By Jim Emerton, member of British Mensa.
What I wish I’d been told as a child with high Learning Potential
A gifted child, I was a sensitive boy with an eccentric personality. As I am now at 72, my thirst for knowledge of the external worlds and inner being was insatiable and I had a rich and profound inner life. I found myself in academia for 11 years as a student with qualifications as a horticulturist and science teacher. With an IQ of 154 , I have matured into a poet/philosopher and author of 9 books ,the subject of 2 films and a journalist.
The gift manifests itself as conscious hunger, curiosity and creative originality, which some may find difficult to classify or label.
When I was a child I had a radical perception of being different. My senses were very acute, my curiosity profound and I was dreamy, detached, aloof yet very cerebral and aware.
I shied away from noise, crowds, people and buildings. I should have said that I was being me and grown up without feeling an isolate and a little misanthropic. In reality, most people should have been seen to be harmless to me and not as external threats to my integrity.
It would have been useful to realise a sense of the gifted self, rather than insecurity and anxiety. I wish I had been told by a senior of my gifts, although I matured as a rebellious, cheeky spirit; an unconventional eccentric little soul.
This has stood me in good stead as I have since had a great career as author/poet/philosopher and teacher and journalist with global travel behind me.
In existential reality, the child grew into the gifted man, which my ego recognises as a whole human with integrity.
About Jim Emerton
A member of British Mensa (https://www.mensa.org.uk), a collection of people with an IQ in the top 2 percent,I realise my luck to be alive to express my old self in many media. I like to help others each day and have a profound interest in the truth and reality as a poet and philosopher. Aged 72, I love nature, music and sensitivity in others. Mensa is a diverse collection of many gifted people – both young and old – and I write for many Special Interest Groups within the society.
About The Potential Trust.
The Potential Trust is a registered charity (charity number 326645) whose aim is to provide, promote and encourage whatever makes education and learning more interesting for children and young people (up to school leaving age) who have High Learning Potential (sometimes called more able, highly able or Gifted and Talented) or Dual or Multiple Exceptionalities (sometimes called DME, Twice Exceptional or 2e, neurodiverse or gifted with learning differences). We want to support all those children with more than the average share of curiosity, creativity, perception and persistence and to enable them to have access to events and experiences that facilitate their personal and social development and their creative, artistic and practical abilities as well as their intellectual abilities. We do this by:
- Providing Potential Bursaries
- Running Potential Conferences
- Developing Potential Collaborations
- Being a catalyst for Potential Change.
For more information about how to get involved or to support us, please log onto our website at https://thepotentialtrust.org.uk or follow us on Twitter @PotentialTrust
The views expressed in this blog are the author’s own.