What does it mean to be gifted?

This is something Danielle Nicholson, a teacher at Central Otago REAP’s One Day School, thinks about often. She leads a programme for gifted Year Five and Six children who are pulled out of the regular classroom one day a week and put in a learning environment catering specifically to their needs.

“There’s a great deal of misunderstanding about what the word means,” Danielle said. “Being gifted doesn’t mean a child will be successful - it’s really important these children are taught to use their gift.” 

Surprisingly, gifted children are much more likely to fail university than other high achieving students, which is just one of the many unexpected things about the ‘gifted’ label.

While best diagnosed by a psychologist, there are a range of traits often shared among gifted children: having a greater depth of emotion than others at a young age, a stronger sense of idealism and justice and often presenting as overly sensitive. A high IQ may play a role, but experts disagree on the efficacy of IQ as a measurement of giftedness, and it can be other characteristics, from a highly developed sense of humour to a tendency to disengage in the classroom, that can indicate a child might be gifted. 

Helping gifted children manage these varied traits - and the advantages and disadvantages they bring - is Danielle’s specialty.

After first training as a teacher in her hometown of Auckland, Danielle almost immediately found her niche working with gifted children. A two-year ‘trial run’ moving down south with her husband and first baby while on maternity leave became permanent when her dream job became available through REAP. 

After 13 years teaching the One Day School, she is still incredibly passionate about the role. Our conversation ranges from discussing hobbies to her studies and where she grew up, but it keeps quickly returning to gifted children and the One Day School programme. 

Being gifted is labelled as a disability in some countries, and Danielle says without nurturing it, it can have serious impacts on someone’s life as a child and then as they become an adult. 

“Generally speaking, boys identify as developing behavioural problems and girls have emotional problems. We diagnose boys to girls 5:1 because boys’ symptoms are more noticeable.”

Everything she teaches the children must help them succeed in life far beyond school, and it’s far from the maths or science test-measured environment of a regular classroom. “If it’s only useful this year I won’t teach it.”

A tall order - but Danielle thrives in her chosen environment, and ongoing research informs the way she teaches. 

“The lens through which these children see the world is different from the everyday child,” Danielle says. “We teach them about social, emotional, and ethical development as well as high level thinking so they can learn more about themselves and become successful humans.” 

And interestingly, she wants them to fail sometimes: “If a gifted child doesn’t reach the point where they fail at something, they’re not pushing themselves hard enough.

“There’s a dopamine hit that comes from doing challenging activities, and they feel it more because they’re generally more emotional, but get the opportunity less often [because they’re less stimulated in a regular classroom].”

After repeating the mantra to challenge themselves to her students many times, Danielle decided it was time to do the same herself, which is how she ended up founding and running the Contact Epic bike race (around Lake Hawea) without any specific experience in the area. 

While she was looking for inspiration, the bike race idea was floated by her sporty husband (Sergeant Aaron Nicholson who retired from the police force in 2018). Danielle’s not one for bike riding but she is an “organiser by nature”.

“My husband is massively into the outdoors and does the exciting stuff. I sit in the office and do logistics.” 

She says the multi-job life is typical of people in Wanaka. 

The Nicholsons have two children who each have “very different learning styles” - the elder is now at university and the younger one is at Mount Aspiring College. They’ve become true Wanaka kids - one even called her a ‘Jafa’ not long ago. Danielle wears her Aucklander badge proudly, but she loves Wanaka too.

“I don’t love the cold but I love the people and the sense of community and that all groups here intermingle - even if by accident. Your character rings true in the end when you live here.”

She’s also a keen skier; loves walking, yoga, wine, food, and people but, as it does throughout our conversation, her work returns to the fore and is at the top of her list of interests. “My true passion is teaching gifted children.”

It’s rewarding work: Danielle said some of the most heartening moments have been watching the students learn about world events, from climate change to the Christchurch terror attacks, and talk compassionately and thoughtfully about how they can take action to make positive change. 

When I met with Danielle, she’d been visited that morning by a former student who is now studying at an overseas university.

“He’s just divine,” she says “and doing incredibly well. He talks a lot about the impact the school had on him. I think he’ll go on to do real good in the world.”

PHOTO: Supplied