soz, the real nutcase is this Silvermann woman from Colorado, who's husband is a medium and claims that Brandenn killed himself so his organs could be donated. if his suicide keeps parents from sending gifted kids to this woman's retreats, that would be a positive outcome from this tragedy.
Noddy24 wrote:
Where do you pin the "Hands On" label? The "Hands Off" label?
Excellent question!
I just finished reading the article. Thanks yitwail for sending it to me.
What a tragic story.
The fact that I am areligious doesn't make it any less creepy to read about these people comparing their son to Jesus on Good Friday.
I'm going to have to ponder this for a bit.
I do agree that the Silvermann couple are spooky and possibly dangerous.
the story reminded me of another tragedy from about 10 years back, 7 year old Jessica Dubroff who died with her father when their plane crashed while taking off in bad weather. it was actually her flight instructor who was at the controls, and they may have taken off in bad conditions in order to keep up a schedule of media appearances. anyway, it was national news and i was outraged at the time.
a really disturbing thread running through the New Yorker piece is the opinion of Silvermann & her ilk that children with extremely high IQ are adults in children's bodies. i doubt there are enough children with that level of precocity to base such generalizations on. and in Brandenn's case, the tests were given when he was no more than 5, and it's well-established that IQ scores fluctuate a lot at such an early age, not to mention the point the article makes that IQ tests simply aren't designed to measure extremely high IQ. one score on a test, whether it's high or low, shouldn't deprive a child of a normal childhood.
Oh, thanks so much for sending it to boomer, yitwail! She is someone who I've wanted to talk to about the article since I first read it.
glad i could help, and thanks for mentioning the article in the first place. i have inlaws in Nebraska, so i'll ask them about the story some time.
I really don't know where to even start, this article hit me on so many different levels.
Having spent the first 40 years of my life decidedly and determinedly childless -- not really getting that whole maternal thing....
Having spent 20 years as a professional photogrpaher shaking my head and getting depressed about clients who lived through their kids....
Having become a surprised guardian/foster parent/mom/whatduhyacallit at 42 years old and learning how your eyes glaze over with love and expectation.....
As the favored aunt to a teenage, homeschooled, oddball, "brilliant" boy that I am now more worried about than ever.....
My heart breaks for this kid.
It is SO hard not to invest too much of yourself in a child that you love.
It is SO hard to make the distinction between your life/my life.
My heart breaks for these parents too.
I can imagine seeking out anything that might give me solace.
A quick aside:
There is a girl who I have known for 35 years or so who I still consider my very best girlfriend. After high school she was my room-mate on and off for several years too. One night her boyfriend killed himself in her car, while she sat beside him. He took out a gun and blew his head off.
Loving someone who does that makes you become a whole new person. People will try to ease their souls in some very unusual ways.
Loving someone who loves someone who does that makes you become a whole new person too.
Hmmmm.....
I don't know where to start....
that story about your friend and your boyfriend made me do my first double take ever on a2k... wow boomer rough stuff sigh
Oh my!
Er...could I see this article?
It was her boyfriend, not my boyfriend, tl.
That night was the last night we were ever room-mates. She broke up with him and then she broke up with everything.
<sigh>
I have a special place in my heart for people who endure suicide.
I have to re-read the thing. Dlowan is another one I wanted to discuss it with.
Yeah, there were certainly a lot of levels to it, and I've been reductive in my summaries, and also some of the subtleties have faded from my memory. I think I can find the NYer with that article, otherwise I'll tap yitwail (thanks again!).
Why can't the article be copied and pasted here?
Dunno...copyright?
I am happy to do it, but I have not done so because there seems to be some consensus not to?????
i didn't cut & paste because of copyright. my hardcopy has a copyright notice in it, perhaps that would make it ok to post, but i doubt it.
I think it would be okay to paste it but it is quite long. I still have it set up as a wordpad file.... should I post it?
If you can pick out some key words and pop them into Google (e. g. name of author and some unique words, indigo should be one), you may be able to find it online and then just post the link.
soz had looked for it online and had not been able to find it.
don't think so, jespah. it's referenced by a lot of blogs, forums, and so on, but none of them have a link, while many bemoan the lack of an online version. i tried googling a clause from it, and no hits either.
I'm just bookmarking this so I can come back and reread.
Indigo children came up in an odd conversation today and I remembered discussing it here before but couldn't really remember what it was all about.
I need a refresher course......
