As Gabby Douglas flew through the air, and touchingly a rare flying squirrel landed at our birdfeeder (no one in our area had ever seen one until this creature appeared for a few days and then again disappeared), here are a few talent-development lessons I felt were worth repeating:

1. Opportunity is the key: From Michael Phelps to Gabby Douglas, from track sprinters from around the world to athletes of all backgrounds and specialties, we have heard how the doors of opportunity had to be opened. There are so many potentially talented children out there who are never recognized, supported, and applauded when successful; anchored when in trouble. Gabby’s mother made the supreme sacrifice for her little girl to shine.
2. Letting go must happen sooner or later: Over the years I have seen parents struggle to let their talented children go to a summer camp in their area of passion, be it academics, music, or any other field. Gabby’s mother listened to Gabby and Gabby’s encouraging older sister when it was time for her to leave home. She let her go, not for a week, but for years of hard training, living with a new family and community, and facing a diverse world of new values and hard lessons.
3. Hard work: In her first interview upon winning her gold medal, Gabby attributed her success to hard work and dedication. This may seem like a no-brainer, but it isn’t. Young talented children often think success comes naturally or with a little luck. The necessity of hard work, i.e., practice and persistence, must be taught. Our Olympic champions are great role models.
4. Success is golden: Gabby became homesick in Iowa, but she persisted in reaching for her dreams. Of her win, she said, “I did think it was a gold-medal performance.” Self-confidence and focus are not easy to achieve when things go wrong, as they frequently did for members of the gymnastics team, including Gabby. But, as Gabby explained, “If you can push through the hard days, you can get through anything.”
5. Belief is golden: “It’s very tough for me to focus,” Gabby reported in The New York Times, Aug. 2, 2012.  But as Douglas was going to the Olympic arena, her mother called and said, “I believe in you, baby.” Douglas said, “I believe, too.”
6. Success is not perfection: Even Michael Phelps did not always win. Doing your best and working through the disappointments are lessons that loving families bestow upon their talented youth. As Gabby inspires other young African Americans, her message is clear: I am so happy to be me, and although I would have preferred another gold, it’s not the end of the world that I didn’t get it. On to the next competition! On to the next challenge and new experience.
7. Respect others for their talents and dreams: At WCATY summer programs, I have had students who received perfect 800’s on their SAT Math tests at ages as young as 13 and 14 sit in an advanced math classroom with other smart students who did not and most likely could not achieve perfection. I saw the same kind of respect and camaraderie in those classrooms as I’ve been observing among the gymnastics, swimming, track and other competitors. That their passion for their field includes a desire to experience new levels of knowledge or success by others as well as by themselves is exciting to behold.

In summary, may we realize that the lessons learned by our young Olympians are lessons to be learned, valued, and respected for children with all kinds of smart.

New from Ellie Books

When I was a child, we didn’t have the opportunity to learn a second language. We also didn’t have any children in my small-town school whose native language was anything other than English. I suffer today from a lack of confidence in tackling any language other than English as well as from a clear lack of ability to speak or comprehend any other language. Sad, but true.

I’m thrilled that my grandchildren are being introduced to Spanish at a young age. And, I’m thrilled that some elementary schools are offering immersion programs in Spanish.  I wish there were more such programs as well  a wider variety of children’s enrichment programs that introduce the languages our grandchildren will encounter in our world of global communications.

Abuelita dice que es bueno ser inteligente is for all the children of Spanish-speaking families. It is also for all the children learning Spanish in school or through a special private-language camp or program. The book is identical to the original book, Grandma Says It’s Good to Be Smart. 

Title page

I thank Joe Ketarkus for translating the story when I took a mocked-up version of the book to Peru in 2008, and working on the final translation for the published book this year. Thank you to Rosa Medina and Nuria Vega for reading and commenting on the Spanish-language version as native speakers. And thank you to my husband Paul for the patience and skill it took to change the words in the illustrations to their Spanish counterparts. That was a challenge I could not have accomplished without his steady hand and help.

Together, Joe, Rosa, Nuria, Paul and I are happy to be reinforcing the importance of reading, exploring, questioning, imagining, and being proud of one’s every new interest and accomplishment to many more children through the publication of this edition of the book. Enjoy.

You have become a part of a tradition that goes back more than 20 years. Bob Clasen, Professor at UW-Madison and I, as state consultant for gifted programs at the Department of Public Instruction began recognizing the top scorers in Talent Search on the UW campus in 1989. I’m proud that 23 years later you have been invited to the University of Wisconsin to celebrate your interests and successes. I join you in letting the world know,  “It’s good to be smart.” Thank you to WATG for honoring you and your parents and guests.

It would have been my delight to be with you this weekend, but I am making my way home from a vacation in the Bay Islands, Honduras with my grandsons, ages 6 and 9.

