Leslie is the type of person and mom that when I'm in crisis mode I always wonder what would Leslie do, think, or say about this? With her youngest and my oldest being closer in age, she's been there, done that, she's got a good head on her shoulders, and dispenses advice or empathy with ease.
A few years ago her family began a journey. A journey with many purposes, goals, and fulfillment. With both parents being educators, they set out overseas. They have now lived on three different continents with many travels along the way. From my viewpoint, it's always been great to read about and live through them! Also, interspersed throughout her post I've placed her photographs that she sent to me to share as well.
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On a boat in Fukuoka, Japan |
Thanks to Tyson for having such a great idea and welcoming
me on her blog.
If I tell someone that my son is the starting
center of his school basketball team, I would be congratulated and asked
questions about his stats or how his season is going.
If I share that my daughter won an art
competition for her most recent painting, I would be told how wonderful that
is. People might even want to know more
about her journey as an artist.
If my son makes first chair in the school band
and scores high marks at the state level of competition, people would gladly
want to hear about his accomplishments.
But if instead I tell someone that any or all
of those same children are gifted, the reaction is extremely different. Now I'm bragging. Now I think my children are better than
everyone else's children. Now I want
special treatment when all I want is for my children to be challenged and
properly educated.
“A
child miseducated is a child lost”. – John F. Kennedy
“As
a society we must be able to admire ability, to support ability, to celebrate
ability and to nurture ability. It must be as socially acceptable to support
genius that is intellectual as it is to support genius that is athletic.” –
Michael Clay Thompson
In general, there is a stigma in the United States attached
to being identified as gifted, and there is definitely one in actually
admitting in public that your child is gifted.
I want to use this opportunity to share with you a little bit about what
gifted is and to help take that stigma away...if it's not your child, then it
might be your neighbor's child, your cousin's child, or your best friend's
child. I believe that with knowledge
comes understanding and acceptance.
The federal government defines gifted and talented as
“Students, children, or youth who give evidence of high achievement capability
in areas such as intellectual, creative, artistic, or leadership capacity, or
in specific academic fields, and who need services or activities not ordinarily
provided by the school in order to fully develop those capabilities.”
Simply put, students who are identified as gifted learn
differently and have different needs educationally. Where as most of us progress through
education from point A to point B to point C, and so on. A gifted student often makes an intuitive and
seemingly incomprehensible leap from point C to point G or even farther. I'm paraphrasing, but I once saw a quote that
said that every child has the right to learn something new every day. If the class is learning about point C and the
gifted child has already passed that then that child is not learning something
new. Unfortunately teachers (and I speak
as a teacher) aren't educated in meeting the needs of this group of students.
All that parents of gifted children want is that their
children receive a challenging and enriching education; unfortunately, many do
not. Without being challenged, they are
unable “...to fully develop those capabilities” as outlined by the federal
definition. I could write a novel about
what educating children who are gifted should be, but Tamara Fisher at
“Unwrapping the Gifted” does a much better job of describing the academic NEEDS
of these children – "GT is NOT..." (As a side note, I highly recommend reading
her entire blog. She is an articulate
advocate for children who are gifted.)
“...it is disturbing...to realize that the
population least likely to learn and achieve its potential is the highly gifted.” –
Joseph Cardillo, Gifted
Children: Nurturing Genius (Part One)
“Until
every gifted child can attend a school where the brightest are appropriately
challenged in an environment with their intellectual peers, America can't claim
that it's leaving no child behind.” – Jan and Bob Davidson with Laura
Vanderkam, in Genius Denied
For those who are unfamiliar with giftedness, many assume
that parenting a child who is gifted is an easy and envious position. In fact, for many parents of children who are
gifted, the exact opposite is true.
Gifted children are often very intense.
They are often very sensitive.
Many gifted children experience asynchronous development; for example a
first-grader may read at an eighth-grade level, may write at a first-grade
level, and may have the social-emotional age of a four-year-old. Many gifted children are perfectionists,
which can have some negative side effects.
Parents often have to actively advocate for their gifted children to be
recognized and properly educated – this can take a toll on the parent as
well.
“All of us do not have equal talent,
but all of us should have an equal opportunity to develop our talent.” – John F. Kennedy
Gifted children who have not been challenged in school may
become underachievers and unmotivated. For
children where being successful at school often comes easily, they develop a
misconception about the relationship between effort and success. This becomes a negative when that same child
avoids taking risks because everything has come so easily. Teachers and school systems that look at a
gifted child and think “he's fine, he's got it,” or “she knows what she needs
to know for this year, so she's ok” are effectively dismissing the needs of
that gifted child.
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In the Philippines |
“The surest path to positive self esteem
is to succeed at something which one perceived
would be difficult. Each time we steal a student's struggle, we steal the opportunity for them to build
self-confidence. They must learn to do
hard things to feel good about
themselves.” – Sylvia Rimm
“Our kids are normal. They just aren't typical...” – Jim Delisle
If you're interested in learning more, here are some great
websites for additional information:
- National Association of Gifted Students
- Hoagies' Gifted Education Page
- Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted (SENG)
- Advocates for High Ability Learners
Thank you, Tyson, for sharing your blog and allowing me to
talk about this topic! I hope that I was able to share a
little slice of the world of giftedness with your readers.
I think that no matter who we are, learning something new everyday is an amazing and important thing. I learned something new... or maybe it just opened my eyes to it even more. I never thought about the wide range of difference in their development. It is a shame achievements cannot be shared in the same manner as other children. Just like all stigmas and stereotypes, I hope we can banish one at a time with awareness! Thank you so much Leslie to take time out of your busy life to write about something so near and dear to your heart. I fully appreciate it! Best of luck to you and your family on your continued journey!
2 comments:
Thank you for sharing Leslie. It opened my eyes to a topic that I hadn't given much thought to.
A very nice overview of giftedness and the issues they children and their families face. Thank you, Leslie, for the insight.
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