Gifted students need appropriate attention

The Beaumont Enterprise ^ | 12/09/03 | Editorial

[Holly_P]

With all the problems facing public education in Texas, some people might think that gifted and talented students are a happy exception. After all, these kids are bright, so they just cruise through the system and shoot into college, right?

Not always. An ironic problem with gifted students is that they can easily become bored with average curriculum that doesn't challenge them. If their school district is too concerned with helping struggling students who aren't passing mandatory exams, the gifted students might get overlooked or sidetracked. As a story in Monday's Enterprise indicated, they might act up in class, miss chances to get into college, switch to home-schooling or even drop out.

The Enterprise's survey of gifted programs in the region found a variety of responses to these challenges. Most districts are increasingly aware that they can't rely on safe assumptions about these students anymore.

Gifted students require monitoring like other students, as well as challenging curricula and incentives to keep progressing. Districts should remain flexible in meeting their needs, like the middle-school student mentioned in the article who was allowed to move up to high school. These students can reach great heights, but only if they are nurtured and focused properly.

[CobaltBlue]

Hi Holly -

When I was a kid, there was no special ed for gifted students, and that's held pretty steady across the country, even though the federal government seems to be taking an interest.

Back home in Louisiana, my sister's kids went to special gifted and talented classes, which required them to be bussed long distances, and treated like geeks.

Here in Fairfax VA, where the federal government's own kids go to school, you betcha special ed for gifted and talented kids is part of the public school curriculum. My kids were identified early, put into what is called GT pullout classes in first grade, and into special GT school in third grade.

One's now in college, one in 10th grade.

They hated/hate taking classes with "normal" kids because the "normals" tend to be A-holes and have behavior problems.

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

I have one child in public school and one being homeschooled. My daughter, who is a senior in High School, has taken almost all of her classes in the Honors program. Sometimes she had as few as 15 kids in a class - but all are well mannered and have to work to stay in that honors class.

The few classes she has taken with the general population of the school have been a nightmare!

[CobaltBlue]

The few classes she has taken with the general population of the school have been a nightmare!

My husband and I are both bright enough to have placed into GT classes but at the time these did not exist. So I was "iffy" on whether to put my kids in GT classes, since I did not know what to expect.

One thing I drew on was my own experience in Honors classes in college. I really liked being among other bright kids.

And then my husband and I both went to a relatively competitive private college, Tulane, which is certainly no Harvard nor MIT, but more competative than, say, Northern Virginia Community College.

Being among brighter fellow students is both a challenge and a relief. Behavior problems are almost zilch.

I know I am far from the tippiest toppiest intellectually, but I also know that throwing off the deadweight allows you to move faster.

[lizma]

my sister's kids went to special gifted and talented classes, which required them to be bussed long distances, and treated like geeks.

I'm just down the road from you in Montgomery County and the GT kids are bussed long distances and treated like geeks but my son loves it. The kids share his interests more, he's not bored, and most of them behave relatively decent.

In his 1st elementary school, about 40% of the kids are labeled GT per year but on average only one student every other year gets to go to the GT magnet school. I made a major stink when I first moved here and got the county's GT bureaucrats to retrain his school's teachers in teaching to GT kids and monitering the school's progress. Can't say I've noticed a difference. (My daughter is still there.)

[WackyKat]

I know I am far from the tippiest toppiest intellectually, but I also know that throwing off the deadweight allows you to move faster.

You're right-in my experience, gifted classes can be analogized to moving to a good neighborhood. Though you may have nice neighbors, the best thing about the area is that you're now avoiding the trouble caused by the bad neighbors in your old, crappy neighborhood. And that makes a big difference.

But I disagree with you about Tulane-when I attended graduate school there, I had a problem with students getting drunk, not doing their work, trying to seduce the female students,and getting into confrontations with other students with whom they disagreed politically.

Of course, once I graduated, those problems cleared up considerably ;)

[CobaltBlue]

Re: Tulane - you gotta remember, it's in New Orleans. So, whatever the minuses, there are the plusses.

