What is it like to be smarter than 95% of the people you meet? Fifty-four-year-old Alison says, "They told me I was smart and I cried. I wanted to be sexy, or glamorous!" Jean, 38, laments, "I learned the whole job in six weeks, and now I'm bored." Gifted Grownups, Marylou Kelly Streznewski's unprecedented, 10-year study of 100 gifted adults, examines how being identified as a "smart kid" early on affects career choices, friendships, and romantic pairings later in life. Why do some talented and gifted people become Mozarts and Einsteins or corporate chieftains, while others drop out of school, struggle to hold down jobs, or turn to self-destructive behavior? What are the signs of giftedness, its pitfalls, and its promise? Marylou Streznewski provides answers to these and other questions, and creates an intriguing picture of what it is like to have an accelerated mind in a slow-moving world. Traditionally, the gifted were measured in terms of intelligence only, and anyone with an IQ score higher than 130 was automatically grouped in with that misunderstood minority. Recently "giftedness" has been redefined to include qualities like extraordinary creative, leadership, or physical skills. Heightened perception, sensitivity, humor, and the ability to put complex ideas together quickly are also aspects of giftedness. These gifts affect the way talented adults react to their friends, families, jobs, and life challenges. Doing for gifted grownups what the bestselling Driven to Distraction did for adults with attention deficit, Gifted Grownups traces many types of gifted adults, including the high-testing, power-achieving Striver; the popular scholar or athlete Superstar; and the creative intellectual, free-spirit Independent. Here for the first time and in their own words, 100 gifted grownups, from ages 18 to 90, and a variety of family and educational backgrounds, occupations, social classes, and races, count the blessings and tally the costs of a high-powered mind. "Highly informative and interesting."--Alice Miller, author of The Drama of the Gifted Child "This book was a delight. It affirmed my own experiences and observations. The author makes her study come alive ...through the voices of real people talking about their experiences...I highly recommend this book. i--Joanne Rand Whitmore, PhD, Professor and Dean College and Graduate School of Education, Kent State University "Many readers will recognize their own experiences.--Lita Linzer Schwartz, PhD, ABPP Distinguished Professor Emerita, Pennsylvania State University. "This thoughtful book ...has taken us one step further in our understanding of how and why some talented individuals realize their potential while others do not."--Dr. Sally M. Reis, Professor of Educational Psychology, The University of Connecticut. "Gifted Grownups meets a long-awaited need. This book would be of interest, not only to gifted education professionals, but also to parents, teachers in general, and to gifted individuals of all ages.--E. Paul Torrance, Georgia Studies of Creative Behavior, author of Gifted and Talented Children in the Regular Classroom. ISBN 0-471-29580-9

作、譯者介紹

作者

瑪麗露．凱莉．史特拉斯紐司基（Marylou Kelly Streznewski），教育碩士，擁有超過二十年的資優教育經驗，曾在高中及大學裡教寫作，並教過銀髮人士。本身是三代資優傢族的一員，她的先生及四個小孩都是資優人士，因此更深切瞭解資優人士的處境。教學之餘，史特拉斯紐司基的觸角也伸展至戲劇、新聞報導、小說及詩，她的小說及詩作曾多次得獎。

譯者

丁凡，留美遺傳學碩士，由分子生物研究轉戰教育界，對學習障礙、另類教育獨具興趣。目前是自由文化工作者，同時學習、創作、寫作、翻譯、演講、教課，正在學非洲鼓、直笛、戲劇、雕塑。翻譯《因纔施教》、《分心不是我的錯》、《瑟榖傳奇》、《如果男人有月經》﹔著作《小孩萬歲》、《留級生教授》等十餘本。

個人網頁：http://www.balas.dyndns.org

唐宗漢，自學而成的i18n技客、網路運動／藝術／去科層人、連環創業傢。忙著找人翻譯各種自由軟體與相關書籍，偶或為開放源碼和穿戴式運算打打廣告。參與過《我的電腦探索》、《獨當一麵》的寫作，及十餘本電腦書籍的翻譯與編輯。現任傲爾網資訊公司董事長、藝立協社群成員、颱北Perl推廣組召集人。