Evolving Implicit Metaphors for Understanding Giftedness: From Banks to Foundations.

INVESTMENT banking; BANK investments; METAPHOR; SAVINGS banks; COGNITIVE ability

Two implicit metaphors can be seen as having dominated the study of the gifted—the savings bank and the investment bank. In the savings-bank metaphor, people have differential levels of IQ or general intelligence, which is viewed as determining whether they are gifted. Their cognitive ability is their metaphorical "money in the bank." In the investment-bank metaphor, people are seen as having differential investments in varied kinds of abilities and talents. Their pattern of abilities is their metaphorical portfolio of investments. A better implicit metaphor might be the foundation, however, whose effectiveness is judged by the worthiness of the transformational causes to which it contributes and the effectiveness of the use of the foundation's assets toward these causes. A person is gifted by virtue not merely of the assets they have but of how they transformationally deploy those assets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Roeper Review is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)