Banjo Rigsby’s Unsolicited Advice for Gifted Children

You are intelligent. Being intelligent is like having a superpower. To paraphrase a line from a superhero movie, "With great intelligence comes great responsibility." You have a responsibility to use your intelligence to do good things, to think big thoughts, to help others who also are intelligent achieve Excellence, and to help others who do not have your powers lead happy and productive lives.

Most of the adults you meet will not be as intelligent as you are. You will notice this. Such adults were not called Gifted when they were children. They did not have the privileges that come with being intelligent. They were not treated as special and placed in advanced classes in school and admitted into elite music and art programs and given scholarships to attend college at world-famous universities with powerful alumni networks that placed them in lucrative management jobs right out of college--as you will. Despite not having such opportunities, most of these adults managed to grow into adulthood and become nice people leading pleasant, productive lives. You do not need to be Gifted or Intelligent to lead a pleasant, productive life. In fact, being intelligent sometimes makes leading such a life more difficult because your intelligence makes you especially aware of injustice, hypocrisy, and other ideas that intelligent people often dwell upon more than they ought to, until they make themselves anxious and unhappy. You want to be happy. Remember that. Happy is good. Happy is a worthy goal. Happy takes work, but you are intelligent enough to achieve it. Happy is a superpower you want to have. It's better than flying, better than invisibility and better than super strength. Happy is the best superpower of them all.

Some adults will tell you that you must act respectfully toward all adults. Just because. That's the way it is. Just do it. However, Banjo is not going to try to make you treat all adults respectfully. He does not particularly care whether you grow up behaving respectfully (although he reserves the right to change his mind in this matter if he is ever asked to supervise you for $10 per hour while your parents are attend a cultural function). He is going to tell you something different. Remember it: All adults, including those less intelligent than you are, are more EXPERIENCED than you are. Experience makes up for a lot of intelligence.

You probably have had at least one teacher who is not as intelligent as you and your Gifted Program peers. But who is doing the teaching? Who has wisdom to impart? Your teacher. He/she knows more than you do about just about everything. Each new facet of your young and fascinating life already has been experienced, more or less, by your teacher. All that you are learning now, he/she has long ago learned and mastered. It will take you many years before you have the experience to combine with your intelligence to have anything of value to teach your teacher. It will happen. But it's going to take a while--until you are at least twice your current age (which sounds like a long time, but is woefully short to those of us with Experience).

The same is true for all other adults--they have more Experience than you do. You have something to learn from each of them, even when they seem to you to be unintelligent. Think of them not as unintelligent, but as lacking your particular superpower. Superman does not think less of people who cannot fly. Wolverine does not think less of people who cannot grow razor-sharp claws when they are angry. You should not think less of people who are not intelligent. Think about what you can learn from them, especially if they are Happy. Learn to identify each person you meet's superpower, and think about how that superpower makes him/her an interesting or good or evil or respectable or unworthy-of-respect person. Use that big brain of yours to ponder life's possibilties as you see them played out in the lives of others. Do not worry about focusing on anything other than thinking, exploring and learning. You will have plenty of time (too much time!) when you are older to focus on something you are good at doing. Good luck!