Dr Linda Silverman calls them her "angels on earth": children who are so delicately beautiful, and so astonishingly gifted intellectually and emotionally, that they seem to be informed by a "higher consciousness". These children are often fragile and show a sense of being uncomfortable in the world. "These children are like the canaries in the coal mine. They have so much inner sensitivity that if there is a pollutant in the air or food, they are the ones who will get sick and let the rest of us know what dangers we are facing," says Silverman. Very young gifted children often use extra-sensory perception to communicate. One three-year-old child would amuse his mother by answering her questions before she had asked them. If she was driving the car thinking about what to prepare for dinner, the child would pipe up from the back seat: "Hamburgers." A special generation of gifted, morally aware, artistic and intuitive children is being born at such a rate, the average IQ is being raised by half a point a year, maintains Dr Silverman, a child psychologist who specialises in giftedness.
Her comments might lead you to suspect that she is off the wall. But having spent a few hours with her, I can tell you that she is one of the most sensible, grounded people I've met. Dr Silverman lives in Denver with her husband of 40 years, a spiritual healer with whom she has reared 16 children, two of them biologically their own. The others just wandered in - gifted, strange and "different" kids who needed a home. She has had hundreds of articles published in esteemed psychological journals and is regarded as the foremost international expert on her subject. She is director of the Gifted Development Center in Denver, which tests and assesses young children so perceptive and mature that they are like 20-yearolds in five-year-old bodies. Many score 200 and more on IQ tests. They also tend to be hyperactive, inattentive, physically unco-ordinated and socially isolated. And, most intriguingly, Silverman asserts that there are more of these children being born than ever before. "I'm dealing with children who come into the world with a level of consciousness that is astounding to me. In the last few years, my entire understanding of giftedness is being turned upside down by this. These children are so aware, so morally responsible that they are going to change the world in the 21st century. "They have no time for adults' power tactics and will only respect people who respect them. They won't do mindless tasks that don't teach them anything. They are wonderfully kind people as long as you treat them like a friend. If they are treated in an authoritarian way, they become rebellious."
The Gifted Development Center has seen dozens of instances of gifted children fighting injustice, befriending and protecting handicapped children, conserving resources, responding to others' emotional needs, becoming terribly upset if a classmate is humiliated, becoming vegetarian in meat-eating families, crying at violence in cartoons and writing poems of anguish at the cruelty of the world. This is the kind of child the centre sees: Greg Smith (11) is a college student who, for the past several years, has run a national campaign from his home computer making children promise not to be violent or to play violent games. Greg has met with world leaders.
Jason Crowe (13) has been fundraising since he was seven to erect a monument in Sarajevo in honour of the cellist who played for 22 days during the shelling there. Justin Chapman (7) is studying neurosciences at university and has written: "We all have a God-given ability to judge and differentiate between right and wrong. Many times, our decisions are completely selfish, usually allowing us to save face in an awkward situation. Other times, however, the choices we make are based solely on principle. It is a means for us to fight for that in which we believe. Whether they bring us glory, or keep our conscience at rest, our choices are a portrayal of how we view life, and how we want to live it."
There is something else exceptional about Justin. He cannot understand verbal language. While he can speak, he cannot understand, so he communicates entirely by computer, rapidly exchanging e-mails with brilliant minds many times his age.
Many children who are gifted also have unrecognised disabilities - such as ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) and dyslexia - which make them under-achieve, so that teachers assume they are of belowaverage intelligence. Being gifted is now being seen by Silverman and others as a disability in itself because such consciousness is so difficult for a child to live with in a society which scorns perfectionism and appreciates mediocrity.
Dr Silverman believes gifted children are a persecuted group who face "international prejudice" because, as a society, we don't like people to be different or superior. Parents are terrified of "boasting" about their children's gifts, while children learn to hide their talents in order to avoid persecution from classmates. These children pay a price for their social adaptation and learn to slide by without stretching themselves, so denying their talents.
"This tragic waste of children's potential affects not only them, but also all of society, for we have all lost whatever gifts they might have contributed. Instead of teaching to the lowest common denominator, schools need to become places where individual differences are appreciated, and where talents are recognised and nurtured," says Dr Silverman.
Anne-Marie Hogan of the Irish Association for Gifted Children, herself a primary school principal at Christ the King Girls' National School in Cabra, Dublin, believes there is an urgent need for extra support and in-service education for teachers. Schools have an obligation under the Education Act 1998 to have a policy on identifying and providing for pupils with special educational needs, including those pupils who are exceptionally able.
The association's education sub-committee has established a Teacher Support Group to offer in-service training on teaching highly able children in mainstream classes. A series of six workshops will start after Christmas.
The association has also asked that the curricular issues involved in providing appropriate education for highly able children be addressed by the special needs committee of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment. If Dr Silverman is right, and these gifted children are in contact with a higher consciousness that could change the world, then the nurturing of gifted children is in all our interests. But even if she's being fanciful, you can still argue that when gifted children are forced to suppress their gifts, we all lose.
More information from the Irish Association for Gifted Children, Carmichael House, 4 North Brunswick Street, D 7.
For advice on dealing with a gifted child, contact: www.gifteddevelopment.com
