#Called and gifted book full#

Students complete an individual ‘impact project’ over two terms. This programme includes learning units based on philosophy, anthropology, coding and electronics, neuroscience, political science, sustainability, robotics, physics, and astrophysics. Year 9 students work with a specialist teacher.

Years 9 and 10 ACEE (formerly GATE)Īcademically gifted an talented students in Years 9 and 10 may be invited into an option called ACEE (Academic Extension and Enrichment).

High achievers in sport and culture are also well supported at St Andrew’s through a range of programmes and initiatives. The programme recognises both performance and potential, and recognises that a student’s gifts and talents will emerge at times and in circumstances which are unique to that student.

#Called and gifted book full#

“I’ve failed many times before to change his politics, but this actually worked,” says Kelly (who threw in a le Carré as a sweetener).Gifted and Talented Te hunga whai pūmanawa It has long been accepted that gifted and talented students need extra support to reach their full academic, emotional and social potential.Īt St Andrew’s we have a well-established Academic Extension and Enrichment (ACEE) programme. Kelly remembers being recommended as a gift for his hard-to-buy-for father a few years ago a “lovely old hardback edition” of The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell’s 1914 critique of capitalism and social inequality in Edwardian England – which is entertaining as well as edifying. One way to alleviate the influence of ego is to seek help from a knowledgeable (often independent) bookseller. But good etiquette is to “choose for the recipient, rather than what you think they should read,” says Dave Kelly of Blackwells. If you are not giving a book you loved so that the recipient can agree with you about its brilliance, you are attempting to demonstrate your mastery of the brief, pinpointing the title that will delight them most, that they don’t already own. (The interviewer, Rachel Syme, admitted that she herself bought 10 copies as a result.) At least part of the satisfaction of giving books lies in at best signalling your own taste, and at worst imposing it. In a recent New Yorker profile, Jamie Lee Curtis said she buys People Will Talk, a 1985 collection of show business interviews by film archivist John Kobal, “all the time” to give as gifts – most recently, to her Knives Out director Rian Johnson, “as a way to sort of say hi”. Yes, it is self-involved – but arguably the gift of books says more about the giver than it does the recipient. At least part of the satisfaction of giving books lies in at best signalling your own taste, and at worst imposing it And for those who give new books, writing in the inner leaves may be the final flourish that transforms them into presents, like an artist’s signature. For those who buy secondhand books, past lives evoked by inherited personal inscriptions may be part of the appeal. It is possible that as a rare book dealer Gekoski has a particular bias on the matter. No matter how much you love the person, you’re basically defacing the book.” “A third of everybody’s gifts end up in somebody else’s house, or in Oxfam. Gekoski suggests people restrict their sentiment to an enclosed card, in part to encourage people to own fewer things, and to extend the life of the book. When Lynne Truss’s Eats, Shoots & Leaves was published in 2003, Gekoski recalls, “everybody got five copies for Christmas” – then tried to regift them to others who already had several copies themselves.Īnd the second rule? “Never write an inscription in a book, unless you’ve written it yourself.” (He is bemused by authors who do not like to give their own books, lest they be thought of as self-promoting.) “The first is, always save a receipt” – the reason being, if a book has jumped into your mind as the perfect present for someone, it has doubtless occurred to someone else. Gekoski shared his friend’s story in support of his two rules on buying books for others. Not to mention infinitely more likely to be passed on. The tale provides excruciating evidence of the pitfalls of buying books as presents – thought to be less personal than jewellery, but far more telling of the giver (and what they think of the recipient) than anything that comes in a turquoise box from Tiffany.