1. What does it mean to be "gifted"?

Some people think it means children achieving in the top 10%, others, that it’s the top 5% or the top 1%. Some people think it’s about academic performance; others think it covers performance in all fields. Some think it’s the quirky kid, the one who is a nuisance in class; others, that’s it’s the absent-minded daydreamer, lost in a world of their own. Some people think it’s elitist to talk about giftedness. Other people think all children are gifted. Some people think anyone can be gifted if they work hard enough. Other people think giftedness doesn’t exist at all – it’s just a myth! No wonder we need to ask what is it really!

Yet it’s an observable fact that some human beings seem somehow to be capable of working or achieving at a level that’s way beyond most of us, no matter how hard we try or how long we practise. I know that no amount of striving would ever turn me into another Maria Callas or another Jackson Pollock, and certainly not another Stephen Hawkins.

Click here to find out how did these people get to be so astonishingly capable?