Ungifted Paperback – March 24, 2015

As other reviewers have noted, Ungifted is part personal story, part professional opinion, and lots of reviewed and summarized research.As for the research, this book is not an easy, engaging layperson's read along the lines of Bronson and Merryman's Nurture Shock, which I also enjoyed. In Ungifted, be prepared for some intellectual heavy lifting at times. The author is reviewing and summarizing tons of studies, painting a picture as complex as the topics he covers, as well as highlighting areas where more research is needed to answer remaining mysteries. When he was talking about something I wasn't that interested in, I became a bit bored slogging through all the material. But when it was a topic I was interested in, I appreciated every last drop of the information. Having read this cover to cover, I'd advise readers who find themselves in the midst of a topic they're not as interested in as others to just skim along a bit. You don't need to digest everything to understand the overall points he's making.When it comes to the author's personal story and informed opinions, this has got to be one of the most likeable authors whose work I've ever read -- a mix of humility, vulnerability, compassion, determination, intelligence, humor and great accomplishment. Throughout the book are instances where what researchers know and what happens in practice to students are at odds. The author's personal story illustrates many lessons learned from the research he reviews on the landscape of human intelligence and achievement, but he's also enough of an exception to some of those correlations to serve as a vivid reminder that all should be encouraged and supported. While there are variables that increase or decrease one's likehihood of, say, getting a PhD from Yale, the author illustrates that we always need to be open to letting people surprise us.Something I noticed is that the author seems to have come from a loving home with at least middle class, if not greater, resources. He had access to, and time to pursue, opportunities (some of which the author himself created) that helped him navigate an alternative route to high achievement as an adult. It's no secret that money buys advantage and opportunity, and such access by no means diminishes the author's achievements or the grit, creativity, intelligence and determination that won them. Lots of young people have time and resources but never do a quarter as much with them as this author.The author's story did, however, get me thinking of the loss we endure as a society when we not only underestimate certain students' abilities but also fail to provide them -- if their parents cannot -- with opportunities and resources enabling them to navigate an alternative route to achievement. The voices of people who've "come up" through non-traditional paths, like the author's, have a lot to contribute that cannot be obtained from others. How many voices never contribute to our understanding and well-being when millions of poor children have only closed doors if they are underestimated during their school years? Existing efforts to help economically poor children level the playing field seem to focus on those who most closely fit our traditional expectations for high potential. What about all the others?The prejudices against economically poorer students' abilities strikes me as similar to the prejudices we hold against K-12 students like the author once was. The author had one of these formidable challenges to overcome, but fortunately not both. Had the author been economically poor as well, I doubt he'd be the researcher and fine teacher he is, through both his intellectual power and personal example. What a tremendous loss that would have been. This book should go a long way in explaining what we know and don't yet know about the depth and breadth of human intelligence and achievement, how to maximize potential, and why we should never snuff out any student's dreams in service to our own preconceived notions about what's possible.

I read it and found it interesting. Of how we are treated. These IQ tests are designed to test you if you are smart or not. But to find out how well educated you. But they used it to place you classification of are you mental retarded, average, or gifted or even a genius. But what if you were tested and you did you do well. But you have talent in math or poetry. Or something else. But you were stamped as mentally retarded. You weren't except to do so well. You weren't excepted to get better than your average below average classification.Okay imaging you were educated in a time. Before internet, cable, satellite tv. Laptop computers, Cellular phone, tablets, etc, etc. The only information was your local library. And that was only as good of what they had in there shelves. You when through school being the educated to the best they believed you could understand. And never had the chance to improve your skills and education to the maximum. To put it simply you weren't give the first chances. Never mind the second or third change.You grew-up hoping that you can improve your skills to get ahead. But to only find out that stigma is still with you. You shouldn't do well. If you halve a great day. And do great. You were told you couldn't do so well. That you cheated. They know you. It impossible for to do it. You start to believe that your not so smart. That they're test is right. But you that they wrong. Because don't understand why. They simple states that the way things are.If you don't fit in their catalog. They place you that category that fit the major problem. When after several gridding years you were put in regular classes with no help. To improve you normal classes. So you would do poor. Said by your high school years. By accident the first IQ testing were wrong. They re-testing and your more smart average you have stigma of being retarded. But you still don't believe because you don't have the information of the modern era of information.What of the those who are lost. What there potential. What about forgotten. What terrible wasted.

