Hi everyone,

An article about The Davidson Academy of Nevada just came out in EducationNext: http://educationnext.org/challenging-the-gifted/.

Pretty cool article. It describes the many ways the Academy is striving to meet the needs of its students. Numerous students and teachers are profiled, in addition to founders Bob and Jan Davidson (and other gifted ed experts across the country).

Mark

So nice to read about something other than "Chinese Parenting" this week!

It's nice to see attention for the brightest children rather than holding them back. Great article about some great people, the Davidsons and their efforts. Thanks for your relentless effort for the kids.

I have been thinking about this all morning after reading this article. That description of gifted kids "waiting" really hit home. D "waited" all the way through middle school for her peers to catch up and for her teachers to start providing challenging work. She "waited" in history class yesterday after easily filling in a 30 country map at the beginning of a World History unit, while her friend next to her struggled to decide if a country was "Russia or Asia?" It was China...

Intparent
I had exactly the same reaction, and my kid is in pre-K!! I am not a geography wiz myself, but country versus continent is really kind of sad!

DeHe

It is nice a group of PG kids are getting a customized education but in the big scheme of things, the problem with gifted is the problem with gifted. You have MG, HG, PG. A Kit Armstrong is way different than even many PG kids. And 150 different than 140. And an artistic type is going to be differnt than some biophysist type. Catering to all those interests?

How do you shape policy to create programs?

There is a new high school in NYC trying to use technology to leverage resources. I would really like to know if anyone is working on a program that uses classrooms -- with CTY type of solutions to leverage and cluster learners. That could be really cool. That could be a project for Davidsons.

Ren

Wren, I have been thinking that same thing. The head of school at D's K-12 private sent out his weekly message yesterday, and he was bragging about how the school meets each kid where they are cognitively ready (giving the example of a pre-K kid who didn't want to nap, so was spending some time in the 5th grade science classroom). My D hooted at this description of her school, which allows almost NO acceleration (except for kids who come in from the outside, sometimes they get to be a level higher in math, but never for the "homegrown ones"). The head seemed to have found ONE exception, and drew a generalization that is just false.

And I was thinking that given online learning resources and virtual classrooms, why CAN'T every school do what Davidson does and meet each kid in each subject where they are ready to be? My D also vehemently confirmed the "waiting" description when we discussed it. Our head of school keeps talking about the educational model of the future. But somehow this is not part of his vision.

This article is great. I forwarded it to my mom and she finally understands what I'm talking about. She kept quoting the article and exclaiming how this sounds like DS and that sounds like DS. It was nice to get parental approval! It is written so that regular people who are not in the gifted loop can understand. Now my mom is worried that DS will stagnate, and doesn't understand why all the schools can't/won't follow a plan like this, and thank goodness DS has parents willing to push for him....etc., etc.

So THANK you for the article! Nan

In my "crowd" growing up, there was this PG boy who liked to take apart things, radios, whatever to see how they worked. In hindsight he seems like many (most) of the PG kids described here, selfmotivated to learn, and like sitting down to task. he teaches math in some university in Ohio.

On the other side, my closest friend from earliest age, wasn't into playing chess, we played Bobby Sherman songs loud, over and over, and sang. She got into marching band and competitions and did musical theatre. I bet that many people didn't think of her as seriously PG. She got the highest score ever in undergrad physics studies in our university which is 150 year old and a very big school. She went right into a PhD program in nuclear engineering and got offered classifed research work -- no one else in her doctoral program was considered -- she knows this because her husband was in the program.

These kinds of differences make also make that some kids get into programs because they fit the mold, and some who are underestimated. It is so expensive to test to identify everyone and match needs.

Ren

Each time I read an article discussing the Davidson's school, I immediately compare our son's current educational situation... and my heart aches terribly.

Wish we were a little closer to Reno. Can't even contemplate a move, but, alas, we can dream.

Dandy

To the question about the crowd growing up, yes, yes, yes. We are trying to figure that out also.

This is why we are always pondering the same question. We knew we were intentionally marrying a highly intelligent spouse.

We hand picked and had a normal size bridal party to stand up for us on our wedding day -- close friends, highly intelligent.

Not one of those friends or family ended up having a highly gifted child. They did not understand our situation at all. It fell on me to scramble to figure out how to get in touch with other gifted families. It was so awkward and uncomfortable to discuss. Whew! We handled it as diplomatically as we could. Point is (to the younger folks who are researching this), discuss giftedness like any other planning matter for your future happy life. We thought we had a support system in place and it was not so. Hope it helps.