The Right to Develop Among the Gifted

I have some interest in the development of people with high potentials and abilities. It seems that we as a society are often pushing for people to fit within our own social un-evaluated beliefs. If someone doesn't do what we do then there must be something wrong with them. Not encouraging highly gifted individuals the "right to develop" we limit our potential as a nation and as contributors to the world.

The essential role of government and society isn't just to make money and pay taxes. It is about providing freedoms and reflecting the truest nature of human life. Developing people with high, but often unexplored abilities, means we are developing people to the highest state they can be.

Such individuals often give back in terms of art, science, economic development, social cohesion and other forms needed to improve society. They are the ones that change society for the better and are the same ones that crafted the essential truths that made up many of our beliefs and laws.

One such feature of highly gifted individuals is overexcitabilities and their association with personal development. According to an article in the Journal of Education of the Gifted high emotions and high intelligence are often associated (Mofield & Parker, 2015). Emotions and intelligence are part of the process of positive disintegration.

The types of overexcitabilities are psycho-motor, sensual, emotional, intellectual, and imaginational. These make such people slightly different in terms of their need for stimulation, thinking, feeling and mental playing.

Gifted individuals that develop to higher levels are different from others. They have innate skills that force them to experience these over-excitability that force them to positively disintegrate their self-identity and the view of the world around them. With enough time and effort they can develop a truly autonomous personality. It is there, in that spot of higher development, that they are able to fully contribute to society.

Mofield, E. & Parker Peters, M. (2015). The relationship between perfectionism and overexcitabilities in gifted adolescents. Journal of Education for the Gifted, 38 (4).

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