To be abnormal in a normal world

While true that gifted children certainly hold much promise for the future and need to be trained and stimulated accordingly, one aspect of preparation for adult and professional life that is often forgotten is that gifted children are, in fact, abnormal. That is, they are not like most others. This is a problem in any context from early education to adulthood including both professional life and a later academic life should the gifted child have chosen this as a possible future. The resistance from society which any intellectually gifted individual is highly likely to encounter because of their uniqueness is rarely, if ever, prepared for in gifted education programmes or in any school system. At a suitable age, children will need to understand why they do not always succeed as anticipated. They must learn how the social dynamics of professional life and careers work because of the human nature we all share, gifted or not. Understanding who you are and your function in a context are important determinants of mental health. This short presentation aims at demonstrating a few issues that gifted and particularly older children and their parents will need to know in this respect. A paper for the 10-year jubilee of the Bavarian Centre for Gifted and Talented Children, 3-4 November 2018 at Freising, Germany. The paper is published ahead of the conference for practical purposes to make it available to conference delegates.