Jordan loves writing. Here he got to write on the table!

As they leave to travel to Colorado, I am thinking of you – our future in Wisconsin.

Benj has a new passion: snorkeling. He’s discovered the wonders of the underwater world.

Have any of you been reading the young adult novels by Terry Pratchett? I enjoy the wit and wisdom as well as the many links to literature and life in Pratchett’s books. From  A Hat Full of Sky, I share this thought with you today: “With balloons, as with life itself, it is important to know when not to let go of the string. The whole point of balloons is to teach small children this.” As you continue to develop your talents and realize your dreams, always remember when NOT to let go of your strings!

Have a great day.

Ellie Schatz, State Consultant for Gifted, 1987-1990

Founder and President, WCATY, 1991-2006

Author, It’s Good to Be Smart, 2009

This gem of a book has spare illustrations and few words. It won the French equivalent of the coveted Caldecott prize for children’s picture book illustration. I have given this to special friends of the heart as well as graduates. What a wonderful, encouraging book! I recommend you share it with those you love.

Early reading is such a delight for this little boy and his grandma.

For more of Jocelyn’s reviews, go to the Tips and Previews page.

Every child of today should be fortunate enough to explore the ideas and perceptions of author Amy Krouse Rosenthal. Jocelyn has raved about Rosenthal’s books in her holiday reviews, still found on the “tips and previews” page of this blog. I also love Rosenthal’s books, but this newest 2012 publication holds a special place in my heart. Imagine that we could grow, harvest, and share kisses like we do flowers and vegetables. All my backbreaking work of spreading mulch in my yard last week would take on new meaning. And, believe me, I would be right up there in what I would expect to be a long line of interested consumers at our Madison Farmer’s Market this Saturday. Sharing this book is the next best thing to sharing the real thing.

Jocelyn’s review: Plant A Kiss by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. Illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds.

It never ceases to amaze me how a talented author and extraordinary artist can create a masterpiece whose sum is greater than its parts. With a few well-chosen rhymes and masterfully understated illustrations (including just a touch of sparkles), this book is the perfect example; how “little miss” planting a kiss ends up with “endless bliss” is a joy to behold the unfolding. I won’t be giving anything away by saying she dared to share. How thrilled I was when a friend shared this book with me! Enjoy!

More reviews on “Tips and Previews” page.

Safer suggests that a sharp increase in redshirting is a direct response by parents to Malcolm Gladwell’s book, “Outliers.” I was disturbed by this book when I read it, not because of Gladwell’s premises as much as by his conclusions. Gladwell’s comments on this show make me even more appalled. In January 2010, I quoted from the book regarding Gladwell’s observation that smart children studied by Lewis Terman who happened to be poor did not “make a name for themselves” as adults because “they lacked something that could have been given to them if we’d only known they needed it: a community around them that prepared them properly for the world.” Gladwell saw them as squandered talent and I agree with him that they didn’t need to be.

Redshirting, however, is not helping poor children but most likely putting them at greater disadvantage. As the show pointed out, low-income parents can neither afford to hold their children back nor to send them to private schools. Redshirting is not “putting a community around them.”

I agree with Samuel Meisels, President of the Erikson Institute, who on the show calls redshirting “educational quackery.” I believe in “cumulative advantage” but not in the way Gladwell defines it. Cumulative advantage does not imply that older is better or that the older a child the greater his or her leadership potential. It means carefully planning special, supplemental educational experiences, starting early in school and continuing into college, graduate school, and professional life. It means studying deeply and broadly. It happens when students are introduced purposefully to concepts, programs, activities, career possibilities, and people, who in turn introduce them to more and more possibilities until the right one clicks. It happens when their learning activities are aligned with their interests, abilities, and motivations.

I agree with Meisels that children need a level playing field and that they develop at different rates. It is true that cumulative advantage is about being in the right place at the right time, and that it usually does not happen by coincidence. Ideally, we would be putting all children in the right place at the right time. The only way we are going to prevent the kind of squandered talent that Gladwell deems unfortunate is to open more and more doors of opportunity.

At its foundation, educational opportunity should not mean forcing all kids to learn the same curriculum at the same pace and with the same strategies—whatever their age. Let them start at age 3 if they are ready and a kindergarten classroom is where they’ll best develop. Let them start at age 6 if they are not ready and a delayed start will mean a better fit with the learning environment when they are ready.

May bullying and boredom never become a part of the conversation! Oh, my mistake, Meisels pointed out that behavioral problems and boredom are already being detected in these opposite-of-pushed children. I’ll not go there—for now.

