推荐一本书 Gifted Lives by Joan Freeman

Gifted Lives: What Happens when Gifted Children Grow Up             Joan Freeman reveals the dramatic stories of some outstandingly gifted people as they grew from early promise to maturity in Britain. She has collected their intimate biographies through intereviews for 35 years. Their experiences and feelings throw light on how it is to be gifted and why some did not realise their potential,whilst others reached fame, fortune and happiness. The gifted people in the book have a range of intellectual, social and emotional gifts, including mathematics, the arts, empathy and spirituality. As well as negotiating the basic trials of growing up, the particular abilities of these exceptional people often meant they were confronted with special emotional challenges, such as over-anxious and pushy parents, teacher put-downs, social trip-wires, loss of fun time, boredom and bullying in school and conflicting life choices.

In their own words, they tell how seemingly innocuous events such as skipping one or more school grades could have life-long consequences. The reader can see the effects of a brilliant mind when you are ethnically different or suffering serious depression. And how a world-class pianist copes when repetitive strain injury strikes, or a young financier when he hits his first million. Joan Freeman’s interpretations and insights of the twists and turns of the lives of these extraordinary people are fascinating and deeply moving. She shows us that while fate played a large part in their successes, so did a personal outlook which could see and grab a fleeting chance, overcome great odds, and put in the necessary hard work to lift childhood prodigy to greatness. Readers will identify with many of the intriguing aspects of these people’s lives, and perhaps learn something about themselves too. Click here to read more about Joan's new Book.

Professor Freeman is Founding President of the European Council for High Ability (ECHA), a dynamic world-wide association. She is an elected Fellow of the British Psychological Society, Honorary Fellow of the College of Teachers and Patron of the National Association for Able Children in Education (NACE). She is Founder and Chair of the think-tank, the Tower Education Group, which is carrying out world-wide research. Joan has given hundreds of invited addresses on every continent. She appears regularly on television in her own programmes and often on the news, as well as in the popular media. She is Visiting Professor at Middlesex University, London