On Giftedness

Catch up time. I haven't blogged in about two weeks.

During the last week of May, the PSHS faculty in Luzon hied away to Baguio to discuss how to handle gifted children. When my bosses asked if I would be willing to end my summer vacation early for this affair, I grabbed the chance. I don't have an education degree so I take these events as opportunities to improve in a profession I have decided to get into.

I'd say it was a rewarding experience. Of course, I knew there were different kinds of giftedness. Being gifted is not always academic excellence. There are those gifted in the arts, literature and music. That is the usual area people look at when being gifted is discussed. There are also those that are gifted in public speaking and interpersonal relationships. Probably, they are the ones who conduct assertiveness training sessions.

What surprsied me was the discussion about TEPs or twice exceptional persons. These are gifted people who also have mental or physical challenges. The thing about the physically challenged was not news to me. I could possibly be in that list with my eye problem. There are many individuals who have gone to college in wheelchairs with accomodations by their schools. I've had a student in one of my workshops who brought his own chair along with two helpers.

The thing about the mentally challenged being gifted was what got me. I have to admit, I never looked at autistics, Aspergers and ADHD as possibly gifted.

But why not? Those that used to be called idiot savant were obviously gifted otherwise they would not be called savants. Incidents when attention deficiency manifested could have been griggered by boredom in class because their teachers were not posting enough challenges.

Really, one should not be quick to judge the capabilities of anybody.

Traveling Solo

I went on a solo trip for personal reasons. I went to my family's hometown to deliver some money.

You get to notice a lot of things if you are traveling alone. For instance, I noticed some new developments along the way. There were the new loading and unloading bays. Of special note was the one in Carmen in front of the new SM Mall there, the one erected where the buses used to make a stopover before going into any one of the three directions; Baguio, Dagupan or San Nicolas. I noticed too three new sylos in one of the towns in Tarlac. Then there were the progress of the road works compared to when we went home on Holy Week.

An attentive child notices a lot more. The seat behind me was occupied by a family with a little boy of maybe 4 or 5 years. He noticed that the corn was ready for harvest. He was counting the borders and declared that we were already in Pangasinan when what we actually crossed was a municpal not a provincial border. He pointed out houses that were either unusual or had a nice facade.

I had to mention the one positive thing that storm Emong did in Pangasinan. Some folks might not agree that this is positive but I really think this was a benefit. When we went home for Holy Week, we made a quick tour of the lands. The soil was dry and hard. It would be very hard to plant.

This morning, I could hardly mark our land. In a week's time, grass had grown everywhere. The area was green. Definitely, planting would be easy now.