Gifted? (sorry-long rant)

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Home : 2003 : January : 4

Gifted? (sorry-long rant)
By Mary

Having been identified as a "gifted" student in elementary school back in the 70s and 80s, I can say that I was not often bored in school. (And trust me, my education was less than stimulating!) In fact, I would consider
my school education to be only the basis of my knowledge. In fact, I would even venture to say that my school education was insignificant compared to what I learned outside of school. My "gifted" education came with activities I did at home with my parents, and on my own. In fact, the best thing my parents did was to leave me to my own devices. I had no planned activities on the weekends,

I didn't watch much t.v., yet I was never bored. At home, I would write stories and books, perform plays, write catalogs and neighborhood newspapers, start "businesses" and clubs,design fashions, and tutor my friends and my younger sister. Was any of this assigned to me by a teacher? NO! In fact, had they been, I probably would not have been as motivated by them. I liked coming up with things to do all on my own-that was part of the fun! I would agree that a truly "gifted" child is never bored.

I do believe, however, that a gifted child can be over-stimulated. I believe that gifted children should be left to pursue their own interests and talents at their own pace. Instead, well-meaning parents and educators often bombard these students with more work and projects. Or we push artistically talented students too hard because WE want them to succeed. We tend to evaluate and label whatever they do. When this happens the gifted student loses "ownership" of the talent or activity. This "burnout" effect could be interpreted as boredom.

As an educator, I am familiar with the old "boredom" tale from parents. I listen politely without comment. Then I ask them nicely what I can do to make my class more interesting for their child. Usually, they don't have an answer. The real problem is that in this age of instant results, many parents today expect their child's entire education to occur within the 6-hour school day. And they expect it to be individually taylored to their child. While teachers should consider individual needs, it is unrealistic to individualize instruction for 30 different students each year. I think many parents and educators have lost sight of the original intent of public education in the United States. Public education was set up to provide students with a foundation of skills and opportunities for education. It was assumed that truly interested students would continue learning at home. Now with most parents working to make ends meet, I believe they have an absolute right to expect more from their child's education. But since most kids are only in school for about 1200 hours per year, it is unrealistic to expect schools to work miracles. So much has changed in society, but our country's educational system has not yet caught up.

Perhaps we need to re-structure our country's educational system to better address the needs of today's parents who are often spread too thin with their own survival needs to educate their children at home. If individualized instruction is what we need to have, then perhaps all students should be "special ed.," with smaller classes of students working toward individual goals. After all, every student has his or her own special needs. As our system works now, only certain "identified" students are having their needs met. Is that really fair? Perhaps students should be in school more hours. I feel like I have so much to "cover" for standardized tests that my students don't get the opportunity to practice newly-learned skills as much as research says they need to. Of course, this will not happen until teachers are seen (and ultimately paid) as the highly specialized professionals that we are.

Well, I think I've gone on long enough. Sorry for the long post. I think I'll go write a book.