Speech to open the New Zealand Association for Gifted Children conference, Rangitoto College. Even though I’ve spoken to young people before, I’ve not had to speak to a collective group that has been identified, branded or pigeon-holed as “gifted”. Moreover, it has been a long time since I was a teenager, and although I’ve had many opportunities come my way and I’ve made my “luck”, I would not describe myself as being gifted. However, as a father of five children, two of whom are still teenagers and with one still at secondary school, I like to think I’ve still got a reasonable grasp of some of the issues teenagers and their parents face. Well, that’s what I think - I’m sure our boys would disagree!
