<p>I never thought my kids were gifted. I used to tell them that they were just ordinary, so if they wanted to excel then they would need to work harder than most people. Both kids always studied hard to earn their As in school. </p>
<p>D2 came home one day school, she said, “Mommy, kids at school said I was smart.” She was kind of surprised. Of course, I had her IQ score, so I wasn’t really surprised.</p>
<p>So much truth in the above posts.
My daughter was booted out the first week of her first grade of parochial school.
Her teacher turned her over to the principal for evaluation, and she was found to be reading and comprehending on the eighth grade level.</p>
<p>We were given the option moving her to fourth grade (fifth was also an option) which we refused. We were then told that she could not return to first grade, as it would be unfair to her and to the other children in her class.</p>
<p>We then spoke with the principal of the local public school. She said that indeed they had a program for gifted students. And what did this program consist of? Every Wednesday afternoon, for one hour, the gifted students were allowed to read any book of their choosing.</p>
<p>If you have a child with a learning issue, the resources and support are virtually unlimited.
In our area, if your child learns too quickly and too well, she and you are on your own.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>“twice gifted” is what they call the dyslexics with a ridiculously high iq.</p>
<p>Trust me, the resources for “learning issues” are not unlimited, and the people who “teach” in those programs are not always all that useful, either.</p>
<p>After watching my above average but not gifted kid go through school, the only thing I can confidently say is that it is a “system.” Like all “systems” it fails those who fall too far out of the norm. One size fits all isn’t all that great in any area. In education? </p>
<p>I would homeschool my oldest if I had it to do all over again. But I don’t, and she’s just fine as she applies to grad schools. ;)</p>
<p>All those myths are false…Especially #7…It’s not easy to teach the gifted…We tend to twist everything you say, get out of things, point out flaws, not let you live anything down, ask the randomest of questions, and can tie ANYTHING back to the subject at hand…</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Troublemakers! ;)</p>
<p>Let us remember that today’s school system was crafted by Bismarck to produce competent soldiers who could accurately follow instructions, but without questioning them. People who are too smart tend to question authority – teachers in the classroom and, later, bosses in the workplace. This upsets the status quo.</p>
<p>I think I read a quote from a Davidson parent that said, “if you met one gifted kid, you have met one gifted kid.” My son’s kindergarten teacher decided to put him in the hallway to do his work while all the other kids were in the classroom because he was so far ahead of the other kids verbally. Then she told me that he didn’t understand what 2+2 was when he was already multiplying and dividing. :)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Great way to sum it up…</p>
<p>My gifted son was thrilled when we started to homeschool him and never wanted to return to high school - though he was #1 on their chess team for a couple of years. He’s thriving in college right now, but still finds it easier than he expected it would be.</p>
<p>I don’t regret keeping him home until he was 18. He got to enjoy teenage life here and is the right age to enjoy teenage life there. He’s definitely happier academically with more peers. If I’d had him stay in high school he would have done well there (that’s his nature - not the nature of all gifted kids), but he would have been woefully underprepared. There’s a top student at our school now who worries about that happening - and not without cause since she’d like to go to a top school.</p>
<p>Both my kids were labeled “gifted” in first grade in a school district where kids from affluent, educated homes with involved parents tended to have their kids in the gifted program or in one of the magnet elementary schools. I became very cynical about the whole concept of “gifted kid.”</p>
<p>My kids are both “gifted” but had a hard time with finding appropriate teachers. In the public grade school, the teacher who was VERY unsuited for teaching became the “gifted” teacher. D came home and told me that she wanted to withdraw from the class. I said OK. The principal (who was a friend) asked D (in front of me) why she wanted to withdraw. D said she found it unbearably painful to have the teacher make all the kids cry in the gifted class EVERY DAY! The principal, to her credit, did “counsel” that teacher who eventually left that school and transferred to another (union did not allow her to be fired).</p>
<p>S had a “gifted” teacher who told me at a conference that S was reading the newspaper every day in class. I asked her if she DID want S to do that or DIDN’T want him to do it. She admitted that she couldn’t decide, which was why she was giving S & the class mixed signals. I encouraged her to let me & S know when and what she decided so S could know what she wanted and expected.</p>
