Our school district uses "enrichment" for their "gifted" programing. Since they don't identify for giftedness, really, the program is designed for the Straight-A, good students who may or may not be gifted.

They say they broaden and deepen the general curriculum in these enrichment classes. Typically the kids are clustered in a "high track" classroom where this enrichment occurs according to the teacher's own ideas. There are no set guidelines for exactly how it should be done.

What I see happening is a lot of fun, hands on stuff, but there is still a lack of rigor and speed. The learning is still paced for the whole classroom; so, for the highly gifted kid, the experience can still cause inattention and distraction and distress.

Is rigor enrichment or is rigor self-paced acceleration? I'm of the mind that acceleration is really the only way, in a public school, we can truly meet the needs of the young gifted kid. Depth and breadth really does not increase the rate of information and the gifted child really needs that speed to keep the mind occupied and engaged.

Whatcha think? Change my mind!!

I agree that a rigorous course is more beneficial than enrichment.

The idea of breath and depth is appealing, but I doubt that it is actually accomplished in many situations. Additionally, all children could gain more meaningful understanding through enrichment, but only some need more advanced instruction. The floor should be raised for almost everyone, because to a certain extent, all children live up or down to the expectations that are set for them. I believe that our current educational standards, in general, are too low for most.

When I think of a rigorous class, I envision more lecture and discussion with grading emphasis on a few large projects and (non-multiple choice) test results, accompanied by the elimination of daily busywork in the form of simplistic worksheets. I'm uncertain whether faster equates to more rigorous.

Dottie,

What subject/s are you teaching? I hope you are teaching math in multi-age classrooms!

This is an argument for acceleration that I've started using.

Avoiding Gifted Kid Syndrome.

I've thought a lot about what happens to kids who don't have to exercise their brains. I call the result Gifted Kid syndrome.

I'm talking about kids who coast through elementary school getting high grades with little effort. Meanwhile, the other kids have work to understand what is being taught. The other kids are exercising their brains and learning how to figure out things they don't "get" immediately. The bright kids are not.

So when the bright kids hit subjects that are much harder and/or require a different way of thinking (algebra, geometry, physics, etc.), they don't really know what it's like to focus their minds and work hard to understand something. Many of them have been coasting through school for years, and learning to focus on something hard can be very difficult. It can lead to feelings of being dumb, underachieving, etc. This is Gifted Kid syndrome.

I think it's very important that these kids be challenged from an early age. They need to learn how it feels to work through something they don't "get" immediately. This process gives them a sense of achievement and also teaches them how to learn. Then, when they have to read John Milton or learn quantum mechanics, they'll understand what they need to do to figure out something hard.

I'm applying this approach with my kids, and I'll try the argument with the school system in a couple months when we meet to talk about skipping a grade next year.

Comments welcome.

Val

"Every child has a right to struggle."

I like that.

Sometimes I wonder how much more our species could have achieved by now if bright people had been better challenged. I know that things are more complicated than education, but still, it would be a start.

Val

Wow! Great discussion. Dottie, my sympathies!! Our program used to be a combination of pullouts (where they painted puppets one semester and did a math calculator system another) and tracking. Now it is just tracking and I'm kicking and screaming when I hear them talk about pullouts. ugh.

I agree that a good gifted class has more lecture and discussion then lets the kids loose to progress to their own needs. The "entertainment" factory I see in the so-called enrichment structure is pitiful. It still keeps those rapid, knowledge-sucking, minds from firing on up the path to gifted success.

Every child has the right to LEARN!! It's really what it boils down to. Being stuck in pre-fab education just isn't allowing our kids to LEARN!!

Willa

I think it's
"Every Child Deserves to be Challenged."
and
"Every Child Deserves to be Thought about Well."

Well, one can't think about an individual child well if preconseptions about childhood readiness come off an age chart in a book, and are blocking observation of reality!

Trinity

Hi Fite!
I don't think enrichment/acceleration is an either/or thing.
But I have heard that enrichment isn't going to be effective unless the child is within 2 years of their actual readiness level, so both is my favorite answer. This seems to fit my Data, about my Summer born 11 year old, once grade skipped, with lots of 13 year old peers in his 7th grade class, at a school that goes deep about everything. It puzzeled me at first that this PG underachiever could be converted to a hard working guy with a single grade skip, and a school change - but although I stay alert, I believe him when he says he's really well placed.

Some kids of course are my "multi-level" in their readiness, thatn that can make it tough. My son was SO multi-level at age 7, but now, as a touch typer, and as other children's abstract reasoning kicks in, is much closer to the center. Look at Rite!

Some suggest that there are two different kinds of giftedness - Accelerative and Enrichment-ish. The enrichment oriented kid is perfectly content to sit with agemates, finish their regualar work quickly, and work on their personal encyclopedia - say, creating an Encyclopedia. For this child, acceleration might just give them "more worksheets" that are still too easy and waste their precious time. Then there are the dear ones who are so plugged into the current in the classroom, that they need a "Merry Band" to explore onward with. My DS refused to do "more work" on a daily basis then what the teacher assigned - the enforced underachievement was well in place before I caught wind of what the real deal was. So he got a grade skip, even though it meant changing schools. When he complains about the amount of homework he gets, I smile on the inside. Actually, for who he is, I couldn't be happier with the placement. ((little happy dance))

Can you believe it's me, Trin, saying this?

Love and More Love,
Trinity

There

Our charter middle school (which I love) is enrichment for all, and I think it works well, though it's not enough. What it allows is some differentiated curriculum (if kids are doing a project, the gifted kids can extend it or be more elaborate). Other readings will be assigned for social studies.

We have run into rigor problems (I love how someone described it as exercising the brain!). To supplement, we tried advanced level testing (SAT/ACT), academic competitions (MathCounts, Math Olympiad, Science Olympiad). Summer institutes through talent searches. Then an online math course through EPGY. The academic competitions are supported by the school, but the rest is independently coordinated (and funded). That was son #1. Son #2 thrives on the enrichment work and will devote himself to it and it's harder to persuade him to independently choose rigor.

Fascinating topic! Very pertinent to me and mine.

Val, you just described me in college and my 9 year old daughter now!
She decided every other subject is so much more easier than writing (essays especially). She is so frustrated that she has to sit and think hard and come up with 'WOW' statements and use metaphors that she tries to find ways to bypass that.
Her recent antic was that she will draw a thinking-map instead of a book review. The teacher didn't praise her as mush as she usually does and my DD was so dissappointed!

Thanks sunny_mom and everyone else who's commented on what I said.

I've done a small informal survey of bright people I know, and almost all of them have told me that they had problems developing study skills after coasting through elementary. I know I did, and it's hardly surprising if you never had to work to do well.

I guess it just really stinks that the school system has become so rigid. Sometimes I wonder what schools would say if someone tried to force them to group kids on sports teams strictly by age, with no varsity or JV groups! Why is this so obvious and so okay with sports but not in other areas?

Val


Val

Great Sports Analogy. Now what about the funding that follow the athletic programs?
Smiles,
Trinity