Do we really want to avoid Denny's?: The perils of defying the crowd (original) (raw)

2003, High Ability Studies

We appreciate the opportunity to respond to Sternberg's excellent paper proposing the WICS model for identifying gifted individuals. This model broadens the standard conception of giftedness and makes many helpful suggestions how to conceptualize and assess the relevant dimensions of giftedness. There is one area, however, where we would propose an alternate viewpoint. 'In a sense, this essay is about how to avoid selecting the "Denny's" of the world', Sternberg writes (p. 5), in reference to a former gifted student who seemed primed for success-but then committed suicide. Our question is whether it really is best to try and avoid selecting the 'Denny's'. Creativity-one of Sternberg's key elements-often involves the potentially scary and daunting task of 'defying the crowd' (Sternberg & Lubart, 1996; Kaufman & Sternberg, 2000). Perhaps as a result, creativity is often correlated with less desirable traits, such as mental illness (Kaufman, 2001b, 2002; Kaufman & Baer, 2002). The more creative and eminent one is, the higher the risk may be for psychiatric problems (Ludwig, 1995; Kaufman, 2001a). If gifted programmes decide to make avoiding someone like Denny one of their goals, then they run the risk of missing opportunities to provide these gifted but troubled young people the kind of programmes that will best meet their unique needs. This lost chance may make it more likely that the Denny's of the world will squander their gifts and even be harmed by their creative and intellectual abilities. Might it not be wiser to nurture the gifts of such creative individuals, so that they are better equipped to battle their demons and overcome potentially self-destructive tendencies? This question leads to the larger issue of what the proper goals of gifted education programmes should be. Is the goal of gifted education programmes to predict future success-to pick the most likely winners, as it were? Or should the goal be to include all students whose unique gifts require special programmes to develop fully? 1 Rather than aiming for more perfect prediction by avoiding the selection of those likely to fail despite their obvious giftedness, we believe that gifted education programmes, and especially those for younger students, should focus on finding all students of high ability and helping them develop their talents (National Association for Gifted Children, 1998). In doing so we also hope the number of Denny's in the world might be reduced-not by excluding them from gifted programmes, but by including