I've been having some fun finding all kinds of interesting days devoted to different topics that I think would appeal to gifted kids and their parents.  Today, for example, is Peculiar People Day.

It's a day meant to celebrate the unique and the different -- those who are seen as abnormal, odd, strange, unusual, extraordinary, or just plain different. Maybe I should add "weird," nerdy," and "geeky" to that list, but then I guess those would fit under odd and strange, at least to some people.


To me, all those things are quite normal.  Gifted kids often have a hard time fitting in and making friends. They will sometimes try to change who they are. Some gifted girls, for example, will "dumb down," which means that they will pretend they aren't as smart as they are.

Why not embrace their uniqueness, being "different"?  It's certainly not easy, but it's something I had encouraged in my son from the day he began getting teased and ostracized at school (which was pretty much the first day of kindergarten).  He finally realized that the best way to deal with it all was to accept who is was and celebrate it. When the kids would tell him he was weird, his new response was, "What's wrong with being weird?"  What indeed!