There is a new blog in the edusphere tackling a topic near to my heart: gifted education. Unwrapping the Gifted, published by Teacher Magazine, explores the challenges of reaching these children in the classroom.
I had the pleasure of having two gifted children back when I taught, and it was a perpetual challenge to keep them engaged and motivated. After years of gifted education myself, I knew how it felt to be the child who was never called on, pulled aside to discuss how it made other children feel that I got such consistently high grades and just sitting through class after class reviewing material I already knew. It is little wonder that 20% of high school dropouts actually test in the gifted range.
Don’t get me wrong. I actually loved school. And that instance about my grades and other children was actually with one of my favorite teachers. In German no less. It involved another student snatching my test and reporting the grade to the class. I had already learned long before that I got along better “hiding” behind silence when tests and grades were being discussed. But another student had decided to “challenge” me in a friendly grade competition in class, which was a little difficult since I never let anyone know what my grades were.
A lot of people are a bit touchy about the whole issue of giftedness. “All children are gifted,” I have heard. “All are special and unique.” The second statement is true, the first is not. All children are gifts from God, but that is not the same as the educational use of the term “gifted.” In an institutional setting, gifted education falls under special education for a reason. These children have special needs that are difficult to meet in a traditional classroom setting. This is important to note as many districts are opting to cut back on gifted education to concentrate on the lower performing students who are less likely to pass the state assessments. Tamara handles the discussion beautifully in her entry, It’s a Learning Difference.
The issues are a little different in the homeschool, but still important to consider if you are working with a gifted child.
Time Magazine has a good article on this subject this week–it is their cover story for those who are interested. According to the article US schools spend $8 billion on the mentally retarded and just 10% of that on the gifted…implying that it is “more important for schools to identify deficiencies than to cultivate gifts.”
The year after NCLB was enacted, Illinois cut $16 million from gifted education; Michigan cut funding from $5 million to $500,000.
I am finding that my youngest is probably “gifted” to some extent and we will be learning more about this in the weeks to come…and I find it VERY challenging, and exhausting at times…yes, resources are definitely needed for both homeschooling parents and the public schooling arena, not a cutting of funding.
I often miss the simplicity of my own school days…it seems we have complicated things so much in order to make them “better” or more efficient **sigh**
I respectfully disagree that not all children are gifted. It seems we have to be careful not to define ‘gifted’ the way the educational establishment does. You stated correctly that giftedness means special needs in a traditional classroom setting.
When our little charter school assesses kids for a learning profile we use an extensive battery of tools and tests. Notably excluded is the IQ test. IQ measures a very narrow portion of cognitive ability and is administered in a visual/verbal mode. What about the kid who is tactile or auditory? Or kids who are not suited in other ways to that type of assessment tool?
I guess what I’m laboring to say is that the educational establishment’s definition is way too narrow just like a classroom’s learning environment. It fits the rigid demands of one-size-fits-all classroom style education. When a child is labeled ‘gifted’ what is being measured? Are weaknesses as well as strengths in the cognitive, volitional and emotional areas being assessed? In real life we survive on our strengths. How can we enable kids to use strengths to overcome weakness? Typically, as the previous commenter stated we try to improve deficiencies. Sometimes that’s necessary and very possible but often it’s a mindset to be overcome.
As homeschoolers, we accommodate our kids’ strengths and weaknesses as a matter of course. We evaluate talents and interests and abilities and direct our kids to successful jobs and careers. At the very least we can guide them in how to make these choices and decisions. For homeschoolers career does not equal college, the prevalent culture in public school.
Thanks for your thought-provoking post! I feel one of my own coming on.
lynnak, I agree with your basic sentiments, but not that all children are gifted.
All children have their own unique talents, gifts and abilities and they all deserve to be challenged, but that is not the same thing as “being gifted.”
Children who have an “extreme” ability (for lack of a better term at the moment) present a different challenge than “average” children, whether that ability is linguistic, kinesthetic, etc.
Mozart had an ability that went beyond normal talent distribution. You can say the same of Jesse Owens’ running, Monet’s artwork, etc. Even taking multiple intelligences and individual uniqueness into consideration, not every child has this kind of ability in any area.
Just because standard IQ assessment does not fit everyone, it does not negate the existence of “giftedness.” And the tests administered do not go strictly on IQ, or verbal assessments.
My brother, for example, tested in the gifted range. And also tested positive for learning disabilities, with language his primary difficulties. His IEP allowed for extra time on tests, directions to be read for him, and a peer or adult to take dictation for written assignments. Spelling could not count against him for work outside of spelling. And yet the school system recognized him as gifted.