<p>Another “gifted” teacher in middle school hated S after the 1st day when he innocently asked her several questions she couldn’t answer. He wasn’t trying to be difficult, but was just honestly inquiring. She was his teacher for the next two years–it was a very rough 2 years.</p>
<p>The gifted teacher I had in 4th grade flunked me out of her class because I had too many absences due to strep throat!</p>
<p>Anyway, I agree there are definitely degrees of “giftedness” and each of the gifted kids I meet is unique. Teaching them well and engaging with each of them can be a challenge, but I have seen it very well and artfully done. The computer has been a boon (but it can also be a mixed blessing), for engaging many, including many gifted. </p>
<p>My kids HATED being in charge of teaching or tutoring kids all the time as a defacto job and being paired with the most needy kids, as some of the teachers did from the time they were in kindergarten. It was OK initially, but the novelty soon wore off and created bad/tough social dynamics. Many gifted kids are NOT necessarily the best teachers because they make connections that many others may not and they may have a hard time understanding why others don’t easily “catch on” to things that appears so obvious to them.</p>
<p>^It took me a long time to figure out that some kids couldn’t “catch on” to concepts as quickly as I could. I thought they were slackers! What finally turned me around was my experience in PE class. I could NOT do gymnastics to save myself. I tried SO hard. I had more than one gym teacher yell at me for not trying. So then the lightbulb went off - maybe some kids struggled as much academically as I did athletically! I don’t know why it took so long for me to figure that out.</p>
<p>S finally had a VERY tough time learning something when he took Mandarin. To him, ALL the APs he took (over 6 at one time) were easier than his Mandarin course. He finally dropped it after JR year. I explained to him that for MANY people, all subjects are as tough as Mandarin was for him. It was a shock to him because so much comes so easily to him, even most of the EE courses he took. He and D are very good athletes with very little effort and very good at nearly everything they attempted. Mandarin was tough for both of them. D taught herself German and says she wishes she had learned that BEFORE attempting Mandarin–she thinks it might have been a much less painful experience.</p>
<p>I never liked the term “gifted”. I do think it’s important to identify how quickly a student might learn and put them in appropriate classes, however, I think they could do so without the labeling. Both my D were labeled as gifted. They self identifiy as nerds but are proud of it. My oldest D is a senior in HS and attended an engineering seminar this past summer. After the first day she texted us that some of the kids were “crazy smart”. I was happy she got some perspective. I see too many kids identified as gifted that are taking courses they do not have strength in or are just not interested in. They can become frustrated and stressed out even though they are quite bright. They figure this is what they should be doing because they’re “gifted”. Conversely, I know some kids who are in classes that really don’t challenge them because they were not labeled gifted. Granted many classes might have been more than they could handle but they were always a year or two behind where they could be in some subjects.</p>
<p>I feel grateful that the schools I attended had “gifted” or special programs. Before I moved to the district in which I completed grades 2-9, I attended a city school in Colorado. I think there, I got tested and then my new school basically accepted those results. </p>
<p>My new school had mostly students from wealthy families, so they began accelerating students very early. I think accelerated math began in 4th grade and accelerated science in 7th. We also had a “seminar” type of thing every 2 or so days to do special projects. The teachers were mostly good, too and they let kids ask lots of questions or go beyond the curriculum. Everything was pretty interesting. A lot of my learning though, I think happened outside of class, when I read books or just played. There wasn’t onerous busywork back then, which helped. </p>
<p>In middle school, we had the accelerated stuff. Accelerated science was particularly good because we had this course in 7th grade which was almost entirely, hands on, do experiments, write lab reports and learn concepts. The teacher was having some personal problems so it got tough at times but it was generally, lots of fun. 8th grade, we could do Earth Science and so forth. In HS, the divisions became more obvious. </p>
<p>My current school is actually known for it’s gifted program. All kids take some IQ/reasoning test and then get interviewed. The types of “giftedness” are much more diverse than at my old school, which had mostly ‘normal’ people. For instance, there are hardcore artists and hardcore science geeks. Writers, filmmakers, ballerinas…we have them all.
