Ian’s stomach virus erupted at 2:00 am. This is going to sound sick, but when he’s all feverish and spaced out, I get a lot of work done. All he’s fit for is repeated viewings of Elmo, so I set up my lap top at the dining room table. I’m taking a break from the puke-workathon to quickly mention that I’ve read about the damn Indigo children twice in the last 12 hours, and I want them to go away.
The New Yorker had a long rambling, pointless article about a gifted kid who blows his head off. The author really wanted to write that he was just too brilliant for our little world and exited early, but didn’t quite get there. In this article, the child’s mother speculates that her child was an Indigo.
There’s also an article in the Times about it today. Who are these kids? They’re smart, hyperactive, and paranormal.
“To me these children are the answers to the prayers we all have for peace,” said Doreen Virtue, a former psychotherapist for adolescents who now writes books and lectures on indigo children. She calls the indigos a leap in human evolution. “They’re vigilant about cleaning the earth of social ills and corruption, and increasing integrity,” Ms. Virtue said. “Other generations tried, but then they became apathetic. This generation won’t, unless we drug them into submission with Ritalin.”
Does anybody believe this stuff?
(A longer rant about gifted education is brewing.)
Apt. 11d 
ARGH! Why is the Times so credulous with this crap?
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“ARGH! Why is the Times so credulous with this crap?”
Anything to service the pride and neuroses of the East Coast elite, I guess. But man, do I feel sorry for any child unlucky enough to get caught up in such a sad, obsessive, parenting storyline as this. Somewhere out there, some poor kid who happens to be good at reading and is a little moody in the mornings (hey, that’s my oldest daughter!) is being labelled an “indigo” and is having their psyche screwed with even more than it already is.
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This is a first time post — in honor of non-lurking week, I guess. I really like this site.
I remember hearing something about this years ago when I lived on the west coast. I wish I had paid more attention because now, after all these years, I finally have a diagnosis for my son: he’s not a smart but annoying child who won’t stop yakking. He’s an indigo! There’s only one problem: he spends the majority of his mental energies scheming for more television and snacks, not thinking about environmental issues. Maybe his aura is Snickers colored?
Now I remember why I don’t live in LA any longer.
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“Does anybody believe this stuff?”
It’s really bizzare. You could replace “indigo” with “possession by a lesser demon” and the article makes about as much sense.
I would love to see some double blind studies where the aura-seer gets different kids and diagnoses them as indigo or not, though. Definitely a fun project to be on.
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We think my kid is indigo. That’s why she wants blue hair and a crappy attitude.
Truly if it’s up to her and children like her to save the world, we are hosed.
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i had a completely different impression of The New Yorker article. I came away from it thinking the author thought the parents and psychologist were utterly full of crap and deluded about the kid, but was trying to be nice about it since he’d died and all.
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I’m sympathetic to some far-out ideas, but this seems like utter crap to me. For one thing, nearly every kid born since the mid-90s is supposed to be indigo. So I guess double-blind studies are beside the point.
I thought The New Yorker author stayed pretty neutral. The Silvermans – the “gifted child” psychiatrist and her husband – seemed loony, and her ideas about the boy seemed harmful in some cases. Even an extremely bright adolescent is still an adolescent and can’t run his life the way this boy did – choosing what to study and at what pace. The boy seemed obsessive. He may have sounded like a small adult, but clearly his emotional maturity wasn’t that of an adult (nor should it be at 14!). A sad and strange story.
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To me, this line sounds very 19th century: “They’re vigilant about cleaning the earth of social ills and corruption, and increasing integrity” It’s like a weird reincarnation of muscular christianity.
If it wasn’t so sad, I’d think I was reading a Steve Martin send-up: “They play games to cultivate their telepathic powers, but at school Alexandra struggles…”
But I couldn’t help but laugh at this quote: “these children are the answers to the prayers we all have for peace”. My wonderful “bright but disruptive” four-year-old loves wrecking balls and turns every toy into a hammer! So maybe he’s half indigo — and half orange.
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re: the New Yorker article. I just wish that the author’s point was a little more clear. It was a long narrative with no conclusions. Why did this kid kill himself? Too smart or too bored by solitude or too pressured by wacko parents. The author flirts with the three ideas, but doesn’t choose a favorite theory. Teenage suicide is a tragedy; I don’t know how any parent can recover from that. But the only reason that we were reading about this particular case of teenage suicide was because the kid was really smart. The author clearly thought that this was important in explaining his death.
half indigo, half orange – heh.
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Laura: probably all three, I guess. Wouldn’t it be a bit presumptuous for the author to pick one? Anyway, The New Yorker is always running long narratives with no conclusions. I love the magazine, and lord knows they run some really, really important journalism too (Seymour Hersh, etc.) , but they’ve always got a few articles that are not fluff, exactly, but ‘stuff to think about’ or ‘smart New Yorker readers will find this interesting to talk about at dinner (or on their blogs)’. I don’t know exactly how it gets decided what articles get written, but in this case I would guess that it’s not that the author necessarily thought that the kid being smart explained his death, but that people are thinking about gifted education right now so would be willing to read a whole article about a suicidal genius kid.