I noted that these issues work themselves out differently in the homeschool. Parents are more able to individualize instruction to help each child with their strengths and weaknesses. But there are unique challenges to educating the gifted child, as there are unique challenges to educating the child with Down Syndrome.
One child’s unique ability does not detract from the ability of other children, or make it less valuable.
This isn’t just about the “educational establishment.” I know this is not where you are coming from, but it is also coming from a general worldview that holds all children equal. The simple statement that not all children are gifted caused an uproar in a Teach for America training session I attended because the more liberal mindset of the majority of those present did not want to accept that there is an inherent difference in ability among children.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts…like I said, I do not disagree with your sentiments. I think we are just reacting to the label differently. If you do post on it, let me know. I would love to read it!
As someone labeled gifted as a child who is now raising a son with Down syndrome, I have to say that I consider homeschooling to literally be a Godsend.
Unlike you, I did not like school(K-12; I did enjoy college) because I was bored and felt like I was imprisoned. Also, as you point out, other kids don’t always take it well when they find out you’re gifted. OTOH, I doubt my parents would have wanted to homeschool me, had they even known about it.
Re: my son, homeschooling has allowed him to learn at his own pace while trying to mimic his older siblings’ behavior instead of the often questionable behavior of kids in the public schools. We can repeat concepts as often as he needs the repetition, and we celebrate his successes with far more enthusiasm than would schoolteachers, because we love him.
Great post, and I agree with you that NCLB has hurt the gifted children. It’s my experience that parents of kids with disabilities tend to be very vocal about getting services for their kids. Perhaps it’s harder for parents of the gifted to do this because they might feel others will think they’re bragging.
My nephew came to live with us for a year or so in order to obtain a formal public education; his having been home schooled in Europe. It turned out to be a bad experience because he already had a firm grip on most of what was being taught, they didn’t give him credit for his French skills and required him to start off with the beginners rather than pass him off. The same was true with his math and science skills. He quit before getting his diploma; a shame how screwed up the public schools are when dealing with gifted students.
Barbara, I had a few wonderful teachers that gave me a great degree of freedom in class. The advantage of the label, I guess. Scheduling conflicts required me to take an academic course Junior year and the other students received my greatest sympathies. I found it to be incredibly boring and stagnating, and ironically I struggled more with that class because it was so heavy into memorization and recall of discrete, irrelevant points.
This probably would not surprise some of you, but I used to spend a great deal of time correcting the textbook, and bringing in outside materials to support my case. That and I would go over every item on the test and on almost every one there was an error…I would have gotten an answer wrong because the answer key was wrong. The funny thing is, I enjoyed this kind of thing. Even when I got a new teacher and she wouldn’t budge. I still enjoyed it.
I think the problems in public schools become more obvious when you are working with children who are “differently abled.” Whether that refers to a special talent, giftedness, or other special needs, as you point out.
Some parents will fight hard for their gifted children. And they are often (not always) viewed as intense and overbearing. There are a lot of teachers who really do not like the GT kids…they are hard to deal with, they can be disruptive, and they are difficult to teach. I think of some of the things I did in class and have more respect for my teachers now than ever.
I’ve heard some odd things from fellow teachers at different trainings, and such about children on both ends of the spectrum.
T.F., that is interesting. But a lot of GT kids do quit school. Of course, you have to look at what they did afterwards to decide if that is really a bad thing. “Drop out” is only bad in so far as it hinders your life chances. If you go on to start your own business…or if your lifelong dream has been to work at McDonald’s, it really isn’t inherently bad. But it does show how school does not always “fit.”
Thank you for visiting my blog,anothernaturewalk.blogspot.com. I enjoyed reading some of yours today.
I.B Gifted
no no no….
I.R Gifted
Anonymous,
U R A goof.
But since I think I might know who you are given a recent conversation, I’ll just let you be goofy.
Thanks for stopping by and for your incredible insight.
I was one of those “gifted” kids who dropped out of high school. I was bored to tears. I did eventually earn a GED (without studying a thing) and went on to college. I was montessori-educated for the first half of my school career which is probably best for a G&T kid. Then I went to public school. What a nightmare. I was talked to many times about finishing tests too early (double check it!) and directives to consider the other students’ feelings and those discussions were after they finally decided I wasn’t cheating. I was out of school the day I turned 16 after 2 years of constant cutting. G&T programs in public schools were a joke 20 years ago and I imagine they’ve gotten worse with all the efforts to make everyone seem the same to supposedly lift their self-esteem. What a colossal joke.