I have been doing a tremendous amount of research into gifted education for the past six months or so. I am very concerned about the state of gifted education in our country. It really seems like the modus operandi – at least for the early grades – is to give an advanced learner MORE of the same things that they already know how to do rather than offer them challenging subjects. Study after study shows that advancing the child – either within the class or at a new grade level best serves the student. It seems that very few schools are willing to do that. I’ve watched more than a few people in this area struggle with this problem this year. Each time they were less than successful in getting the services that their advanced child needed. This crossed schools and districts.
This weekend, I heard a quote regarding my son – “They have a real PROBLEM because they’ve got a 4-year-old 1st grader who is going into 4th grade.” Ouch, that stings. First, my son is not a problem to be solved. Second, if my son was gifted in sports, the arts or music, he would be lauded for those talents. Instead, we have a “problem”. Thankfully, this “problem” has loving parents who are willing to give homeschooling a shot. It gives us the ultimate freedom to teach (or facilitate) subjects as my son has the desire to learn them. No government body can tell me that he’s not ready to learn about the human body or other topics yet simply because his chronological age is 4.
I know that I am wading through somewhat uncharted territory. I realize that not everything that I try will work. However, I am going to do my darndest to foster everything that I can in my son. My job is to help him learn, grow and to believe in himself; to explore the avenues that he is interested in, and to guide his growth as a human being. I want to be his greatest mentor and guide. I want him to love his God-given talents – any of them, no matter how our society tends to treat them. Hopefully I can help him grow the confidence to take pride and say “this is who I am” – no matter what others think.
It’s going to be a long comment
You know, I thought a lot about it, since I am well aware that daughter is above average in academic skills. Watching her however, I do understand that advancing the grade is not the right answer. She can be very advanced academically, but she is not advanced emotionally or physically to be with “big kids”. The problem will only get worse as she gets older, since she will be behind her peers in many life skills. I hold hope for our public school though. We live in Silicon Valley, and my coworker and I just talked today how many kids in her son’s (he is turning 5 in June) preschool class can read fluently, use computers every day, and write really well. The kids rat race starts off early here, and schools are prepared to deal with early achievers. I was somewhat upset that schools here only offer GATE (gifted and talented programs) after the third grade, but I think it makes certain sense. It helps to separate really gifted kids from “trained” kids. I want to believe that the school will not fail my daughter, but of course I will keep my eyes open. My second choice would be a private school – here we have an overwhelming choice from highly academic “Indian schools” to artsy Waldorf approach. I admire homeschoolers, I really do. I just don’t think I could do it by myself – I would feel too much pressure to “succeed”, and I would hate to turn my daughter into “a project” that needs work.
All I can say on this subject is that I’ve toured many supposedly top public schools around here and while it’s better than most low income public schools, I was not impressed. Often times, differentiated education is not actually differentiated. There’s still a long ways for improvement in terms of the curriculum is concerned. I was impressed with one gifted school that used the constructivist approach but we will not shell out $20,000/yr. plus for it. Homeschool is ideal because you can do so much more because the money is going directly to the child and not administrative costs. My husband graduated from the top elementary schools here and he’s very supportive of homeschooling our daughter. Now, it’s just a matter of how and how long.
And to think that Min and I live so close from each other
I am glad that I can see how my coworker’s son (an extremely bright child with passion for computers) takes to school this year in one of the top elementary schools of Cupertino. If he flounders, I might reconsider my optimistic view.
If you haven’t already, I highly recommend “Dumbing Us Down” by John Taylor Gatto. It’s an eye-opener.
Natalie – I know one child who went into school very advanced. I was told that the teacher lets him do whatever he wants since he’s above everyone else. But the mother doesn’t want to pull him out. The general concensus is that the Mom shouldn’t have taught him so much because now he has to wait for everyone to catch up. Sad situation overall. As you and I both know, there’s no stopping bright children. Sometimes it would be easier if our daughter wasn’t so interested in writing so early because of the fear of developing bad habits. It’s easier to teach older students who are willing to take instruction and correction. But what am I suppose to say? Don’t write?! Instead I’m forced to teach writing earlier than expected. Fortunately, I can do that because there’s tons of resources to help in this area. And she doesn’t have to twiddle her thumbs to wait for others to “catch up”. This is just an example.
I have lots to say! The post was a quick fire-off, but this is a topic that I’m passionate about.
Min – Dumbing Us Down is definitely a great read. Well worth it for anyone. FWIW, I had the same writing struggle. It was definitely needed for the things that TB was interested in – crossword puzzles, etc – so I went ahead and taught him.
