December Capstone Festival

So, I’m sitting here looking at these kids and thinking about achievement. Well, to be honest I’m sitting at my computer a few weeks after the December Capstone Festival trying to remember what went on. Don’t worry. I took notes, being the achiever that I am.

There were two groups of kids, though for the life of me I could not tell the difference in quality or content. A few were part of the MINDS program. Mentoring Intellectual N-something Development of Students. One, Scout (and all I can think of is Atticus and Jem) wanted to create a new playground for her elementary school. I got to thinking, what’s so special about this? It’s just a playground. But, then, someone has to design it. Why not a seven-year-old kid. Is that achievement? Being that young and taking on the task of an adult? Maybe so. Her biggest problem was the limitations of the program. Google Sketch. Maybe so. The biggest thing holding me back from being able to paint masterpieces is my inability to figure out how to make the paint brushes work like I want them to.

What makes the video-game designer an achiever? What about the kid who wants to make a movie about Greek Mythology? She seemed like she just wanted to make a video with her friends in it. I liked the kid with the idea about an educational recycling video. That seems like a measurement of a high achiever. Recycling? What kid cares about that? Design a video game, a playground, a cool video with your friends, learn about strange monsters . . . that’s all kid stuff, to be sure. But recycling? That’s forward thinking on the part of a littl’un. Adults are supposed to think about the environment, not kids. A+ in my book.

Here are, however, my reservations from my original notes:
• Difficulty in determining giftedness in one so young.
• Some topics seem like a natural fascination bordering on obsession.
• Why are these kids considered gifted? They seem like regular kids (except the first one wanting to work in robotics) who’ve gotten a lot of time and resources and encouragement to explore “stuff they like.”
• Crypto-kid. Seems like he’s on a wild goose chase.

All this makes me glad I’m not the one responsible for determining whether or not these kids are gifted or not. My problem would be in turning them down. How could I say one of them is not gifted?