22% of kids age 12 to 17 are gifted.

<p>US</a> Census Press Releases</p>

<p>For kids 6-11 years old the figure is 13%. Somehow I don't feel so special anymore.</p>

<p>What the hell does gifted mean, anyways? I never got the hang of that...</p>

<p>It doesn't mean intellectually gifted, rather academically- there is a difference.</p>

<p>I think we can all agree that ~1.1 out of every 5 kids we meet at school is not gifted. And how does the figure magically jump from 13 to 22? I think the key words are enrolled in special classes for gifted students. Some schools use BS criterion for gifted program admission, like IQ tests. In reality, only about 3% of the population is "gifted." (I'd actually like to know what that word means as well.)</p>

<p>I agree with rachael. It always amazed me to see some of the kids who got into honors/AP classes in high school. Some would have gpas of 2.0 in regular classes, but then somehow end up in honors science. Some teachers would just sign the kids into the class if they liked the kid or felt bad for them.</p>

<p>It works the other way too. My school doesn't really have a gifted program, but does that mean that zero students in the school are gifted? That's a foolish way to measure gifted students.</p>

<p>But really, is there an effective way to measure gifted students? I can't really think of any good way to measure something that subjective.</p>

<p>Well really, being gifted is about your intelligence comparatively so really, the top 3 - 5% are gifted meaning that it is impossible for 20% of people to be truly gifted.</p>

<p>rachael & honors: totally agree.....it also makes it so difficult when one attends a hs that actually has strong requirements to be admitted to honors/ap......college prep kids feel like idiots, even though they are doing well.....and colleges expect you to challenge yourself: hard to do that if you are not allowed to......this study just reinforces my belief that "gifted" label is ridiculously overused.....</p>

<p>In my county gifted is the 95+ percentile to qualify, and then 3 or 4 other criteria plus teacher recommendation forms that THEY have to independently decide to fill out. Some counties in my state have a Highly gifted program 99th percentile, but my county can't support such a thing.</p>

<p>This just in: 0 in ten people care who's considered "gifted"</p>

<p>Gifted at my gifted (public) school means you have to have over 140 IQ. So my friends and I have an IQ in the top 2% or so of the people my age in my community.</p>

<p>At my school, the honors/gifted program is BS. More than half of the kids don't belong, not because they don't have potential or are unintelligent, but simply because they do not care and aren't willing to work. But there is a good percent of those students who are only put int because their parents think that their little child is gifted.</p>

<p>Yea there are a lot of kids who really aren't intellectually gifted but take challenging courseloads. They just don't wanna feel dumb and left out so they enroll in a honors/AP course. And also i've met some smart kids who just simply don't challenge themselves-to me they are really gifted yet lazy:(</p>

<p>"gifted"... riiiight</p>

<p>Abercrombiindy- Agreed. There is this one boy I know who was getting a D or C or something like that in Honors Algebra 2 with Trig like two years ago so then the next year the teacher dropped him to regular math and he got a 33 overall on his ACT. I think he just didn't really care. So by school standards, he is not gifted since lots of schools go on classroom performance, yet obviously intellectually/nationally, he really is gifted.</p>

<p>You can't really weed out the true gifted kids from the fake gifted kids since situations like this arise.</p>

<p>#16</a> “Gifted” Children « Stuff White People Like</p>

<p>Taking AP or IB classes does not make you gifted. I am pretty sure that is what the census uses since few have taken an IQ test. I do not remember the standard in kindergarten was taking an IQ test. Yet at my school you were required to take one and be truly determined if you belonged in the gifted program as compared to high school which easily allowed students to take AP or IB classes if they worked their ass off.</p>

<p>Grades/iq tests are ridiculous to determine "giftedness" and ability to be "gifted."</p>

<p>We should just have free enrollment and an "advanced" track of studies.
Of which is so insanely hard, non "gifted" or "hard-working" people will drop out within the first semester.</p>

<p>Does that mean that 78% of kids 12-17 need to be re-gifted?</p>

<p>
[quote]
does that mean that 78% of kids 12-17 need to be re-gifted?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>+1 .</p>