When I’m working on my book, it is with a degree of certainty — children need to be recognized and encouraged for all kinds of abilities. Teaching the multiple intelligences framework to children and their caregivers should help us, as a society, to be more appreciative of children’s innate strengths. Further, we could then be expected to encourage a greater degree of excellence in education and production. But there is also a degree of uncertainty. Many children are multiply intelligent, and to typecast them could potentially limit others’ understanding of them. I especially felt this when casting children as people- or self-smart when I had already perceived them as another kind of smart.

When reading the Jobs book, I felt an even greater degree of uncertainty. It was almost the opposite of what I was feeling with my child characters. I never doubted that Jobs was smart. But, what kind of smart? He certainly didn’t have interpersonal intelligence (people smart), yet even within this realm he ultimately succeeded by repeatedly forming and leading what he called an “A team.”

So what are multiple intelligences and where does Jobs fit? This is an especially intriguing question given Isaacson’s conclusion (p. 566): “Was he smart? No, not exceptionally. Instead he was a genius. His imaginative leaps were instinctive, unexpected, and at times magical. He was indeed, an example of what the mathematician Mark Kac called a magician genius, someone whose insights come out of the blue and require intuition more than mere mental processing power.”

According to Kac, what most geniuses have is “ordinary genius,” the kind that most of us might observe, “I could do that if only I were better at …” But the magician genius is such that we can’t fathom how the end result came about. Jobs consistently expected the seemingly impossible and made it happen. He didn’t achieve it himself; he led others to do it for him.

In rethinking Howard Gardner’s multiple intelligences, I conclude that we are broadening our definition of smart or intelligence within the realm of the ordinary. And, I still think that’s a good place to start. We need to recognize word, music, math, picture, body, people, self, and nature smart in children, but maybe there is more. Just as I’ve never liked the federal definition of giftedness because it positions academic ability, intellectual ability, creativity, leadership, and artistic ability as parallel categories — and they are not, so magician genius does not seem to parallel multiple intelligences. Creativity and intuitive leaps must cross them all. Jobs had a talent for recognizing talent in others and bringing them together such that their individual abilities became a part of the whole. Together they fostered his magician genius. His magician genius crossed all aspects of excellence required in the design and engineering of the products for which he is known.

I wonder if Gardner is playing around with the concept of magician genius?

Macaulay’s first book was born just two years after my first son, and Alex grew up with Cathedral. Thus began his lifelong interest in architecture, construction, and all things beautiful, helped along by Macaulay’s soon-to-follow publication of Castle and City. Alex was hooked and, indeed, started his adult career in the fields of city planning and landscape architecture.

I had the distinct privilege of hearing David Macaulay speak in 2008 at the May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture. Arbuthnot’s classic work, Children and Books, had guided my choice of books in the classroom and at home, and to be there when Macaulay was honored in her name as a distinguished writer, educator, and children’s literature scholar was an opportunity I would never have expected. He talked of how ideas “rattle around in my brain,” and shared, “this life [as a creator, researcher, writer] is simply too much fun.”

That lecture was the stimulus for me to start my grandchildren on Macaulay. I bought The Way Things Work and Black and White. The former was a typical Macaulay book, packed with details, artfully designed, and comprehensively presented. The latter intrigued me. I had never seen a book quite like this one and had not seen or heard of it until that night. I finally gave it to my grandsons this year, thinking that at ages 6 and 8 they were ready to tackle the mysteries of the merging stories. They love it!

So thank you again, Jocelyn, for reviewing my book, reviewing Black and White, and tickling our curiosity with a plethora of new titles.

Reading with Young Children

Unfortunately, the National Information Center for Children and Youth with Disabilities, reports that about 10 million children have difficulties learning to read. Even people with mild reading impairment do not read for fun and suffer from a low self-esteem. A surprising statistic is that reading problems affect girls at about the same rate as boys. Because boys are more apt to act out whereas girls more often enter a quiet dream world, boys receive more attention in schools for their reading difficulties. Long-term studies have shown that from 90 to 95 percent of reading-impaired children can overcome their difficulties if they receive appropriate treatment at early ages.

Parents can make the difference. Head Start research on the affects of reading to children under age 3 reports that English-speaking mothers who begin reading to their children as babies have toddlers with greater language comprehension, larger vocabularies, and higher cognitive scores by the age of 2. Likewise, Spanish-speaking mothers who read to their children every day have 3-year-olds with greater language and cognitive development than those whose children do not have the benefits of early reading. Researchers advise that parents take advantage of every book a child wants to read. Even out-dated books conceptually (for example science books) can connect with a child, convey basic information to build upon, inspire questions for further exploration, and simply provide parent-child bonding and fun.

Jocelyn of The Tattered Cover Book Store continues to recommend great new as well as some tried-and-true titles for the little ones. You will find these on the Tips and Previews page of this blog.