garage. I actually changed brands of toothpaste because they appeared to have a different pump mechanism in their dispenser. Do you know how all those toothpaste pumps work? I do.
As a practicing engineer, a very appropriate term by the way, I often had to take things apart and figure out what was wrong with them, and what broke. Maybe that's why I used to own Fiats (allegedly stands for "fix it again, Tony"), which I often took apart and figured out what was broken and why it broke.
Heck, if you come to one of Channel Islands Mensa's third Friday TGIF. Pizza Nights, you will learn that take-apart and pizzas are related. I often get there early and order a vegetarian pizza for the group with all the vegetables (and mushrooms) on it. One of our members who usually shows up does not like green peppers, so she takes all those off her slices of pizza. Another member does not like some other vegetable, onions I think, so she takes all those off her slices of pizza. There you have it, take-apart pizza.
But the real reason I am writing this is that I do not consider myself gifted. People are shocked when I mention this, but it is true. I never filled out one of those "Profiles in Giftedness" surveys, or whatever they were called, because I do not consider myself gifted. I got into Mensa and Intertel based on my Graduate Record Examination scores, with points to spare. Of course, I did take the GRE three times -- once while in undergraduate school when I was considering going directly to graduate school, once when I actually applied for graduate school several years after graduating from undergraduate school, and a third time because it took "too long" for me to complete my graduate studies. Each time the scores were higher than the previous time, and the percentile ranking was higher yet. I was apparently getting smarter (or better at taking the GRE) and the population at large was getting dumber. What a great combination!
Yet, I just barely squeaked through graduate school, getting out with a 3.08 grade point average which was just above the absolute minimum requirement of 3.00. Undergraduate school? Got out of there with a GPA of 2.61, although that was on a scale where 70% was passing, not 60%. High school? Somewhere in the B's in what they called the "college prep" track, and within that I was taking mostly "level 3" classes, as opposed to the average "level 2" classes or the advanced "level 4" classes. (I don't recall any of that was actually called, but you get the idea.)
So people conclude that I am talented instead. Makes sense, I guess. My third grade teacher thought I was talented in the area of art and should be an artist. It's only a hobby of mine, but people are constantly asking to utilize my artistic talents. I'm not sure my former guitar teacher would label me at all talented, but music is different from art.
Around here we have this program for kids called Gifted And Talented Education, or whatever it takes to make an acronym of GATE. But I can only acknowledge that I would fit into a Gifted Or Talented Education program, if I were a kid today (and many people feel I still AM a child). Somehow I don't think that is going to get very far. I can see how it would be neat to be in a GATE program, since gates are like doors, and we are always using doors in our lofty analogies like "the door to the future." Who would want to be in a GOTE program? Goats have evil connotations.
The bottom line is that I will acknowledge that I am talented in some areas, but not that I am gifted. Would the other writers feel better being labeled talented rather than gifted? Should someone create a "Profiles in Talent" survey? Do we need to create a hierarchy of Talented Children's Coordinators? Will people be changing their silly question to, "If you're so talented, why aren't you famous?" I think the answers are "no," "please, no," "absolutely not," and "I doubt it." (The answer to the silly question itself is, "I don't know.")
Those are my thoughts, but remember, I'm not gifted, merely talented.
This was originally submitted to Bright Ideas for publication. I may print it in Channel M too, someday.