Faced with the tidal wave of media coverage on thenow very trendy subjectof HPI, how can we overcome the old clichés about giftedness and the new a priori ideas about zebras?
(HPI, gifted, zebras, laminar philo-cognitive, complex philo-cognitive, precocious children)
How can we overcome clichés about people with high intellectual potential?
Old clichés :
– HPIs are little geniuses (theory of relativity, understanding Pi and infinity at age 4, etc.).
– HPIs are brilliant chess and strategy players
– HPIs are more intelligent people (but what is intelligence???)
– HPI people are very gifted at school , especially in scientific subjects.
– HPIs have very often skipped one or more classes
– HPI children have more success at school
– HPI have intellectual and socially elevated professions (engineers, doctors, researchers)
– A gifted person is intelligent
– A gifted person is a living encyclopedia
– They are exceptionally bright children
– HPIs are haughty and feel superior (in fact, they constantly doubt themselves).
– HPIs think they know everything about everything (okay, sometimes that’s true enough).
New shots :
– HPIs think in trees
– HPIs have ADHD
– HPIs have DYS
– They are unhappy
– They have trouble finding their place
– They’re failing at school
– Hyperactive children and adults
– They are associable (cannot live in society)
So, if we go beyond the clichés about HPI (gifted, zebra, high potential, philo-cognitive) and try to find some answers, what do we come up with?
How to overcome clichés about HPI?
Democratize, inform, explain that behind every HPI, there is above all a human being!
That’s what Mel Poinas, creator and author of Suivez le Zèbre (Follow the Zebra), tried to show in an interview with Media Oh My Mag.
And this human being, this HPI, like everyone else, will have his own path with :
– its genetic heritage
– his education
– its environment
– its culture
– his schooling
– his meetings
– its successes
– its failures
– his passions
– his hobbies
– physical skills
– intellectual abilities
– accidents of life
This makes it very difficult to place zebras in a box with specific characteristics which, although necessary, can have a strong barnum effect.
HPI success or failure at school?
– I can be HPI without having skipped a grade.
– I can be HPI and never have been top of the class
– I can be HPI and have failed at school
– I can be HPI and have repeated a year
– I can be HPI and skip a grade
– I can be HPI and not like school
– I can be HPI and love school
– I can be HPI and enjoy school at one time and not at another.
– I can be HPI and manual
– I can be HPI and still be intellectual
– I can be HPI and like intellectual and manual stuff
– I can be HPI and have studied at university or college.
– I can be HPI and have stopped studying at a young age.
– I can be HPI and have a classic or atypical school career.
– I can be HPI and still feel bad about myself
– I can be HPI and be just fine!
We can’t say that all gifted people will skip a grade during their school career. I conducted a survey on 10/07(on Instagram) on a community of 500 detected HPIs.
79% of them had not skipped a grade, compared with 21% who had skipped one or more grades.
In their answers, some also told me thatthey had already repeated a year (once or several times).
Last but not least, having repeated a year can help you succeed in your studies and professional career. On the other hand, it’s possible to have excelled throughout your studies and still not have had the professional career you wanted. Success is personal and subjective!
There are no rules about HPI (gifted, zebra, high potential, philo-cognitive).
Just because you’re HPI doesn’t mean your destiny’s all mapped out!
As for the famous tree thinking, it has never been proven to date.
Human beings use two types of thinking: divergent and convergent.
Depending on the need at any given moment, we’ll use one or the other. There are methods for developing both forms of thinking. An HPI, like any human being, possesses both forms of thought. He’ll just find it easier to develop divergent thinking (that’s what we call out-of-the-box thinking).
In fact, we all use tree thinking or divergent thinking. The more you repeat something, the faster your neuronal connections will be, without necessarily being HPI.
So how do you get past the clichés?
Without talking only about HPI, let’s remain open to difference. I think everyone’s success has more to do with their environment than their genetics!
If you’re well surrounded, safe, loved, then zebra or not, you have every chance of finding happiness and feeling good about your life.
Family, friends, teachers, classmates, tutors, educators, coaches, employers, colleagues – all these people have a role to play in helping children, teenagers and adults. to live in a nicer world ! Being a zebra becomes almost anecdotal if we take human and living beings into account.
In conclusion: be nice!
And if you want to know if you’re HPI, take the test!
There’s a lot of information and misinformation out there about high-potential profiles, intelligence, giftedness, resilience, multi-potentials, atypical profiles…
You can also find more information, resources and tools on Giftedness in Mel POINAS‘ book. With a lot of humor, Mel tells the story of the discovery of her giftedness and the routines she put in place to finally find her place!
Le livre
Écrit par une HPI !
Un témoignage et des solutions concrètes pour découvrir, comprendre et apprendre à vivre en étant HPI.
To go further, you can read
- HPI FAQ
- What is being Gifted?
- Giftedness : 20 characteristics of complex and laminar profiles
- How to take the WAIS 4 test?
- How do you say you are HPI?
- The best books about High Learning Potential