Personally, I preferred my old school to this one because it had more resources and I could relate better to the students there than I can at this school, but I think it’s pretty neat how flexible the administration is here; I think lots of gifted kids might have fallen into the cracks if they did not come here. As a whole, I think the Canadian system is less flexible (or maybe it’s just where I live), though. </p>
<p>The program that I was tested for in Colorado was, I think, a very good one- they had set aside separate schools and resources for these kids. That being said, this program wasn’t well advertised and I think many URM kids that would’ve benefited from this were not aware of it. It’s pretty sad.</p>
<p>"Gifted kids know they are the smartest kids in the room - and sometimes smarter than the teachers. Appropriate education for them is as important, if not more important, than for learning disabled kids. While some parents might find bragging rights in getting kids into the gifted programs, others of us see it as the only way to keep our kids at all interested in the education system. They are hungry to learn.</p>
<p>I couldn’t agree more. These kids fail to receive an adequate education for a variety of reasons:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>The term “giftedness” invites a range of reactions from others, who may assume that gifted kids and their families are status conscious, high achieving people who only care about grades. Giftedness is a “learning difference” requiring a different teaching style that emphasizes creativity, complexity in thinking and an accelerated pace. It is not a choice and not a club to join. Yes, every child is gifted in his or her own way. This concept stops many schools from providing what is truly needed for the kids who statistically test out to qualify for the technical term of gifted. Again, it is not a label about how “wonderful” a child is - it is a learning style.</p></li>
<li><p>Many teachers have no clue about how to teach these kids, and may resent the intrusion on their classroom pace. Those wise teachers who get it may be forced to teach heterogeneous classrooms where they must teach to the middle and ignore the gifted kid’s needs.</p></li>
<li><p>Since only a small portion of the population is truly gifted, they are often neglected, and it is frequently assumed they will do fine on their own. This attitude would not be tolerated for children with other disabilities. These children languish in classrooms that are too slow, too simplistic, and teach them to never push themselves.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I have two children identified as gifted. One is a very bright kid who does relatively well in school, but does not really push himself. He is reasonably well-challenged in high school, now that he can take AP and honors classes. My other child is exceptionally gifted, was bored in many of his classes, and was overlooked many times by teachers who did not know how to challenge him. They knew he was bright, but those who didn’t know him made many false assumptions about him. They assumed he worked hard: false. They assumed he was a high achiever: false. They assumed that because he was good at certain things, that was his niche: false (e.g., since he was good a math, it was assumed he was a “math kid.” Not so - also a wonderful writer, great with languages, a talented musician, etc.). Every stereotype was false. But most importantly, he was able to slack off. He got into an ivy league college without padding his resume, by reading spark notes all through his AP English classes, by doing the minimum to get the A’s he needed. He is working a little harder in college, since he is feeling stimulated because he is surrounded by more exceptionally bright kids who also want to learn.</p>
<p>Please look at the HoagiesGifted web site for the most amazing information out there on gifted children and adults.</p>
<p>Thanks you all.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I’m repeating myself, but …</p>
<p>IQ is positively correlated to income and education completed, and it is highly heritable, so gifted children do disproportionately come from “affluent, educated homes”. That is one reason gifted programs are in disfavor.</p>
<p>All 3 of my sons are gifted. The younger two are still in the gifted program while my senior is now in AP classes. The thing I’ve always found interesting is that just because you are gifted doesn’t mean you are gifted in ALL subjects. Each of my son’s are really good in certain subjects and not so much in others.
The other thing is that there are a few gifted kids that are in my kids classes that are just well… way more gifted everyone else. Even in gifted there are regular gifted and gifted gifted…</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I remember a fellow violin student laughing at my kid when he was in K because he didn’t have the ABCs down pat in the correct order. He was reading in pre-school and reading chapter books at the time. He read The Lord of the Rings in 2nd grade, War and Peace and Nietzche in 7th. He just sort of skipped over the alphabet back in K. :D</p>
<p>I honestly think that magnet schools are the best idea ever invented for gifted students. It provides a sense of normalcy. You don’t feel out of place when you finally realize that there are more kids like you. I honestly don’t know if I’d still be here if it wasn’t for my magnet school because of how badly I get treated at my high school for being smart and being glad about it. In my Spanish 3 class, my friend would make faces at me during lessons she was bored. One of the guys would try to get me in trouble for laughing because he said I was laughing at their stupidity. They would get mad at me for answering questions. I’ve been called stuck up repeatedly because I’m happy to get a good grade. I don’t know if I’d have survived high school without my magnet school. I was and I still am the girl everyone loves to hate. Until I go to Governor’s School. Then, I’m normal. I’m special and unique but also one of them. Everybody is supportive. They want me to be happy. People at my high school ignore me or laugh when I cry. The people at my Governor’s School ask me what’s wrong. We’re not just friends. We’re a big (slightly dysfunctional) family.</p>
<p>I know I can’t be the only one. The world needs more of these schools in areas where there aren’t enough high level students at a single school to be economical but the students need accommodations. Kids will fall through the cracks, yes, but it’ll begin to help.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Not lucky enough to know a smart kid like her, but there must be some somewhere. I wonder what she’d do to her kid of her type. Living among 18 year olds must be rough for a 14 year old, particularly a boy perhaps.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Understanding someone smarter seems hard. Here on CC we see comments that if someone scores very high on SAT/ACT, she must’ve been spending her day and night preparing.</p>