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Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 460
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Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 460 |
Hi Austin,
For me it is not the measuring of IQ that is an issue.
The issue for me and a lot of us on here seems to be education. How can we get the sysem to provide services to our children who are years ahead of their peers in many subject areas? If a 6th grader was told he was going to do 1st grade work all year that would cause an outrage. So then why is it ok when we are told our kids will be forced to do work that they did years ago simply because they are this chronological age. However, this is a point many of us can't seem to get across to many educators. I think many teachers have one curriculum and do not want to waste the time making a new one for 1 child. I even bought books for my DS6 and the teacher was too lazy to use them with him. I feel like I am hitting a wall all the time and it is so exhausting. Next year will will try a new school. I wish I had more time to devote to him.
With my other DS2 I don't feel this overwhelming responsibility to not "waste" his brain.
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Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 407
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Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 407 |
Yes, I agree that most educators are following statistics based on "normal". I was a programmer/analyst for sixteen years and am now a teacher (math and computer ed). Most people don't question "facts". If one is told "children level out in third grade", that is a fact to them.
As a programmer, we had to think of everything that could go wrong and code for it so I am a little unusual for a teacher. I do work with my students and carefully think about their strengths and weaknesses.
I know where most of them are going and want to do. I am even teaching German to one of my tenth graders in a modified content math course. I just teach him a phrase per week, but that is what he wants. His mother (through a Spanish interpreter) said that he practices all the time.
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Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 1,897
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Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 1,897 |
I do not think stats tell the whole story.
We track coders work at my firm and I can tell you that some programmers code is perfect. Others is not. And even when the perfect coders work on it, it still has issues. Chaos vs order.
I think there are step functions or thresholds when it comes to quality of work and creativity that stats cannot measure. And the types of tests we choose to use fit in with our bias to measure things a certain way using statistics.
While other people may have the same IQ as a Feynman or a Von Neumann, they in no way have the same level of creativity or infectious effect on others.
I am not the smartest person in the room much of the time, but what I can do is start asking questions and defuse the panic or get people moving.
We do not know yet what "scientific charisma" or "creativity" is nor do we know how to measure it.
There is something deeper going on in many minds and we have to be careful not to destroy our awareness of the subtler and more important properties of intellect to focus on something easily measured. re: Creativity I really like this breakout of giftedness,below, some of the parts are less focused on iq, but none leave it out altogether. At first I thought it was just a rewrite of the multiple intelligences idea, but it is fairly different. The creativity list is the one which I have not seen before and it really reminds me of ds, he's smart, but there is this passion and 'irregularity' which is just fascinating to watch develop. (although of course there are drawbacks to being different) NSW Characteristics of Gifted Students
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Joined: Apr 2009
Posts: 1,032
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Joined: Apr 2009
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Nope, can't be true--my DS6 reads better than most adults, so there's no way that most of the kids in his class will ever catch up! I've been trying to explain this to him lately, as he's gotten worried that everybody's catching him and he's not smart anymore--I told him all he has to do is keep learning, and they'll never get ahead of him! 
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Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 356
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Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 356 |
How wonderful he does not feel the pressure to blend. Have you read others' posts about their preschooler coming home and saying they are too young to [fill in the blank]? (I think that's often what happens.) Go, kid, go! 
Last edited by seablue; 04/27/09 04:05 PM. Reason: clarification
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Joined: Apr 2009
Posts: 1,032
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Oh, he does have that need to blend, too. His teacher has struggled all year to walk that line because he wants to do stuff at his level, but he also doesn't want to be different. So he wants to do what everybody else is doing but it bores him stiff. He's getting better, with some pull-outs.
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Joined: Apr 2009
Posts: 389
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Joined: Apr 2009
Posts: 389 |
You guys are starting to open my eyes.
My DD6 started GR1 with a GR3 reading level which has not really increased as the year has progressed, while the other kids reading levels have increased alot.
Her teacher said that it was normal for reading levels to level off, but now I am starting think that it may be leveling off due to lack of enrichment.
Duh! Why did'nt I see this before. Her vocabulary & spelling words, and reading assignments are a joke. No wonder she's tredding water.
I need some ideas!
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Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 1,897
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Florida, are you able to discuss some changes with your child's teacher? We've had good luck with that, but also we try to get to the library very frequently and just have on hand what ds8 might be interested in - I don't care if it's manga or harry potter, as long as he's continuing to read for pleasure at home.
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Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 3,298 Likes: 2
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Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 3,298 Likes: 2 |
I had an idea about all this the other day. By third grade, most everyone can read a chapter book and kids have got definite preferences in their reading materials. This gives an appearance of evening out. If you don't look too closely (eg, comprehension of same book, time taken to read the same book, what books each kid is actually reading), it looks like everyone is around the same level.
It's like talking. Babies say their first words at different times and at, say, 18 months, a few will be yakking away, a few won't have said a word, and most will be somewhere in between to various obvious degrees. But by the time everyone is 6, nearly everyone speaks in paragraphs. So they sound a lot alike as long as you don't listen too closely.
Val
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Joined: Aug 2007
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Nice article! I hope teachers will find it helpful.
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