Ima Spedtcher

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Home : 2007 : July : 3

Ima Spedtcher
By josephineg

I'm sorry you had the experience you had. Please let me address your concerns one at a time.

1. As far as being labeled a genius child goes, some children are labeled genius children without being accelerated.
So, I think that, had the people around you understood giftedness--accelerated or not--your experience might have been quite different. It is extremely common for people who are labled gifted to have unrealistic expectations placed on them. Unfortunately, you did not get the emotional support that any child--gifted or not--requires.

2. You say you never felt like you fit in.

You cite the age difference. Yet, I can imagine a set of peers for you. Since you cannot simultaneously be in two grades at the same time, can you be sure that it was the age difference, or perhaps were there one or more other factors?

3. One of the myths surrounding the gifted is that "being perfectly well rounded should be the primary goal for gifted student development." Thank goodness you did not have to develop the social coping skills that use up time, energy, limit your opportunities, cause bad decisions to be made, retard your learning, and threaten your life (see "Competing with myths about the social and emotional development of gifted students" by Tracy L. Cross from Gifted Child Today, 2002 Summer). If you hadn't been accelerated, maybe you would have dropped out instead of finishing (high school, presumably). Another related myth is that adults (parents, teachers, and administrators) know what gifted students experience. "If parents can observe classrooms more often, talk with their gifted children, asking for descriptions of their experiences, then a much richer understanding is possible."

In an earlier post, I list the three essential questions that schools should ask when the word "acceleration" is used. Perhaps your school did not ask those questions. It should be pointed out that many students--accelerated or not, gifted or not--take years to finish college and sadly they also make a lot of bad choices. I would not necessarily chalk it up to the acceleration per se.

I'm happy to hear that your daughter has teachers who challenge her. I hope they are serving her and not holding her back.

All the best.