Of all the mystery surrounding Michael Jackson, his genius has been unquestionable since the onset of his professional career at the age of five.
It also seems clear that most of the adults entrusted with the care of this rare child exploited him for their own fame and fortune. All the love and adoration showered upon Michael Jackson from every corner of the earth thoughout his entire life never seemed to fill those unfathomed voids carved out during his unique childhood.
I remember watching the Bashir Living with Michael Jackson "documentary" several years ago and wondering why, with all the armchair psychologist opinions about Michael Jackson's childhood, no one seemed to be evaluating his childhood experiences as those of a profoundly gifted child.
During the interview, Jackson spoke about his father's reluctance to listen to him sing, insisting that Jermaine was the lead singer of the group, and that he only entertained young Michael at the insistence of his wife. Once he saw his son's talent, Michael was the lead singer. It would certainly be nearly impossible for his older brothers, only children themselves, to feel no envy for their phenomenal little brother taking center stage as they rocketed to superstardom. In the interview, Jackson also spoke about his cousins, and even his father making fun of him during his teenage years, pointing out his greasy face and his large nose. Perhaps his father was trying to keep his young ego in check, never imagining that the ego of someone so brilliant and talented could be so desperately fragile.
Although Michael's giftedness was more profound than most, his story is an excellent example of the hardships all of these children face. First and foremost is the fact that these children are indeed fragile. They contemplate everything on a deeper level than their peers, often more deeply than can express in words. An image of a starving child on the other side of the world may haunt the dreams of a gifted seven-year-old for weeks. Gifted children tend to be hypersensitive, both physically and emotionally. They hear more, smell more, taste more and feel more. These heightened senses can be overwhelming and filtering out the physical and emotional noise can be exhausting. Michael spoke of fainting when his father entered the room. When Mozart was very young, loud sounds would cause him to vomit. Another thing Michael mentioned in the interview was that someone had referred to him as a "forty-two-year-old midget" when he was little. This is another prominent issue with gifted children; their development is asynchronous. They may seem many years older or younger than their chronological age depending on the situation they are in at any given moment.
Most importantly, gifted children are often ostracized by their peers and even the adults around them. They are made to feel weird or odd. Often the people around them feel jealous of their talents, or simply can't understand why a gifted child acts the way she does, whatever her peculiarities may be. If their giftedness has escaped the notice of their parents and teachers, they may even be labeled slow.
The Gifted And Talented Education program at the San Diego Unified School District was founded with the intention of addressing the unique difficulties that gifted children present. Still, many of the GATE certified teachers in the district fail to recognize that gifted children aren't just smart, but challenged in many ways. Michael Jackson is an extreme example of extreme giftedness, but every adult who is parenting or teaching a gifted child can heed the lesson of how important it is to recognize a gifted child's failings as well as his talents.
For more info: Visit the San Diego Unified School District's GATE page.
Comments
giftedness...nobody understands why Vincent cut off his ear
Thank you for your article. This was the very first theory (giftedness) I had thought of, since the passing news of MJ. With personal experience of living with 3 gifted people in the house, I can really relate to your comments.
Giftedness is not well understood by people in general, including many educators and parents. Imaging if MJ's parents were aware of this fact early on, could MJ's life turn out differently and perhaps with MJ still with us today?
I was actually surprised this obvious giftedness of Michael Jackson was not being addressed so far. They talk about his musical talent, about his genius... why not directly saying he was highly (if not profound) gifted? It is so obvious when observing his creativity, his extreme sensibility, and his concerns about the World; you just have to listen to his music or paying attention to his lyrics. Even his androgyny is a common characteristic within many profound gifted. The world admires genius when they are death, but most of them are often wounded by others since their early chilhood. Poor Michael; he was way to good for such a mediocre world, which hurts the ones who give us the best.
