My son can play the piano...with his head.

We were at a New Year's Eve party with a bunch of super socially acceptable people and one of these s.s.a's comes sloshing up to me and Luke after seeing him dancing and says to, me kinda hunched over, "oooohhheeey, now that kidsssssgonnabeeeeeesumbudy!" I instinctively grabbed my son to my side and hissed, "NO, no he's not."

We were in at the hot tub at our hotel this last weekend and I was talking about how Lukey is in piano. I was real excited about it. I was just about to brag about how great his ear is and joke how he loves to play the piano....with his nose...and its soooo funny blah blah blah. Well, this stately older man who was in the hot tub too was listening and turns to us and says he was a piano teacher. We all turned to him interested and he goes on to tell us how his daughter is a Juliard graduate and was a child prodigy on magazine covers and a show called "Who in the World?" and how at 6 years old she was playing concerts....with an orchestra!!! ........... I was so glad I didn't brag about Luke playing the piano with his head. Phew!

The other day, I heard about a school that really interested me. Its called Assets. Its for kids who are gifted or dyslexic or both. So I called Tim to tell him that I was looking into it and he says to me, "Well, what makes you think Luke is gifted?" I was silent. I never thought about THAT. So I considered his question for the rest of the day.

When he got home I told him my answer. 1)First of all, everyone is gifted. See 1Cor.12:4. ALL people are born with certain gifts.....my job is to understand this and help my son find his.
2) I read a study done on a class room of children. The teacher was given fake test scores at the begining of the year. The fake scores were divided in two groups. One group they called "gifted". One group they called average. At the end of the year the children whom the teacher believed to be gifted had lived up to their label and had the new test scores to prove it. The other group similarly lived up to the teachers expectations and had average scores. I will try to find the actual study and post the link for it. So therefore reason number two is: We are who we believe we are. Go see Forest Gump.
3) Thirdly, I think this world uses the term gifted incorrectly. You are "gifted" if you happen to learn the way the majority of people learn and excel at it. Then you are recognized by the system as special. Maybe so, maybe not. Read the Davinci Method.
4)Back to the first reason.