Gifted and Talented
I can't find it now, but the other day I read a post online about how the phrase "Gifted and Talented" is a destructive thing to apply to a child. It explained how it places undue pressure on them to constantly achieve to a level that they may not reach by adulthood. When they reach adulthood and haven't become, say, supreme overlord and commander in chief of all humanity, or filled the top 40 charts with 40 of their songs, or broke every Olympic athletics record, or overpainted the Cistene Chapel ceiling with something a billion times better, then they feel like a total failure in life.
Thinking back to my schooldays I was always a bright child, eager to please my teachers and show off my knowledge. Always first with my hand up to answer a question. I particularly excelled at art. An avid doodler at home, I was never far from pen and paper and I loved the way I could express myself in art lessons at school.
My art teachers were always full of praise for my application and my imagination, my school reports were always glowing. I naturally chose Art as an 'O' Level and, throughout those 2 years of work towards that qualification, my teacher - the head of the Art Department no less - always scored me top marks. At a parent's evening he told me parents I would go on to do great things.
In my head I had plans: Art 'O' Level - Art 'A' Level (or an Art Foundation course in college) and then study Art at University; leading to a glittering career in art.
Reader, I failed art 'O' Level.
I retook it as a condensed year-long course in Sixth Form, but that meant I missed out on doing 'A' Level art and, according to my massively disappointed teacher, the Art Foundation course at College.
I left school and spent 10 years in retail before getting a job in desktop publishing, which slightly rekindled my arty leanings. I've since moved to a slightly more creative job, but I've never shaken the feeling that the wonderkid starting out on his 'O' Level Art course would be gutted to see where he ended up, when he was kind of promised a glittering career in art. It made me feel like a failure since I left school, that I never lived up to my promise and that's been quite damaging to my self esteem and it still affects me now.
So I can see where this internet opinion has merit. I know I shouldn't be too hard on myself, but it's difficult to live up to the high expectations when you've been bigged up so much. Anything less than being the new Rembrandt or Van Gogh would have been a failure and that's not a fair thing to hang on the shoulders of a 15 year old kid.