Giftedness and International Day of the Gifted – Part 2: ‘Flying Our Communal Global Gifted Awareness Kite- A Sharing of Wisdom and Awareness Gatherings- the Second Tail/Tale’

Giftedness and International Day of the Gifted – Part 2:  ‘Flying Our Communal Global Gifted Awareness Kite-   A Sharing of Wisdom and  Awareness Gatherings- the Second Tail/Tale’

 

Yup.  We do have a lovely kite, just waiting to be flown.

In the first part of this series, I mentioned, the establishment  of ‘ The International Day for the Gifted’, by the WCGTC.  The establishment of this day was based on two observations.

In part one, I spoke about  a  noted desire for a some sort of a World Wide gifted/high ability kids day,  both in the past and then the one that had been campaigned for by  a ‘Cause face book,  page’ over social networks, and initiated by Roya Klinger about a year or so ago.  There were a fair number of followers, coming from a wide range of countries and cultures from around the globe.  When requested to produce a video, for the International Day of Giftedness,  Roya graciously accepted, and, with the help of all these wonderful members of our gifted community,  she made full use of the opportunity that they were given, on the day, to highlight and celebrate gifted kids around the world. Both Roya and those that contributed are to be commended for the inclusion of content, and the production of the video entitled ‘International Day of Gifted Children’., a most beautiful bow to tie onto the German tail on our Kite..  In the spirit of communal sharing, Roya has uploaded this video onto a UTube format, and has been happy for the global gifted community to share this in the interest of raising awareness of gifted children around the world.  See part one.

The other, or second observation,  and the MAIN subject of this post, was  a noted  upsurge, in recent years,  of a number of awareness movements, in various guises, celebrating giftedness across a broader span of subjects and ages, both kids and adults (Innovation, Parenting, Talent Awareness, Gifted Education, and more), that had started to crop up in different countries/parts of the world.~ The Perception that these movements are positive vehicles for change that might benefit from/ or increase in number if given a broader platform of world recognition, was a second major driver.

These efforts were being driven by adults, often gifted adults who through their actions where seeking to support giftedness, talent and creativity not only in children but across life spans.  Gifted children grown up, and giving back.

• Note: It is for this reason , after much deliberation, between different ideas and terminologies, that the name The International Day of the Gifted, was finally chosen by the WCGTC, as an over arching term, for this day. The gifted do start out as children,  and having awareness of their needs, their talents/gifts is extremely important. However, they do not stay as children but do/will need support and validation as they move along the continuum of growing up.  Efforts in these directions need to be encouraged and celebrated as well, and the adults they become. Many of these gifted children grow up and then return, using their talents to work on efforts supporting next generation gifted.

The Gifted Photo Quote Project, was/is a response to this second theme, allowing for ongoing contributions from those wishing to raise awareness, and to share their contributions/experiences with all other individuals or  gifted awareness raising efforts around the world, a second bow for our kite was born.  This bow, this photo quote project , which could/can be added to and used by the entire gifted community, was suggested by Mary St. George in New Zealand.  The idea being that it would become a communal archive of photo quotes used to raise awareness.  Mary credits the original use/idea of a format like this to group Purpose Education   The project was set up through a flikr account in June 2011, and can be seen, added to, or accessed here.  These are all just wonderful, and it is important to acknowledge all these wonderful contributions, from the global gifted community, and to all those in the future who will hopefully continue to contribute and use them. Bows attached to the New Zealand tail/tale….

A sampling of these images were/are displayed,  in Royas wonderful video, which, again, serves to remind us of who all these raising awareness efforts are for, the most vulnerable in our community, the  gifted/high ability kids. A larger number of these images/quotes   also were/are displayed as part of the background power point presentation displayed during the first celebration at the conference. See presentation here.

International Day of the Gifted-3

In this display, there also  lies the ‘Third tale/tail’:   in which it is hoped that more countries will attach their tails to this  communal global gifted awareness kite.  A lead into the Year of Giftedness and Creativity.  All of  which will be explored more in depth in Part 3.  In brief however:

In keeping with   the purpose of the International Day of the Gifted, as that of Celebrating gifted children, who will become gifted youth and then adults,  AND showcasing efforts to raise awareness of gifted around the world, I felt it really important t to actively engage and encourage other countries to think about initiating a national day/week on which to celebrate their gifted and talented children/populations. With this in mind,  and before the conference,  the global gifted community over the networks were asked for help collecting information on a number of these days/weeks. The  Power point  presentation I created  also included this information.  As seen, each initiative has it’s own slide display , to include the title, map and web contact if supplied.  These Celebratory Awareness Slides are nestled amongst the number of  photo quotes  images used for the background display at the Celebration at 19^th   WCGTC World Conference.

 

It was/is my hope that by sharing/making  this presentation available here, and on slide share, which also has a link to the flikr photo quote site on it, that more countries will become encouraged, and we can/will add  more slides to the presentation as these national/state/province efforts are established/ around the world develop.  The presentation has seven countries so far, and I would encourage anyone who has information on others that they would like to add, or have been missed,  to  please leave a comment here,  or contact the WCGTC through the website or face book page.  The additions will be gladly  and joyfully made.  As each of these slides are added, another tail is added onto out kite,  a tail on which to add the bows: news of any awareness activities, events or steps forward each/your country may be having and brings us closer to our Kites  launch..adding more and more colours and making it more visible to all.

More gentle hands together , and suggested how’s to holding  on to it’s string…  in Part three ;-D