Janet Ruth Heller is quoted in the article “What to Do if You Suspect Your Child is Gifted (Part II)” by Varda Epstein on the website kars4kids. The link is https://www.kars4kids.org/blog/what-to-do-if-you-suspect-your-child-is-gifted-part-ii/?utm_source=contributors&utm_medium=email This article was posted on August 22, 2018.
Here are some of my comments about gifted children in this article.
Janet Heller, President of the Michigan College English Association, comments that, at any rate, very few children are gifted in all areas, which means that to stress giftedness as a distinction is perhaps not so important. “Some children, for example, may be excellent at music and mathematics but not in literature and writing—or vice versa. Parents may tell children which areas they are strong in; however, adults need to emphasize that everyone needs to work very hard to develop potential talent. Talent does not grow by itself without effort.
“Thomas Alva Edison said, ‘Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.’ I think that this is true. Good athletes, musicians, writers, artists, dancers, scientists, etc. must practice skills and develop new abilities every day in order to succeed,” says Heller.