Thanks for the comments. It's frustrating how little is understood about giftedness, even today. It's so difficult to raise awareness and advocate for gifted children because many people view these children as advantaged. Society is all too eager to reap the rewards of incredibly talented people, and so unwilling to care for these fragile souls as children. As Jackson's family works to preserve his legacy, I hope they make improving the lives of gifted children one of their goals.
Michael is nt the only gifted artist from a family of artist who was "the chosen one". Celine Dion here in Quebec is too. She is the youngest of 14 children and her mother decided "she" would be the star. Her brothers and sisters were all in the music business.
Of course, the is jalousy, envy from the other ones but, since she has the "profile" of a very guifted child as Michael (he went to see her in Las Vegas for advices for his new show), the is no need to say she is much more balanced. And she always says it's because of the balance she works for in her life. Balance, that's what Michael did not have. Somebody with influence to say: "enough plastic surgery, enough anguish, enough circus, take care of yourself and what can we do to helo you keep your balance?"
Nobody was there for him. And everybody needs someone. (Excuse my english, I'm francophone).
Yes, Michael desperately needed balance. Unfortunately, like many celebrities, he was able to surround himself with people who catered to whims instead of people who truly cared about him.
Celine has been wise enough to not surround herself with people who love her superficially. I wonder also if she had parents who worked to instill balance in her life; balance above ALL else.
Thank you for the article. Nice to read some one saying Michael as a gifted child. It is very unfortunate that the institutes like this exist and still never bother to educate society to not to label a wonderful soul like Michael with different names. It took his life time to say that Michael is a gifted child. Wondering what do the so called journalists get trained to write their own opinions and spread lies to the public? Still using his name for their survival. Glad to read that at least some one like you could come now and tell the world how gifted he is to this world. Hope more people would come forward to tell the truth about this beautiful man inside and outside.
The problem with the GATE program is that it only lets children in who are good at passing tests. The ability to be good at testing is not necessarily a sign of giftedness. I know a child who passed the gate test with flying colors. He sits around every day playing video games and is barely passing his classes. I know another child who failed the GATE test and she plays guitar beautifully and has taught herself to play classical piano and she is on the honor roll. Yet the GATE kids get to go on amazing field trips and have imagination enhancing experiences while the NON-GATE kids aren't allowed such interesting mind-broadening experiences. Why can't all the kids have equal access to wonderful educational experiences? The GATE program is elitist and frankly unfair to the rest of the so-called Non-gifted, Non-talented kids. All kids should have the same chances in school and it is unfair to label some gifted and others as non-gifted by means of excluding them. Explain that to me please.
It is wonderful to read this!! As the parent of a highly gifted child, I could so understand everything about Michael. I am so glad that FINALLY I read an article about him, that taking into consideration his profound giftedness, explains why events of his childhood had such an impact on his adult years. It is so important gifted children get a lot of love, nurturing and understanding. Without that in their childhood, they totally struggle on reaching adulthood. They feel everything to an extreme, not just emotionally but also physically. His emotional pain must have been unbearable.....it's so sad that medication ended up being what he used to numb the pain.
The GATE program extends throughout the state of California and I was a "GATE" student but it was such BS. The best they could do was pass a list around when I was a senior in high school to have us mark our names off to see if we were taking honors courses or not. I gained nothing from the GATE program and I was labeled a gifted and talented child early on. I remained in honors and AP courses only because they were the only courses I could pass because I hated my regular courses. My high school was elitist, if you can imagine elitism is a low-middle income district filled with minorities.
I would really wish the label of "gifted and talented" could be changed to something like autism, something less leading. Being gifted and talented aren't the only symptoms of this kind of brain development. I like the term "asynchronous development" but what about when you're an adult? You still have the same sensitivities, the same sense of isolation.
