Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums THINKING BIG About Gifted Education Gifted education myths

This thread might be more of a vent for myself, but why do common folks seem to speak so confidently about gifted education? Recently I had a conversation with someone regarding gifted funding and programs. His statement was that "most gifted students do fine without special programs because they seek things out for themselves"

Now, while that may be true for some, its often the lack of special programs that force students into a lock-step classroom curriculum. Not every school is willing to skip grades either, so these programs are often the best resort IMO.

What do others think? Also feel free to share any other myths encountered in gifted education.

They all are the at the same level by third grade.

Hahaha

The truly gifted kids are never bored. They know how to challenge themselves during class.

Yes, we heard this one from the headmistress of a school that supposedly belonged to the NAGC. She said this verbatim during a monologue re: how our son (later tested as PG) was unlikely to be gifted.

Yup, sit quietly and wait for the rest to finish!

You're a smart kid, this should not be a problem.

You can't really identify until 3rd grade. Spoken by our gifted replacement-class teacher.

My experience is that third grade is when a lot of kids give up and start blending or daydreaming.

The gifted will do fine anywhere. Is my annoying phrase. The subtext is a) if they don't they aren't gifted, and b) it is only worth finding a better school for struggling kids.

They need to learn to live in the real world and deal with all sorts of people. Not everyone is gifted in the real world.

Yes but the experienced person at your job is usually not expected to work at the same pace as a new-hire and then have to sit quietly while the slowest person finishes.

Around our district we play hardball.

1. You're racist since the program's demographics don't match the district.

2. You're not really gifted, you just want a private school education at the public expense.

3. Exposure to diversity is more important. You're harming your kids by focusing on academics.

4. You're just cheating on any testing measures or using your privilege to work the system.

5. You're harming everyone else by creating labels that promote low self-esteem in the regular track and perfectionism in the gifted one.

6. The gen-ed classes suffer from the missing gifted students.

If they can't finish all of the assigned work, they can't get enrichment.

Never mind that this may include extremely basic, repetitive work for a child with an attention deficit, poor fine motor skills and processing speed issues.

This is an excellent list.

Here are a few more from a prior crowd-sourced list and discussion on this topic... a roundup of myths about the gifted:
http://giftedissues.davidsongifted....hould_Everyone_Know_abou.html#Post161736

I believe the research summarized here says that gen ed kids actually perform better and make greater gains without the gifted kids. Essentially with the "gifted" kids gone, other kids now have the opportunity to shine... be at the top-of-the class... may speak up more... must rely on themselves.

Kids in honors math don't need instruction...in fact, a lack of instruction is how we make sure it's honors!

(I realize that honors doesn't necessarily equate to gifted, but in our district, it's the closest thing.)

Thanks everyone for their input. Excellent myths worth bring up.


One I was always told: "If the work is so easy then it should not be of issue"

And following on from this 'I offered extension work but he wasn't interested'. Because what six year old gifted child wouldn't want to do a second worksheet with slightly harder repetitive maths while the rest of the class play games.

Wow. I can't believe how many times I've heard every one of these.

But BenjaminL, I didn't realize you've been attending our district's gifted review meetings for the past four months!

As parents, we know this is false because there are many necessary life skills which kids don't learn if they do not have the challenge of instruction in their zone of proximal development (ZPD).

Let me cast my vote for post of the month on this one, I couldn't agree more

This has my vote too. Not only as a parent, but as an adult still working through the issues this caused for me.