ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author continues the effort to illustrate how gifted students deal with these mixed messages. More specifically, the author relate what Larry Coleman and he have found to be a reasonable description of the experience of giftedness and how these students cope with life. The combined set of strategies was originally characterized on a continuum of visibility, with “Total Visibility” on one end, “Blending In” in the middle, and “Disidentifying” at the other end. Typically, however, the coping behaviors of gifted students tend to be less harmful, sometimes evolving into behaviors that have some benefit to their academic performance, such as studying more and reading to escape their issues. The lives of gifted students are both the same as and quite different from other students’ lives. When the messages are dissimilar, gifted students will engage in numerous coping behaviors, many of which are detrimental to their development and success as students.