Natalie – I often have people quote “well, it doesn’t matter what he knows now, because the other kids will catch up by 3rd grade”. Why is that? Because TB would be forced to sit and do the same letter and number worksheets with everyone else for weeks at a time, even though he knew that material thoroughly two years ago. Gifted pullout doesn’t start here until 4th grade. Until then, it’s about 1 hr per class per week of enrichment.
My experience is that if you’re a “good kid” – meaning that you won’t be disruptive when bored, public school will be fine. You can do enrichment acitvities at home and have it work out for you. I spent hours in school doing nothing. I’d finish a test designed to take 50 minutes in 10 and then I’d sit quietly. There’s no way that TB could pull that off. He’s in constant motion. Perhaps with maturity he could survive. If he wasn’t so ahead academically, I’d hold him back a year for maturity since he has a summer birthday. What will he be doing a year from now academically? Not sure, but it will be far beyond Kindergarten stuff.
My real frustration is not just with schools, but with people’s attitudes in general. So many kids want to hide the fact that they are smart because they are given a hard time about it. Why is that? Why don’t we treat an advanced student with the same reverence we do an advanced athlete? In the days before television, the ‘stars’ of the day were scientists, brilliant minds and politicians. Now it’s movie stars and athletes – is that really where our future lies? Why not bolster the people with a capacity to change our world?
Homeschooling is definitely not the only answer, but a lot depends on the teacher and school that you get. My own babysitter – a public school teacher – flat out told me that I cannot put my son in public school. There’s a reason that gifted kids are being pulled out of schools. Lack of differentiation, funding for gifted programs going away – it’s just not a good formula. Today’s teachers are forced to focus on getting the bottom kids to a minimum standard. Kids that are ahead are likely to just float along in the meantime. How they handle it makes a big difference.
As a former teacher, I can tell you a lot of the lack of true differentiation in the early grades is because it’s hard to tell for sure the kids who are truly gifted, and the kids who are just trained well.
I had a parent mad as all get out at me because her daughter didn’t qualify for the pull out program at our school, telling me all about how her daughter was so smart and she was reading 3 grade levels ahead. I wanted to tell her, “yes she is, but that’s rote learning, not hte creative spark.” When it came to actually thinking of things on her own she couldn’t do that.
In general public schools just aren’t equipped to handle the truly gifted and the truly slow. They’re better at the herd in general.
I agree with Ticia. There is a difference and when I taught top class, I began to see the difference. The hard workers read well and scored well on tests. The gifted kids were writing 20 page reports in 2nd grade, fine print, single spaced! And it was never part of an assignment. Most teachers misunderstood gifted kids because they can be disruptive, asking challenging questions and going deeper than the curriculum allows. Most teachers, myself included, are not trained to teach gifted students. That’s why I referred them to gifted programs were they were accepted. Schools have no incentive to send them away as long as they behave well. These kids keep test scores high and make the schools look good.
Intelligence is not respected because it is not always rewarded. My phD friend In biochemistry is earning less than college grads who studied more lucrative fields. Just look at all the people who proudly declare that they can’t do math. Socially, it is perceived as a geeky field and people would much rather aspire for social professions where math is not emphasized. This is not so pervasive in other countries where math and science education is recognized. I feel as though we do lip service here in the US. Just my opinion.
I just want to say thank you for this. I have a 3 year old who has been identified by tests, 3 pediatricians, and an educational specialist as prodfoudly gifted. She LOVES to learn ans soaks up everything around her. Currently she is reading on an almost 2nd grade leve….almost 100% self taught, I am quilty of answering questions when she has asked LOL….which apparently according to my SIL is a crime. “you TEACH her” me… not really, I foollow her interestes” Then DD asks about ow to read a clock that was roman numerals as she had never seen this….I answered….and my SIL responded “see you just taught her!” this was said very accusingly. So apparently answering my childs questions is wrong.
Anyway, I was informed by our pediatrician when we moved here when DD was 2.5 that our schools would never work for her. That they will not accomidate her enough. That she in all likelihood will need college level corses by middle school. This of course freaks me out.
you are right….it is often considered a “problem” where as in other areas like sports, music, it is exaulted. People alwasy assume I must have sat down and worked and worked and taught DD to read. No DD did that all herself. If a child showed a natural extreame gift in music or sports it would not be considered wrong to allow that child to take lessons, attend symponies, camps, etc….but when a parent of a gifted child follows their child’s interest and gives them opportunities…it is considered a problem…wrong.
Anyway, I just want to thank you for writing this. I have been struggling myself with this lately. And I know this may be rambeling, but I am tired tonight. Thanks again for this!
Great discussion!
I am enjoying this – I already wrote my own post for Sunday to express my thoughts first on the school options. I am still thinking of another about challenges in raising a gifted learner – envy, disbelief, minimizing the achievements – I’ve seen it all too.