No, it ain't CalTech. But it ain't LSU either. Far less Ole Miss, where my Daddy went to college. And the food and partying are out of this world. ;^)

[Think free or die]

Our sons' elementary school has a weekly pull out for gifted kids. It consists of 80 minutes of instruction to enrich their curriculum. There are team projects, lateral thinking exercises, word and visual puzzles, construction and other materials to stretch the kids. What they don't do is to accelerate them in their basic subjects. This would tend to disrupt the orderly progression of students through their normal grade levels. Sometimes this latter point bothers me quite a bit, since effectively kids are held back by not having access to accelerated instruction. However, I also need to chill occasionally and let kids be kids and not just academic all-stars. Our sons are bright and good students, but they don't have the maturity to accelerate into higher grades on a social level. Unless we opt for homeschooling, we'll have to manage with an imperfect fit. Fortunately, they both have excellent classroom teachers and a creative enrichment teacher.

We've noticed that being part of the enrichment program has been beneficial by encouraging our boys to work with other bright kids. It gives them some new challenges and places them with some really terrific kids. Neither son gets too involved with classroom troublemakers and they are well regarded by their teachers.

[CobaltBlue]

My take on it is that Montgomery County is more egalitarian than Fairfax. Ya'll have just as many smart people but they feel guiltier.

In Virginia, people move to Fairfax and pay hefty property taxes for the "good" school districts. Not at all the same in Arlington, Alexandria, Prince William or Loudoun. It's not so much the dollar per assessed value that hurts, it's the assessed value. Our house is assessed at twice what it would go for in, say, Prince William. We're in the Robinson District, which is pretty good. In the Woodson District, it would be assessed at least $100K more. In McLean or Great Falls, twice as much.

For some reason, Montgomery isn't as rough-and-tumble about this as Fairfax.

[WackyKat]

I meant I was the problem, not the school!

[The Westerner]

It's almost shocking that this editorialist just woke up to the problem of the gifted student! This problem has gotten worse as progressive education denuded the curriculum. I've often thought that hyperactive kids are the smart ones who can't stand the boredom.

[CobaltBlue]

Oh, I see!

[sarasmom]

You buy into commercials more than my nine year old does!
LOL!
Higher Education is not a bad thing, in and of itself.
Depends on the curriculum.
I was deemed "gifted" in the 1970's.
Big deal!
At the time, it meant I could differentuate between physical reality and academc theology.
Call me unsympathetic.

[Agkistrodon]

When I was in high school in Oregon years ago I was so bored out of my mind that I tried to start taking college courses at the local CC..and was legally prevented from doing so.
Not only is the boredom chronic, but you have to learn to deal with the other students parasitism, for lack of a better word. They cheat whenever they can, ask for help when they can't sit next you at test time, and still get to treat you like a turbo-nerd. Even so it wasn't quite as annoying as the constant impugning of one's integrity by teacher claims of plagiarism, cheating, parental assistance, etc.
The only, and I mean only, solution for the gifted is to get out public schooling altogether.

[CobaltBlue]

Huh? Sorry, although your post had English words strung together in what appeared to have been sentences, the sentences themselves conveyed no information.

Maybe your computer was hijacked by a virus?

[lizma]

For some reason, Montgomery isn't as rough-and-tumble about this as Fairfax.

LOL. You are so right. But we have the same problem with property taxes and assessed values, we just have such a nambly pambly wimpy attitude when it comes to our vote.

We have a big Jewish population. Although they are conservative they don't pay enough attention in elections to know what they are really voting for and they feel they have to vote for the democrats. But then again, the non-Jews they don't pay enough attention in elections to know what they are really voting for either.

When we were movin to this area, tried to get hubby to move to Virginia (they just seemed more sensible.) But after spending 1 to 2 hrs a day commuting for 10 years, faced with the possibility of living in Maryland with a 10 minute commute vs. crossing the American Legion Bridge wasn't an option for him. He had a good point and so now I live in fricken Maryland. Sheeple Heaven. UGH!

Bottom line. I'd rather be in Virginia.

[CobaltBlue]

The commute does make an incredible difference in life. My husband works for the Patent Office, his commute used to take an hour to an hour and a half both going in and coming home. He was so ground down. They just moved from Crystal City to Alexandria, and cut his commute to more like half an hour each way. He's ecstatic.

Having the hubby around for a couple more hours a day makes a big difference in everybody's lives.