In this
issue:
- The Miracle of Creativity
- Diana’s Heartspace
- «Still Gifted After All These Years»
- Testing Discount for Colorado Members
- Gifted World Experience Conference
- Environmental Tip of the Month
- Book of the Month: Counting in Dog Years
- Meet our Team: Drs. Nancy Miller and Frank Falk
The Miracle of Creativity
We hear a lot in the media about the “drive to achieve” that fuels success in the classroom and in life. This drive propels an individual to strive toward accomplishing admirable goals and reaping prized rewards. The question, “What does it take to be successful?” undergirds popular philosophy of gifted education. And it induces parents to exhort their children to try harder to succeed in school. Is this what giftedness is all about? The potential for success? I don’t think so.
I think what drives the gifted child or adult is the need to create. Creativity is a powerful, mysterious force. It has no curriculum. It is its own reward. It permeates every aspect of existence. The need to create can be seen in the single-mindedness of the toddler who spends hours with tape, cardboard and imagination. In the teacher who stays until dark to construct exciting bulletin boards. In the homemaker who invents new dishes or a beautiful, comfortable home. In the endless ideas that come—sometimes in the middle of the night—all begging for our attention, stretching the limits of time.
We are creators. Every day we design our lives. We choose to survive major illnesses, to overcome obstacles, to do our own part in making this a better world. We seek meaningful lives, and we desire that our children do the same. Most of our GDC parents want their child to be happy—now and in the future. They don’t say, “Tell us how to make our child successful.” I believe happiness comes from following our drive to create.
I believe in miracles. I am grateful for the miracle of life itself. I am deeply grateful that I can still create. I believe that I can make a difference by sending energy to peace, to healing all the precious people I know who are in physical or emotional pain, to renewal for all whose lives have been touched by disasters. Please share with us the miracles in your own life.
Because we have this amazing gift of a human life, we all have potential. Potential to learn, potential to create, potential to express our unique gifts in the world.
This matters so much at any time on the planet but especially during times of great change. Our individual contribution — from the deep goodness of our warm heart and from our clear and luminous mind — is beyond measure. Each one of us can be a contributor, a participant in the process of evolving what it means to be a human being on planet Earth.
When we learn to gently and kindly turn within, however that feels the most comfortable for us, we can tap into inner resources that support our participation in times of such significant change. We discover a sense of naturalness inside. We feel more ease with our experiences. We access a confidence and an energetic flow that guides our doing.
Accomplishments happen without the familiar effort or exhaustion. We feel a part of the dance of life. These may seem like miracle moments but we are actually designed to live this way, to let the miracles inside of us exist and express themselves when they are ready.
Diana Zaheer
Diana Zaheer teaches healing tools from many different traditions and guides people from all over the world. You can find out more about her and her approach here.
Linda Silverman is Speaking in Boulder
Boulder Valley Gifted and Talented and Boulder Valley School District present:
Linda Silverman
“Still Gifted After All These Years”
Giftedness is not about recognized achievement; it is about who you are, not what you do. You have unique characteristics that lead to unusual experiences throughout the lifespan. You are intense, complex, sensitive, perfectionistic, idealistic, mission driven, indignant about injustices no one else seems to notice. In this presentation, you will learn how a deeper understanding of your giftedness can lead to greater compassion for others and enable you to fulfill your life’s mission.
Wednesday, April 12th 2023, 7:00 to 8:30 PM.
Southern Hills Middle School.
1500 Knox Dr, Boulder.
Get tickets to attend for free on Eventbrite.
The presentation is free; donations are greatly appreciated. Seating is limited.
Discount Available!
Don’t forget that GDC is offering a 10% discount on testing and consults for members of CAGT, BVGT, and CAEGTC during 2023 on a first come/first serve basis.These Colorado organizations support the inner world of the gifted. Email us to find out more.
Save the Date
October 24-26, 2023
Gifted World Experience Conference
Athens, Greece
In this three-day experiential event, audience members and presenters together will explore Giftedness from the inside out.
Answering questions such as, «Who are gifted individuals? What is asynchrony? How do they experience the inner world?» in a hands-on way.
This first of its kind conference is geared towards interested adults, parents, educators, professionals, and children.
Visit the Gifted World Experience website for information!
In February, the Colorado Legislature agreed to move forward with a study to determine whether biochar could effectively help to cap orphaned oil and gas wells. There are estimated to be over three million abandoned oil wells nationwide, many of which leak climate warming gasses into the atmosphere. The gasses can also have negative effects on the health of people and animals living near the wells.
Biochar is made through a process called pyrolysis in which wood and other organic materials are burned at very high temperatures while oxygen is removed from the chamber. Biochar can sequester and keep carbon inert for millennia. If successful, the biochar will not only cap the wells but sequester the carbon dioxide and methane, removing it from the carbon cycle. This is an important approach that goes hand in hand with efforts to release fewer harmful gasses into the atmosphere. Additionally, the trees that are being used to make biochar come from beetle kill and forest fires across Colorado. Using them to make this material prevents them from being burned and releasing more carbon dioxide.
Lawmakers hope that this new process will not only help Colorado but could become a model for other states. If oil wells nationwide were largely capped experts estimate that it could keep millions to billions of tons of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere. I am excited about this approach because it is doubly good for the environment by both sequestering and limiting the release of carbon dioxide, and it has the potential to have a huge impact.
Betsy Franco, a prolific author of more than 80 books for children, has created 20 delightful poems depicting mathematics at home, in school, during school breaks, and in fun verses that examine the world at large and are labeled as math musings. Priscilla Tey’s frolicsome illustrations superbly complement the text of Counting in Dog Years. In her new, best-selling book, Visual Thinking, Temple Grandin says we are creating a generation of students who hate math. She says, “what kids need are real-life projects.” This is exactly what Betsy Franco delivers in this engaging book. She makes mathematics real and fun, rekindling the love of math that is our children’s birthright.
Meet our Team!
In our last issue, we introduced Kim Carroll Boham, our Acceleration Consultant, Cheri Miranne, our Fundraiser, and Gabriella Visani, our Communications Coordinator. In this issue, meet Dr. Nancy Miller, Editor of Advanced Development, our professional journal on adult giftedness, and Dr. Frank Falk, our Director of Research.
Editor of Advanced Development, Nancy B. Miller, Ph.D., serves as a Board Member for our nonprofit agency, the Institute for the Study of Advanced Development (ISAD), is one of GDC’s assessors, and conducts research on gifted children and adults. A social psychologist, Nancy discovered Dabrowski’s theory as a graduate student at the University of Denver. For her dissertation, she developed a coding system to assess levels of emotional development. For more than 3 decades, she has worked, presented, and published with Linda Silverman and Frank Falk.
R. Frank Falk, Ph.D., sociologist, serves as the Director of Research for the Institute for the Study of Advanced Development, overseeing a database of thousands of gifted and 2e children. He has developed several instruments to measure overexcitabilities. Frank convened the original Dabrowski Study Group at the University of Denver, as well as the current international group. He has authored numerous publications and delivered presentations at professional meetings, including NAGC, SENG, and the World Council for Gifted & Talented Children. He was statistical consultant to the NAGC Task Force on a national study of the WISC-IV performance of gifted children.
Aún no hay comentarios, ¡añada su voz abajo!