This article examines possible reasons why some teachers and parents feel threatened by gifted children and why some exceptional pupils deliberately under-achieve. There is discussion of the meaning of Creativity in the terms of the defensive, productive, adaptive, elaborative and developmental thinker together with exploration of possible concomitant problems.
Part II
Too frequently university students are forced to suppress their desire to explore creatively because of the pressure to acquire suitable grades within a set syllabus which too frequently stresses the absorption of factual knowledge rather than the exploration of ideas. Many of the most creative students form the main body of university “drop outs”.
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