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I look forward to a post about gifted education. There’s nothing like forcing regular taxpayers to shuffle millions of scarce resources into education for kids who have got all the tickets they need to succeed. Damn those poor kids anyway for needing remedial help that costs money!
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Gee, JennyD, you’re right. Gifted kids deserve no special allotment of resources. Let’s do nothing to encourage them, or to expose them to opportunities that may not present themselves in the typical classroom. After all, what have smart people ever done for us?
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Sorry, but I have yet to see any data that shows that a high proportion of “gifted” kids end up on welfare or in prison because they were no gifted programs in their schools. Besides, who decides what is “gifted” anyway? Should we use IQ tests that privilege rich kids? Or maybe parental recommendations?
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Jenny D,
Just look for the kid reading a different book behind their textbook.
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Color Coded Brats
The New York Times published a fair and balanced look at a set of parenting beliefs–the Indigo Children. The parents of Indigo Children believe their children are new and special. The Indigo concept was dreamed up by the spiritual partners
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Delusional Parenting: Indigo
The New York Times published a fair and balanced look at a set of parenting beliefs–the Indigo Children. The parents of Indigo Children believe their children are new and special. The Indigo concept was dreamed up by the spiritual partners
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Amy, way too simple. There are plenty of kids reading other books behind their textbooks. Are they all gifted? Or just bored because they have a crappy teacher?
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well, let’s just say that those are kids who need a different educational approach. Call it gifted, call it anything you like, but yes there are a lot of kids out there who like reading and learning things but who hate “school.”
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Growing up in a small and mediocre rural school system in the US, I never had the chance to participate in a gifted program. My husband did in Canada, and I think he got a lot out of it. Aside from the academic benefits, he got a supportive group of friends who shared his interests. I didn’t know anyone who shared my interests until high school. I can’t express how socially and morally damaging it is to always be the weird smart kid in your class. Because of that, I think a gifted program would be worthwhile, even if the only thing it did was to pull the “smart kids” out once a week for extra recess.
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JennyD,
I see that you’re an educational researcher. May I suggest some reading? Try these websites – http://www.hoagiesgifted.org and http://www.geniusdenied.org. These books are also helpful – Genius Denied (Davidson) and Deborah Ruf’s Losing Our Minds.
Our prisons and welfare system do have an over representation of those with the highest IQs. Also a great percentage of high school and college drop outs are among our brightest citizens.
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I had a similar experience to AmyP’s (small, mediocre rural school system), and I agree that it is morally and socially damaging to be the only weird smart kid. I had no friends to speak of until I was in college, when I finally discovered that I wasn’t damaged goods. However, the psychic after-effects of it persist…I still have trouble feeling like people really like me and want to spend time with me.
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chiming to second everything Mrs. Coulter said, and to suggest that you should definitely do a post on gifted education! I’d love to hear a policy perspective to balance the anecdotal horrors from all the “formerly gifted kids” I know now.
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Reading my own book in class was all the gifted education I got and all I needed. Years later, my daughter was in the gifted program. It consisted of giving her a book to read that the other kids didn’t get. As a volunteer, I taught “critical thinking” to the brighter students in third grade. It was more fun than class for them but hardly a profound experience.
I very much doubt that prisoners or welfare recipients are more likely to have high IQs. I know from experience as a journalist that they’re much more likely to have failed in school and to have difficulty reading.
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Ack! Failing in school and having difficulty reading does not necessarily mean you are not gifted!
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I’m glad other people found the New Yorker article rambling. I came away unsure what his point was. He clearly thought the adults were somewhat crazy, but the article never came out strongly in favor of anything or offered up a reason for why the kid killed himself.
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I recently have been reading up on these, so called” Indigo Children,” I was also told that I was one of them.I see what you don’t and I feel what you feel. Is there anyone who can help? E-mail me please, I’m kinda freaked. pakiz_r_hot@yahoo.ca
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It’s funny now, sure.
I’m not some out of world supporter of strange stuff but sometimes I think people should be a bit more open about ideas. But of course, as always, people will remain stupid. It looks like this world has got a long ways to go.
I’m sorry, I mean to say that people have “opinions” not that they’re stupid.
Stupids.
And no, I’m not five. I’m six.
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Psychic Paranormal
Information page on Delphi Psychic – Unusual and Paranormal Phenomenon for Beli
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Man, are you sad or what? I myself am an indigo. I am angry of your ignorance. WE are the people of tomorow.
– Sarah
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It’s me again. Now when I’ve read the comments, I am VERY FRUSTRATED. Look on the web people. For god sakes, LOOK ON GOOGLE. The proof is everywhere. These kids are unique in everyway. They are hear to change the world. Show some respect, you are reading the post of a fourteen year old indigo girl.
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“Hear” to change the world?
Learn to spell properly first, and then I might take you a little more seriously.
No guarantees, of course.
For those who don’t know – she should have written “HERE” to change the world. Oh, and “angry of your ignorance?” WTF? That should be “angry AT your ignorance”. Apparently indigos aren’t very smart.
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Apparently indigos aren’t very smart.
I’m sure Sarah is going to check back to see if anybody has responded to her comment on a four year old post.
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