Gifted Androgyny

Gifted girls and gifted boys are generally more androgynous than other children (Kerr, 1997; Kerr & Cohn, 2001), a condition that results in both benefits and problems. Interests of gifted girls are usually much broader than the typical girl. They may enjoy girl Scouts, craft projects, and dance, but they may also like rock climbing, fishing, and distance running - the more traditional male interests. Interests of gifted boys likewise are generally more androgynous and have a broader range (Herbert, 2002). Gifted boys may like the traditional football, but they may also enjoy dance and gardening. It is gratyfying to see these children develop their potential in so many areas. However, their androgyny may cause them, and others, to be somewhat concerned about gender identity. Adults with broad and androgynous interests may also experience problmes deriving from their multipotentiality. Their changing passions may make it difficult to establish a long-term career commitment to any one field. Others may judge them to be superficial and flighty.

-Webb, Amend, Webb, Goerss, Beljan, Olenchak, "Misdiagnosis and Dual Diagnoses of Gifted Children and Adults"

The discussion here focuses on two issues: multipotentiality and androgyny. For now, we'll set aside the multipotentiality and examine only the androgyny issues.

I've mentioned before that I'm not a social scientist. One of the most interesting courses I took in college, however, was a sociology course on gender roles. My background is technical, and due to the fact that I was one of the few women in many of my courses, I was beginning to experience stereotypes about women in those fields. I felt this course would give me a way to explain my experiences.

Surprisingly, the most important information that came out of that course didn't address the issue of women in technical fields. Instead, I learned something very jarring: men have more stringent stereotypes than women, and the consequences for men and boys who try to buck the stereotypes have serious consequences.

That isn't meant to negate the experience of women, but it is important to realize that these stereotypes are harmful to both genders. When dealing with gifted boys and girls in a normal classroom setting, the issue of androgyny become very obvious. Gifted boys may not be as interested in sports and may not be confrontational, thus diminishing their masculinity. Girls who are interested in math or less passive and interested in their appearance than their peers may not seem as feminine. Breaking from these stereotypes causes issues with peers, who will reject the gifted children for their differences.

Hoagies Gifted has several references on the influence of gender stereotypes and how they affect the gifted. In particular, there is a link to Jane Piirto's article on personality types of teachers and gifted children. She makes the point that gifted children very often, especially in the early school years, spend time with teachers who do not understand or appreciate their gifts. Teachers, early on, communicate that they don't value boys who like ideas and non-conformity. They may not take well to a girl who challenges or questions her teacher. In a school setting, teachers appreciate hard working children who follow rules. Gifted children have personality types which vary from the normal child, and these types seem to be somewhat linked to gender. This may be very perplexing to teachers who may expect behavior along gender lines.

Gifted children will undoubtedly receive negative feedback from both peers and teachers. Therefore, it is important for the parents of gifted children to nurture their interests and understand that they may be more varied than the typical age-mate of the same gender. Finally, they may have more friends of the opposite gender who share their interests. The varied nature of their interests and friends from both genders is very normal for a gifted child and should not be discouraged or criticized.

Problems in Gifted Identification: Girls

By the time a gifted young woman has graduated from college, she is likely to have lowered her estimate of her own intelligence, to have changed majors to a less challenging major, and to have lowered her career aspirations. She is much more likely than her gifted male peers to have abandoned her math and science interests, no matter how strong they once were, and is less likely to pursue graduate training in these fields. After college, she is more likely to follow her boyfriend or husband to his job than to have him follow her. She is the one most likely to have major child rearing responsibilities. And although it is now the norm, gifted women often combine work and family, gifted women continue to be more likely to give up full time work for part-time, and to give up leadership positions than are gifted men (Kerr, 1997.)

-Dr. Barbara Kerr, Gender and Genius

Kerr argues that young women are encourage to excel until they reach college. Beginning in college, gifted young women lose or abandon career aspirations. While this may be true and means that the situation for girls has significantly improved during primary and secondary education, other authors have cited many issues which affect girls.

While boys may be overlooked for gifted programs because of behavioral issues due to boredom, girls tend to be overlooked because of their passivity. Girls are more likely to do what the teacher asks and not complain if the material being studied is material which they have done years before.

This passivity does not mean that the girl is fine in an environment where she is waiting for everyone else. She may be more compelled by social pressures to wait or help others who are behind herself. If she doesn't wish to wait, she is viewed as pushy. Consequently, being gifted becomes a choice between being viewed as pushy and non-feminine or hiding ones gifts in order to fit societal expectations.

Girls often have serious doubts in their own abilities and have a strong sensitivity to the responibilities of others. Thus, as they get older, gifted women may have tend to give up on their dreams and goals in favor of caring for others, often times believing they are not really gifted or that they suffer from mistaken identity. Many gifted women suffer from Imposter Syndrome.

Therefore, even when girls are identified as gifted, they are still at high risk for not allowing their giftedness to play a role in their self-esteem and actualization.

Problems in Gifted Identification: Boys

Boys and girls are very different in the ways they approach school.

...

When a little boy starts school, however, he almost immediatley notices that what he wants to do is not happening in school. To make matters worse, what he wants to do isn't allowed or isn't even available. Therefore, boys are much more likely to act out and complain than girls. As a result, more boys than girls are diagnosed with attention deficit disorder (ADD) or hyperactivity."

-Dr. Deborah Ruf, "Losing Our Minds: Gifted Children Left Behind"

I discussed previously how learning style can affect someone's perception of a child's giftedness. This is one of many factors involved in identification of the gifted. Giftedness itself can create difficulties when teachers are not aware of the characteristics of the gifted, which most are not. Aside from that, gender and personality also have large impacts on the perception of giftedness.

I hope to discuss all of these points, but I think gender is an appropriate place to begin. Both gifted boys and girls, on average, tend to deal with their higher intelligence in different ways. In general, though, girls will be more passive about disparities in their abilities and curriculum. Boys will be more defiant and oppositional. Of course, because something happens this way on average doesn't mean that girls won't act out or boys won't comply just to get things over with. It is important to be aware of all possible behaviors that can signal educational issues.

Boys are fortunate to have the set of genes or expectations that cause them to act out in the situations when they have caring teachers and parents. Those boys may have the benefit of people who understand that the difficulties may not lie within the child but within the environment. The boys are communicating this the best way they know how. It is up to the adults to listen, and it's hard for the adults to ignore some of this behavior.

Most boys are not that fortunate. They spend time becoming angry, losing respect for adults, and not understanding why they are required to spend so much time in such monotonous, unstimulating environments. They refuse to complete assignments, they will not stay organized, and they don't pay attention. They are labeled as AD(H)D or Oppositional or accused (rightly so) of underachieving.

The key to this problem is it that the adults need to change, not the children. The boys are not being intentionally defiant (for the most part), but they have lost interest and few adults are sympathetic to their plight. Our culture wants boys to learn to, "Take it like a man." The boys are helpless to communicate this in any other way than passive resistance to the authority for which they are losing respect.

Unfortunately, many of these behaviors prevent them from being accelerated. The view is that they haven't earned the responsibility of an advanced material for if they are not responsible in normal conditions, they certainly will not be in an accelerated program. This completely overlooks the issue that these behaviors are the result of a lack of stimulating environment, and medicating them will only keep the problem at bay for so long.