08/05/2014 
A deeply touching story by a wise woman. Stephanie S. Tolan lost her husband and two sons, last year. Stef has published about gifted children for many years. After the passing of her loved ones, she shares her thoughts about ‘greatness’ and ‘success’. She ends her impressive story thus:
“Every difference has a place. Every life has meaning. Every life.
Will it be a meaning the children themselves will be able to recognize and value? Are we supporting them in that? Do we even know how to support them in that?
I suspect it has to start with the assurance that each of them has a right to be here, has a value to the larger story of humanity on Earth, no matter how like or unlike others they feel they are, whether they feel they fit or not, and no matter how long or short their time here may be. They surely need to see themselves as the hero of their own story. They have an innate right to make their own meaning of it, starting with who they are and what they love. What they do with that should grow from it, not be imposed from outside, or chosen to provide some external proof of their worth.
What can any other success or label, fame or fortune offer? If their story should end tomorrow, what will it have meant?”
Please, also read the ‘About’ page on her blog.
Shell-shocked, I withdrew from the world except for a few obligations: Yunasa, the Institute for Educational Advancement’s camp for highly gifted kids and speaking as a member of the Columbus Group about Asynchronous Development at the World Council’s Conference in Louisville.
At that conference the argument between those (like the Columbus Group) who focus on giftedness as a developmental process innate to out-of-the-ordinary individuals (the child-centered view) and…
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Dick van der Wateren 
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