The Ultimate Plan to Help Gifted Education, Part 3

(and Improve Education for All Kids in the Process) 

by Kathleen Casper

This article is from SENG.  Gilbert Supporters of the Gifted is making this article into a five part series.  Part three is below...

Educate teachers and administrators in schools about gifted children 

Even teacher preparation programs spend very little time on the topics of giftedness when they are training the next generation of teachers. But those who were trained years ago were given little if any training at all on giftedness. Many of the teachers and administrators that children encounter in the school systems now have no idea how to really identify gifted children and are stuck on misunderstandings and stereotypes and biases that have no basis in real gifted education theory or research.

Several states do not require gifted education endorsements for teachers who work with gifted children, and the states that do require the endorsements often leave out the educators who work in general education classes. Ironically, they are the very ones we have to rely on to identify and refer the students in the first place in many school districts. We need to reach out to more educators, but we are competing with so many other important issues right now, especially in light of the push for lower achieving students to pass standardized tests.

But this is exactly where we need to be coming in and educating the teachers and administrators about what gifted children look like, because often gifted children are often underachieving too. Sometimes the behavioral issues that slow student progress down have a lot to do with gifted traits- gifted children often misbehave or refuse to work for teachers who do not understand them, or when their abilities are under-estimated due to misidentification, or when their need for complexity is not fulfilled and they find it is much more interesting to get a rise out of the teacher or their other classmates than do the work. Many gifted children have social emotional issues due to being misplaced in classes that do not have other gifted peers in them, or because they need additional support to communicate with children who are not on the same thought waves as they are. Gifted students with a strong sense of right or wrong or emotional intensities may be so wrapped up in needing help resolving social and emotional issues that they cannot effectively concentrate on academic skill building in a classroom without further support.

The more we help teachers understand gifted students, the more time and energy they can devote to the other students in the class when our children are effectively engaged in true learning opportunities that stretch their minds.

So how can we help? We need to reach out to districts and request that they provide their teachers with resources and educational opportunities and offer ourselves as a way for them to receive these support systems. We need to ask our local teacher colleges if they are focusing on gifted education issues and ask student teachers to advocate for more gifted education in their programs. We should talk with parent teacher associations and school board members. A good place to start may be taking individuals out to coffee to talk with them about our children’s individual needs and then slip them a few articles to help them understand the need for supporting other kids like ours. We can work with other gifted organizations like state gifted associations and national organizations to bring in trainings for the community and then make sure we market the event very heavily to teachers with flyers, emails, whatever works!

If we are already on the outside of the district’s network, perhaps because we’ve hit their last nerve with trying to reach out to them, we need to find other local allies who have positive relationships with the people who lead our schools and inform them, so they can go forward for us. We do not always have to be the spokespeople or the face of gifted education in our communities if we are not as effective as another person may be. Knowing when to take a back seat and work from the sidelines is a very important advocacy skill.

We can bring in gifted speakers such as book authors and researchers to speak to community groups and invite important school personnel to attend with us as our guests. Keep in mind that sometimes the secretaries and the custodians are just as important to network with as the principals and teachers and school board members because they also interact with the kids every day and can influence the way the children are treated in the schools on a daily basis too. The more we flood the schools with gifted education in positive ways, the more likely teachers and administrators will be open and receptive to hearing the messages. If they can take ownership, the changes are much more likely to take place than if we try to force it.

Part 4:  Educate others outside of the education systems about giftedness.