I couldn't read it quickly because as a late-diagnosed, at 44, autistic human I kept running into similar and same experiences to Dr. Kaufman's, not to mention having put together back in my teens and twenties a LOT of the observations and conclusions he puts forth as fairly recent scientific and clinical "discoveries" about autism and education. This book really brought up many emotions from way, way down deep, and so it took me the better part of two weeks to read it. Also, there was a lot of information to unpack in there, and I sometimes had to go read up on some other things he mentioned in it in order to understand fully what he was talking about. (That's pretty cool to have to do, really.) -- 5/5. Recommended.

Interesting quest that reveals quite a lot of the author himself as well as a contemporary history of ideas about intelligence. Focus is on USA but applies more widely too. Readable. Would be of interest to anyone in the field of education/schooling.

A really good book. Part autobiography, part psychology and deeply engrossing about the subject of intelligence.Scott is so right to say that we have too narrowly defined and tested for intelligence. There is so much potential that has been ignored or repulsed by a narrow definition of what intelligence is.Well worth reading.

This chap is brilliantly insightful. Made me reconsider my own personal journey and helped me see where I can be more helpful to others on their journeys.

Reading

This book starts off with a candid admission from Kaufman- he was labeled as having a learning disability as a child and was told he had to repeat Grade 3. Yet Kaufman never felt like he was "too dumb" to succeed. Just different. So each chapter starts off with a tale of his life, and how we rose above his diagnosis into eventually attending prestigious graduate schools and becoming a professor. This personal touch really adds emphasis to this book, but it also sets up a strong caution- Kaufman has a personal axe to grind against single measures of intelligence in general, and IQ in particular. IQ hurt him, it hindered him. So did SATs and GREs. So he's not at all a fan of them on their own.What he is a fan of is looking at what intelligence is, what it means, and how it's measured. Psychologists still don't have a firm answer as to what intelligence is. Most definitions revolve around being able to cope with your environment efficiently, but clearly that's not all there is. IQ itself is a fairly limited measure, developed to identify struggling students (or students with the potential to struggle). The problem with IQ and other unitary measures of intelligence is that they can only capture a particular slice of intelligence. They can't recognize talents or abilities that lie outside of their testing scope.More generally, Kaufman explores the nature of "g", otherwise called "general intelligence". It is the ability that correlates with one's achievements on all tests. It relates to working memory and the ability to learn new information quickly. However, it does not help explain savants, or even just talent in an area (e.g., Wayne Gretzky's off-the-charts hockey IQ was almost certainly higher than his standard IQ). Kaufman also explores Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences and finds it wanting as well, given problems with intercorrelations of some of its items and measurement concerns. I'm surprised he didn't take greater aim at Sternberg's triarchic theory of intelligence that I've always found vague, descriptive, and of very little help. Then again, Sternberg was one of his graduate supervisor's and it would be poor form to take aim at him.The book itself benefits from Kaufman's knowledge of the field and its researchers. There is a lot of data within this book. Someone without a background in psychology might find it heavy going, especially the neuroscience in the chapter on creativity. But it is worth the effort as it really tells a comprehensive tale and the presentation of the data allows the reader to make up their own minds about the state of the field.So why only four stars? Two reasons. First, you can hear his frustration with his past challenges coming through almost every page. While it's understandable that he was frustrated by his challenges, and it's clearly a major motivation for his life's work (and this book), I didn't need to feel it in every page. He also doesn't do a lot to talk about the value of standardized testing. Yes, it's limited. Yes, it was designed to be, and so should be, only one part of a suite of various measures of individual capacity. All things that I agree with. But we also have to face the reality that not every child is as intelligent as every other child. Some children are faster than others, yet do we claim that any child can be a world-champion sprinter? Do we allow, encourage, and thus expect every child to be a theoretical physicist? Kaufman, to his credit, does raise some of these issues but he never really tackles them. Instead, he champions diversity. Which is laudable and I agree with him. Let's focus on individual strengths as much as possible. However, the reality is that modern life involves competition, competition involves talent, and talent involves both practice and ability. It also involves finite resources. As much as we would like to comprehensively measure and build on each child's strengths, the current systems do not have the capacity to do so. So for now, as Kaufman says, let's not throw out the baby with the bath water.Ultimately then, this is a serious book about a serious topic. It includes personal stories and opinions, as well as lots of data and some applied recommendations. It does have limitations, but they are largely overshadowed by the strengths of this book. For anyone serious about understanding the nature of intelligence in children and adults, Ungifted is an excellent overview of what we know. So I have no problems in recommending this book, and would like to give it 4.5/5 stars, but settled with 4 as a conservative estimate of its worth. That doesn't mean I don't think it's worth getting, it means it's worth keeping an open and skeptical mind when you're reading it. Which is probably what Kaufman would encourage! So if you are interested in your intelligence, children's intelligence, or the teaching and measure of intelligence, this is a very good to excellent book to go with.