In Garrison Keillor’s Lake Wobegon, all children are above average. Most places are like Keillor’s fictional Minnesota town; parents see their children as special and wonderful and they are right. Every child has gifts.
Yet our educational model does not reflect this. We cling to outdated concepts of tracks and levels and increasingly obsolete labels like honors and gifted. Instead of asking if students are gifted, we should ask how they are gifted. As any parent will tell you, children grow in spurts and fits. Just because my child knows her colors doesn’t mean she can count. A child may be at the top of the class one year and then the others catch up. Kids aren’t programmable. The only constant is growth but it is not consistent, even, or regular.
This constant growth is a challenge. Today, a student struggles with the abstract concept of theme in English class. Yet, as he moves into what developmental psychologist Jean Piaget calls formal thought, he is able to understand and analyze meanings and messages in a piece of literature. Children’s development is often the reason why some are more academically able than others.
If all the kids made these leaps at the same time, education would be much easier. Unfortunately, human beings don’t develop like products on the assembly line. And just because some children achieve a landmark early doesn’t mean that they are smarter or “gifted.” Just because others take longer does not mean they are less able. Something difficult yesterday might be easier today. Something that was no problem yesterday could cause issues today. And this growth is influenced by parents, teachers, peers and environment. Is there a good test to account for all that?
One of my first teaching experiences was working with “academically talented” students in a summer program. As I trained to work with them, I envisioned a bunch of middle school eggheads. When they arrived, I met regular kids who, for a wide variety of reasons, were advanced in specific areas but behaved like any other junior high kids.
Then I became a high school teacher and students would announce that they were in a special gifted program in middle school. I could see that some of them had skills that were more developed than their peers. For many, I could not. Most of the students who came from the middle school gifted or talented programs felt very entitled and displayed an arrogance that made me very uncomfortable –especially since most of the time, I didn’t see much basis for it.
These kids had been exposed to different lessons than their “regular” classmates. That gave them an advantage. Some of them performed better in class. But many “regular” kids could keep up or surpass them. I learned that, when I gave extra attention, “special” lessons, and praise to students – any students, they excelled. I have taught honors classes and classes that mixed students of different “ability” levels. I have worked with “disabled” and “remedial” students. I have news: all kids are gifted; all kids are talented, and all kids do better when they receive extra special attention.
Labeling our children or their classes does everyone a disservice. Children experience huge changes in their cognitive abilities well into their college years. There are a very few profoundly gifted students. I have taught one or two of them, and there is no debating their “gifts”. And let’s be clear: their gifts are at least half curse. Do you want your children to go to college at age thirteen? These are the gifted few.
The rest of our kids are above average.
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