I would tend to think that most kids are *NOT* really gifted as one would think (most parents though think their kids are :)).
I’ll take a kid that isn’t truely gifted with strong work ethics + parent involvement versus a truely gifted kid that otherwise is lazy. I’ve seen my fair share of peers that were “gifted” that wasted their early part of their life away.
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As a former teacher and a parent of three kids, I would definitely say nature is more important than nurture with respect to I.Q.
A child’s positive learning and social environment can help expand a gifted child’s knowledge and would probably raise his/her I.Q. score a bit, but it won’t turn someone with a 90 I.Q. into someone with a 140 I.Q.
Likewise, I’ve seen kids who’ve come from really bad family/social/economic situations –and who had no academic support, whatsoever, outside of school — do exceedingly well on I.Q. tests and eventually become very successful in spite of their SES or learning environment.
Ultimately though, high intelligence does not mean a person is going to succeed. Oftentimes, gifted people are so accustomed to having everything come easy to them, that they lack any kind of motivation to tackle life’s challenges. They can be some of the laziest people you’ll ever know.
Like flu and AN mentioned above, nothing matters if a person doesn’t have a good work ethic.
