In the World of Gifted Advocacy, We All Have a Voice

Global Gifted Advocates

Gifted advocates throughout the world share one commonality: our goal is to see every gifted child receive the educational, social, and emotional support they need to fulfill their life’s potential regardless of their zip code, the color of their skin, or any diversity or learning differences they possess. We want every gifted child to have the best opportunity to become who they were meant to be, whatever that may be.

Gifted advocates everywhere are tackling our mutual goal in various ways, using a multitude of tools and marching down different paths. This is as it should be—creating an understanding for the world’s gifted people necessitates a far-reaching, multilevel approach.

Advocacy in Many Ways

Within our community of gifted advocates, whether we are teachers, university professors, mental health professionals, or parents, we are all advocating in ways we feel are necessary and which make sense to us. From the revolutionaries who spark needed change, to the advice-givers who share their wisdom with others, to the healers and the helpers who nurture and support gifted people—we spread the understanding of giftedness in our own way.

Gifted advocates use a plethora of communication tools and the focus of our communications vary—writing articles for various publications, sharing our personal experiences through our blogs, emailing information to others, attending face-to-face meetings with our schools or other concerned professionals, giving professional presentations, joining or forming advocacy groups, utilizing our social media accounts with focused posts, authoring books about giftedness, providing mental health services for gifted children. All of these modes and processes are effective and necessary; they combine for a mighty global advocacy crusade to improve the lives of our gifted children. But, change for our gifted children, gifted families, and gifted adults has been painfully slow, and we still have a tremendous mountain to move to spread a real understanding about the unique needs of gifted people.

Every voice, every personal story, every anecdote, every bit of advice, every complaint, every statistic, every resource, every research study—all are essential in promoting an understanding of giftedness. And these can be a welcomed lifesaver for a struggling gifted family, a gifted child, or a gifted adult, somewhere, somehow.

Why I Advocate

Once, as a bewildered and emotional mother of three gifted sons, I had been searching the internet using keywords that described the school-related issues one of my gifted sons was having. I landed on a gifted children’s website that, without it, I would have been unable to effectively advocate for my son. The site was a forum for parents of gifted children, and all of the forum members’ stories helped me to see I was not alone on this difficult journey of raising gifted children.

Without the personal stories about gifted problems, gripes about schools, complaints about educational issues, and other common difficulties raising gifted children, I would have mistakenly continued my focus on fixing my son as though his giftedness was his fault. If not for this gifted children’s forum, I likely would not have continued my search for more information about the unique issues we were facing. I gained valuable insight from this online forum. I was so grateful for the help I found in there, and how it sent me down the right path. The lifesaver for me was that I no longer felt alone.

One website changed my family’s entire trajectory—it put us on the best path forward. Imagine what your advocacy, your voice, and your knowledge can do to help others on their gifted road.

Why You Should Advocate

Every voice, every personal story, every concern, every bit of advice, every statistic, every news article, every book—it all adds up to a more compelling global discussion and a more dynamic world-wide gifted advocacy network.

Your story, your words, your advice, your resources, your experiences, and your voices are necessary in the world of gifted advocacy. We all have a place, a much-needed place, where we can use our voices to advocate for all gifted children and gifted adults throughout the world. Whether it is voicing our concerns for our gifted child at a parent-teacher conference, directing a compelling documentary about giftedness, or heading up a world organization for gifted children, it is all part of the equation for effective gifted advocacy.

One Can Become Many

Our single voice can become many. One tweet sharing a new gifted research study can lead to many retweets and more knowledge about giftedness. One conversation between two concerned parents with gifted children can lead to the organization of a gifted advocacy group. One Facebook share of a powerful article can lead to multiple shares and the validation an anxious mom needs to understand her gifted child. One angry mom sharing her story about the painful struggles of her gifted child can lead to writing a book to help anyone on their journey of raising gifted children. One share, one tweet, one conversation can grow into many.

One leads to many, propelling our gifted advocacy efforts to new heights. The world of gifted advocacy necessitates everyone’s perspective, everyone’s story, everyone’s advice, and everyone’s voice. Will you lend yours?

No matter what you have to say, lend your voice to the world’s conversation about giftedness. It is up to all of us to raise our voices singly and collectively. Change can happen when we all advocate together, and together, we can move that mountain.