Bias in Gifted Identification and Education: Gifted Girls’ Pledge
Welcome to Vanguard Gifted Academy’s educational blog. This blog is the concluding article in our Bias and Gifted Identification and Education series. I’m Dr. Linda Silverman. I founded and currently direct the Gifted Development Center in Westminster, Colorado. We’re 43 years old now, and we’ve tested about 6,500 children. Today, we’ll be talking about the Gifted Girls’ Pledge.
Gifted Girls
One of my great passions is gifted girls. I’ve written a lot about how gifted girls disappear, give up their giftedness, and trade their dreams to fit in, be accepted and affiliate. Because of this, I created a gifted girls pledge and asked girls to read it, embrace it and sign it. I then encourage them to keep a copy. This is to remind themselves that they can either be a disappearing gifted girl and be part of the problem, or they can choose to honor their giftedness and use it to fulfill their potential to do something wonderful in the world. That may mean not having as many friends when you’re a child as you would like to have or when you’re a teenager because girls are chameleons.
Girls are Chameleons
Girls hide. Girls know exactly how to pretend to be somebody else to get the love and acceptance they think they want. But it’s hollow because if you’re just pretending to be somebody else, and everybody likes that persona that you have projected, that isn’t really who you are, you end up feeling like they love someone you are not. I tell you this with my whole heart: if you are willing to be yourself and wholly yourself, including your giftedness, people will love you for who you are. And you won’t have to pretend anymore.
Gifted Girls’ Pledge
I pledge to try to be true to myself
I pledge to value and honor my unique perspective
I pledge to be authentic while maintaining connection with others who are different from me.
I pledge to support other girls in valuing their intelligence more than their looks, or body size or shape.
I pledge to compliment other girls and women on their abilities and qualities rather than their appearance.
Think about that? How often do you say to somebody else, “Oh, I love your hair. Oh, that’s such a pretty dress.” And you might not mention, “Wow, you did great on that chemistry test.”
I pledge to be a role model to show younger girls that it is possible to be gifted and feminine.
I pledge to see connection with other gifted girls for mutual support.
I pledge to hold on to my aspirations and believe in my ability to fulfill them.
When you dumb down, you lose your aspirations.
I pledge to remain true to my beliefs and convictions.
I pledge to be kind to myself and not belittle myself.
That means you really listen to the goodness in yourself and complain about the part of you that wants to say, “No, you can’t do it. No, you didn’t do that.” You should have said this; you should have said that. You take charge of that sensor in your head. And instead, you tell yourself positive things about yourself every single day.
I pledge to love my body and be grateful for how it supports me.
That’s a tough one, isn’t it? If you’re judging your body based on a model, or some TV ad, that is belittling your own uniqueness. You must learn how to love your body and help other girls love theirs.
I pledge to be kind to myself and not belittle myself.
That is a problem we really have to take charge of. Every time we say, “Oh, that was stupid. Why did I do that?” Every time we tell ourselves we’re ugly or something bad, we have to stop ourselves from that practice of belittling ourselves, that sensor in all of us. That’s what we really have to pay attention to and not allow it to control us. We have to say instead, “Stop. I don’t want to hear that,” and give yourself a positive message in its place.
This pledge is now on our website on our homepage at gifted development dad org, and it’s under what’s new, so it’ll be easy for you to find, and I hope you will share this with other gifted girls.
Thank you for continuing to follow our series on Bias in Gifted Education. We hope that Vanguard Gifted Academy’s educational blog will continue to be a valuable resource for you. To learn more about this series, check out our previous blog on Giftedness In Its Essence Is From The Inside Out or call Vanguard at (224) 213-0087 – we would love to hear from you!