From ‘gifted’ to ‘ordinary’: What happens when kids are told they’re the best

National

Education

Opinion

Don’t tell children they’re ‘gifted’. Call them this instead

Eleanor Kirk Writer September 15, 2025 — 7.30pm

I remember the first time I realised I was brilliant. I was in year 3, and we had just sat one of those statewide tests in mathematics. My teacher, a tight-lipped 50-something who never joked except on the last day of term, handed out everyone’s certificates in order of how well they’d done (insane) – starting with those who had received a “Participation”, then the “Credits”, and finally the lauded “Distinctions”. I didn’t know what any of those words meant. All I knew was that, when she’d reached the end of the Distinctions, I was the only one left sitting empty-handed.

“You may have noticed Eleanor didn’t receive anything”, she said ominously