[HPforGrownups] Re: SHIP Ron/ Hermione /Golpalott's Third Law

[Shaun Hately]

No: HPFGUIDX 151425

On 25 Apr 2006 at 12:42, silmariel wrote:

> Have to agree. I think Hermione is supossed to be gifted, but she has to study 
> too much and put too much work into her studies to achieve her academic 
> levels. I can't see her as truly gifted. It should be easier for her, after 
> all, she is not in a gifted children school competing with her peers, to be 
> over the top, she shouldn't have to work so hard. Just IMO.

Well, your opinion is as valid as anyone elses, but let me explain 
as someone whose done a lot of work with a lot of gifted kids over 
the years, why I would say Hermione is definitely gifted and more 
than gifted.

First of all, just because Hermione studies very hard doesn't mean 
that she actually needs to study that hard. Hermione seems to be 
what we would generally describe as a gifted perfectionist - and 
that's an area I know a lot about. It's the area of giftedness, I'm 
most cited on.

http://tinyurl.com/oolxd

I should that some gifted children actually do need to study quite a 
bit. Giftedness has different forms and some of those actually 
require a lot of study to express themselves - the giftedness in 
those cases is more in the ability to synthesise and express ideas, 
rather than in the area of having such a good memory that study can 
be minimised. Personally I don't think Hermione has that type of 
giftedness - I think she probably does have a good memory - but 
there are gifted kids like that.

But I say, I think Hermione is a gifted perfectionist and that is 
the reason for her excessive amount of studying. I really don't 
think Hermione needs to do as much study as she does to perform 
well, but being a perfectionist, she does a lot more than she needs 
to (one of the two ways perfectionism most often expresses itself - 
the other is in not studying at all, because if you don't try, you 
have an excuse for failure).

Hermione got very close to the highest possible marks in her OWLS. 
In fact, she got the highest possible mark in ten of them, and the 
second highest possible mark in the eleventh.

The thing is, we have no way of knowing for certain if Hermione 
*just* got her ten O's - or if she got those ten O's easily. Perhaps 
Hermione did ten times as much study as she needed to get those O's 
- perhaps she could have got them with one tenth of the study. The 
mere fact that Hermione studied a lot doesn't mean she had to study 
that much. I've seen this pattern with quite a few gifted 
perfectionists. Studying to a far greater extent than they needed to 
do.

And bear in mind that according to Ron, Hermione was actually 
disappointed with her results. Virtually perfect results and still 
disappointed - a classic perfectionist response.

No, Hermione is not in a special school for gifted children.

But she's doing eleven OWLs when it seems it is normal to do nine. 
And at one stage, she was doing another two extra subjects with the 
aid of a Time Turner, which Professor McGonagall had to write all 
sorts of letters to the ministry to get - it's not normal for 
students to be allowed to carry the workload Hermione had in her 
third year, which does suggest to me that she must be unusual, and 
more importantly judged to be unusual by McGonagall - a teacher who 
seems to have very high standards.

She also does *exceed* the highest level expected of students at 
least twice that we know of.

In first year, she gets 112 percent in her Charms exam.

In third year, she gets 320 percent in her Muggle Studies exam.

This indicates that Hermione does study more than she needs to. This 
girl doesn't stop studying when she knows she's passed. She doesn't 
even stop studying when she's met the standard her school regards as 
perfect - worth 100%. She keeps studying even after she's done more 
than enough. So viewing the fact she studies very hard as an 
indication that she isn't as smart as she appears, seems to me to be 
rather unjustified. She studies because she is driven to. The 
standard the school requires doesn't interest her - she's aiming to 
do as well as she possibly can whether that is at the standard of 
the school, or even higher.

I think things could be easier for Hermione if she wasn't a 
perfectionist and wasn't driven in this way. If she could be happy 
with passing or even if she could be happy with 100%. But she isn't 
that type of person.

100% isn't good enough - not when marks of 112% or 320% are 
achieveable.

Hermione works to her potential. Not to the potential expected of a 
student of her age.

Yours Without Wax, Dreadnought
Shaun Hately | www.alphalink.com.au/~drednort/thelab.html
(ISTJ)       | drednort at alphalink.com.au | ICQ: 6898200 
"You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one
thing in common. They don't alter their views to fit the 
facts. They alter the facts to fit the views. Which can be 
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