Well, you've seen Michael Jackson. You kn
I'd like to address the last few comments as one issue. Politely Asking: first of all, the awesome field trips are usually Seminar GATE classes, even Cluster GATE kids are usually excluded, and I agree with your assessment that this is unfair and elitist. As for the GATE test, it's a very specific kind of IQ test, and being a good test taker or a good student, believe it or not, has nothing to do with an exceptionally high IQ. As a matter of fact, when they first began testing students in San Diego, they found that HALF of the kids in the top 2% IQ were doing worse in school than their peers of average IQ. As Margot pointed out, these kids should be given a less leading label than "gifted and talented." The point of the GATE program was to address the unique needs of these kids, but the fact is that it doesn't. Too often, when GATE students under-perform, their teachers are more likely to question whether the child should be in GATE than to question why they failing to reach him.
[continued from last comment] Politely Asking, the girl you speak of may indeed have a high IQ, but not qualify for GATE because it is not "exceptionally" high. Because GATE is perceived as a program for high performing students, it would certainly seem like she should be in it. But the fact is that GATE is not for high performing students; many of them have a lot of problems socially and academically. The program is designed to help those students and try to engage them, but it falls desperately short. When this girl gets into high school, she will take honors and AP courses (which have no association with GATE). She is lucky to have a high IQ without crossing the line into GATE. Certainly, many GATE kids are exactly what you expect; high performing. But many are not; lights are brighter, shirt tags are itchier, background noises can't be tuned out, and next Friday (when the report is due)seems like it's months away, until it's tomorrow, and you haven't even started writing it.
Margot: I know what you're talking about, I went to the same kind of high school.
The problems associated with exceptionally high IQ certainly persist into adulthood. If you fit the mold of the hypersensitive, your saving sense is your humor. Embrace your oddness and those around you usually will as well. Plus, you'll find the other quirky people at work and school.
Margot: I know what you're talking about, I went to the same kind of high school.
The problems associated with exceptionally high IQ certainly persist into adulthood. If you fit the mold of the hypersensitive, your saving sense is your humor. Embrace your oddness and those around you usually will as well. Plus, you'll find the other quirky people at work and school.
The acronym GATE stands for Gifted and Talented NOT for High IQ. These children are not tested for their artistic abilities or creative quotient so I think that this is a complete misnomer. If what you are saying is true then this program should be retitled HIQP- the High IQ Program. This program excludes many children who are very talented and gifted and the fact a program like this exists is in fact deleterious to the majority of children as it send them the message that these "select few" children are gifted and talented inferring that the rest of them are actually Neither gifted Nor talented. This is not acceptible in my book. ALL children should be considered gifted and talented and should all be offered the SAME opportunities at fun, interesting learning experiences, not just a select few who happen to be good at TESTING.
I need to make my point clearer. First, as I said before, I agree that all kids should get the same fun & interesting learning opportunities. I'm not defending the GATE program at all; I think it fails to achieve the goals for which it was created. But I don't think you're understanding the point of the program. Most normal kids will do just fine in school. Most of them will excel at something; art, math, socializing, test-taking. A small number of kids will be desperately below average and need special help. An equally small number will be desperately above average and need special help. The GATE test is designed to find those kids as early as possible and give them the help they need. Half of these "gifted" students score average and below on regular state tests, and are struggling in school; NOT excelling. Most GATE classes are "cluster" classes, which means that only half of the kids are actually "gifted" and the other half are kids who excel in school. I don't like the cluster model because it puts the STRUGGLING gifted kids in a class full of gifted and non-gifted EXCELLING kids, which isn't helpful at all. Kids who are above average, but not "gifted" or in GATE classes will have the opportunity to be in Honors and AP classes in high school, and these classes offer those extra enrichment activities. The above average, but not "gifted," child is in a much better position for success in school than the struggling "gifted" child, even if they miss out on a few cool field trips (though I agree that it's wrong that they miss out). Honestly, I think the field trips are just superficial things that the school district can use as examples of how it addresses the needs of gifted kids, when really it's doing little more than labeling and categorizing these children.
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