Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Need a good analogy

I'd love to have an analogy to use when talking with teachers/administrators who don't understand asynchrony in gifted students. I'm specifically thinking of statements like, "Well, dd's handwriting isn't good enough to let her advance in reading," or "We can't teach dd anything new in math until she can do X math facts in one minute."

Holding a child back because her motor skills/processing speed haven't caught up to her other abilities is like...

Keeping a good swimmer in the wading pool until the water isn't over her head?
Not letting Mozart play the piano until his feet can reach the pedals?

Any other suggestions?

"Holding a child back because her motor skills/processing speed haven't caught up to her other abilities is like..."

... not giving a student-teacher his own classroom because he hasn't learned about asynchronous development?

Sorry for the sarcasm, but skool-think like that really irritates me.

I like the piano comparison... but I'd drop the reference to Mozart & replace it with the generic "child."

Holding a child back because her motor skills/processing speed haven't caught up to her other abilities is like...

Not feeding a child the main course because they won't each their spinach.

- I think this conveys:
1. the thing they want to do is good for them too, as well as attractive to them
2. While the thing they don't want to do is good for them
it is a taste for that comes with time. You don't stop trying to feed them the spinach from time to time, you just don't make it the only thing on the plate
3. I think also 'feeding' the brain is just a good basic analogy, as is the inverse of 'starving' it.

..... not letting a kid play basketball because they can't keep score?

Sorry, I'm always going back to the old 'move them on in sports but not the classroom' issue.

I read an analogy once that has worked well for us though not exactly the same situation. I have actually used it for DS's current teacher and she had a bit of a lightbulb moment so maybe it would work. I told her "Imagine every morning, before you could read the newspaper you had to prove again that you know how to read. You have to sit down and read the entire BOB book collection. Only then can you open your newspaper, would you still want to read it?"

I also said once, unsuccessfully, "Would you refuse to let Steven Hawking write a book because he can't type it with his hands?" Evil teacher said "Your child is no Steven Hawking."

oops...

I think the question to ask is, "What would you recommend for a bright student in the "age appropriate" grade who has difficulty with handwriting?

Teacher: "Umm, (throat clearing) well..."

You: "You would not suggest that he be held back, would you? You'd assign him OT or get him access to a keyboard, perhaps? Surely you wouldn't put him back a grade, when he has already demonstrated that he is ready for more advanced coursework?"

Teacher: "I think we need to get the principal involved in this discussion..."

Maybe you should have said to the teacher "How do you know what great things he can accomplish, given the opportunity."

Sorry, that's my argumentative side coming out.

Most children are on the normal developmental path, where their handwriting develops at about the same pace as their reading, and their ability to understand Math ideas comes AFTER they are wonderful at speed Math Facts. But the problem with norms, is that although they apply to most kids, they do not apply to all kids. My son is on a different developmental path, one which is quite common to gifted kids, and his learning needs need to be evaluated chunk by chunk instead of relying on norms. He is ready for bigger ideas, in Math and in Reading, right now, even though his fingers are still at age-level.

Best Wishes,
Grinity

I would have said, "Do you know Stephen Hawking?"

--



"Hawking, who went to a public school in St Albans, did not like conventional lessons, his handwriting was terrible and he was not competitive, says his mother. He was often near the bottom of the class.

But by the age of 10, he knew he wanted to be a scientist. He liked designing complicated Meccano models, and at the age of 16 he and his school friends designed and built a working computer out of parts of old machines. He spoke quickly, a characteristic his friends labeled Hawkingese. His final school report said 'He will go far.'"

..

and,

"He was a social young man who did little schoolwork because he was able to grasp the essentials of a mathematics or physics problem quickly. At home he reports, "I would take things apart to see how they worked, but they didn't often go back together."

And,

"His physics tutor, Robert Berman, later said in The New York Times Magazine:

It was only necessary for him to know that something could be done, and he could do it without looking to see how other people did it. [...] He didn't have very many books, and he didn't take notes. Of course, his mind was completely different from all of his contemporaries.[9]

Hawking was passing, but his unimpressive study habits resulted in a final examination score on the borderline between first and second class honours, making an "oral examination" necessary. Berman said of the oral examination:

And of course the examiners then were intelligent enough to realize they were talking to someone far more clever than most of themselves.[9]"

Kind of puts things in perspective, doesn't it?