Gifted kid, dumb parents

Here we go again. Another couple shoving their gifted child into the spotlight. The mother, with tears in her eyes, says her daughter is so different - "it's not easy to be different. That worries me."

So worried they were, that they ran straight to the local TV station to "reach out for experts who could help..."

Some of you know that my oldest daughter was doing the same thing at an even earlier age, but we hadn't taught her sign language or drilled her. She just started reading. Did we run to the local tv station for help? Did we put her on display to reinforce the fact that she was different? Absolutely not.

We rejoiced in the fact that she loved reading and gave her all the books she could handle emotionally. By the time she was three it was becoming more difficult to find emotionally appropriate material. Then we sought help, not from television, but at the nearby big university who had experts in early childhood development, and from teacher friends, family physician and other real experts.

If these parents are really worried about their child being different, quit parading her around in the public like a freak and do some real parenting.