DOES THIS MEAN MY KID'S A GENIUS?

by Linda Perigo Moore ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1981

A breezy, insubstantial look at parenting gifted children--with much reliance on Star Wars anecdotes (with Mom as Princess Lein to Stuart's Luke Skywalker), personal reminiscences (""I started with a positive absolute rule never . . .), and cutesy informality (private school genres are ""Our Town's Country Day School, or OTCD,"" ""Our Lady of Perpetual Attentiveness,"" and ""Berries of the Field""). It's clear that Moore, an educator, Finds her life with a ""GC"" (a gifted child, annoyingly so initialed throughout the book) entertaining and challenging; but she offers little to other parents. Apropos of discipline, she tells of eight methods she's abandoned in favor of a technique that ""sounds like a threat""; she can't make up her mind about TV--""it's Criminal"" and ""It's Actually Quite Fantastic""; and while she describes various types of schools and programs, she provides scant guidance for decision-making--""How far are you willing/able to commute?"" or ""Can you move to a city with an excellent school system?"" The Ten Commandments for rearing a gifted child apply equally well to all children (Love, Listen, Value Learning, Talk. . . .); and, indeed, the chapter on testing may be most heartening to parents whose children weren't tapped for the local G and T (Gifted and Talented) program--IQ tests are suspect anyway, on grounds of everything from incipient chickenpox to discrimination against the creative response. Parents of gifted children may enjoy chuckling at the GCs' antics, but for solid information they should turn to the Perinos' Parenting the Gifted (p. 723).

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1981

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: McGraw-Hill

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1981

Categories: NONFICTION