The impact of a strong consciousness

Paper

<p style="text-align: justify;">Being gifted means that you have a high intelligence together with some additional characteristics. Different models of giftedness show that a cocktail of factors plays an important role. A crucial question we have is what it means for a person to be gifted? In our practical expertise with thousands of gifted children and adults we see that being gifted has important consequences comparable to the fact that being mentally retarded also has several implications. We all know that the lower the intelligence of a human being is, the more limited his consciousness is. On the other end of the Bell curve of intelligence we see the opposite. The higher the intelligence the stronger the consciousness is. This strong consciousness has widespread consequences for a gifted and talented individual and includes some personality characteristics such as a strong feeling of justice, sensitivity, a sense of criticism as well as setting high standards. It has an impact on his functioning, on making choices as well as on taking or leaving challenges and opportunities. All those elements are very important to be aware of as a parent but also as a teacher. Good coaching of a gifted pupil needs specific competences in order to help this pupil to learn, to take challenges and opportunities as well as to make him behaving in an appropriate way. During this presentation teachers and educators will be professionalized in educating the gifted with an explicit focus on the consequences of his or her strong consciousness.</p>