I was folding laundry and mulling someone who recently mentioned his gifted childhood, when actually he didn’t seem real bright to me. Kind of dim, in fact. And this is something that has happened fairly regularly over the years: someone works into the conversation that they were in a gifted program in school, and I think, “…Huh.”
I have come up with a theory, and it is this: that there is Gifted and that there is Ahead, and that schools and tests have trouble telling them apart (and/or that maybe it’s not possible to tell them apart early on). Which leads to many, many people being categorized as Gifted (not only in academics but in music and dance and sports and so forth), and then later suffering the unpleasant feeling of things not having panned out.
(I think there are other issues involved, too, such as Potential vs. Application, and Aptitude vs. Motivation, and Abilities vs. Interests, but here I’m only talking about the Gifted vs. Ahead thing.)
When I worked in the infant room of a daycare, we sometimes had a baby who would walk at, say, 9 months. This would make the other babies’ parents feel a little funny: their babies were not measuring up; their babies were not getting a fuss made over how advanced they were.
But was the early-walking baby GIFTED? No, just temporarily ahead of the other babies. That baby was not going to maintain that gap between her physical abilities and the physical abilities of the other babies; it’s just that she got there first, and then all the other babies caught up. Perhaps there will be a few star athletes among the early walkers and then we will say “Ah! The ability was evident even early on!” But the majority of the early walkers will later be only regular walkers, indistinguishable from the average and late walkers, and there will also be star athletes from the late walkers and we just won’t remark on it because it won’t seem significant then.
I think it can be the same with academics: sometimes the school system calls a child “gifted” when that child is just ahead of the other children at that point. A child who is reading at a 12th-grade level at age six is not likely to maintain that 11-year gap all her life: it’s more likely she is AHEAD, and soon the others will catch up. It IS likely she (like all the others at her reading level) will still be a better/faster reader than many of her adult peers, but it will not be as startling a gap, nor will it be likely to have as big an impact on her adult life as it did on her elementary school life.
The problem, I think, is that a child who is told she’s eleven grades ahead at age 6 gets the feeling that she is eleven grades ahead FOR LIFE. But soon there isn’t “eleven grades ahead” to BE: we don’t say that a 24-year-old is reading at a 35-year-old level. And this leads the adult version of the gifted child to feel a certain dissatisfaction with life: wasn’t she…GIFTED? So why has the gap for the most part vanished? Where did the all the fuss and all the discussions of potential disappear to? It’s because all she was was temporarily ahead.
Or it’s because there was a misunderstanding about what gifted means. A child growing up with bright parents might think that gifted means EVEN BRIGHTER, or in a class of their own—when actually it means being part of a large group that is brighter than the average of the general population, an average they may have assumed is higher than it is. It’s still good news, but what it means is that they get to have the kind of college-educated job they were already assuming they’d get, rather than a job that requires few mental skills. What they might have been thinking of as an ordinary and non-gifted life IS the gifted life: being able to communicate in both spoken and written word; valuing knowledge and education; being able to think things through; being able to read well and enjoy reading; being able to analyze and critique; being able to take a stab at helping the children with their homework (although I am grateful for Wikipedia, because I am more than a little fuzzy on 7th grade history) (and rules of grammar) (and what IS that lattice-math thing they’re doing??).
Yes! yes, yes, yes. I dont identify with feeling disatisfied, because I kinda knew I was just ahead and was lucky to have parents who encouraged that. My experience as a kid who was ahead informs the way I parent my own ahead kid. When people say he is so bright, I find myself tempering that with ‘maybe he is or maybe he just likes numbers’ I have SO many thoughts on this. Just, YES.
I read Nurture Shock, which talks about some of these same issues. The authors’ say that children are normally tested too early for “gifted” programs and then are labeled that way throughout school when they may have only been ahead at the age they were tested at. They said that the earliest kids should be tested is 3rd grade.
Also kids who are always labeled as “smart” and told constantly as praise that they are smart, leads to feelings of inadequacy later on. When the kids encounter something that they can’t do, they quit much faster because they have been told how smart they are and don’t want to seem to have failed at something. I think that’s part of the gifted problem as well. Kids are told they are smart which they apply to their general life skills and all areas of study. When what they may be is good at math. Or reading comprehension. Or spacial reasoning. And then it’s such a let down when the can’t complete other tasks with the same amount of ease and they get discouraged and frustrated and quit.
And how do I tell people who exclaim that my kid is “so smart!” not to ever tell them that? It sounds so ridiculous.
I agree. I was labeled “gifted” in six grade. In reality I was only a better comprehender/fast reader than the people in my age group. I remained better off vocab and reading wise throughout my academic career but I never was smarter than the average student. Especially not the super smart math wiz. So yes, I was “gifted” but that really only meant I was ahead. I was glad to get into that program though because regular school work bored me. So I think those labels just help to push that person to their full potential at that particular time.
Word. And this isn’t even getting into the social aspect of it: how awkward it is to either be or not be singled out in this way.
Spot on. I think “gifted program” at this point, is just code for non-traditional (and less boring) ways of learning. It’s a good thing, but I agree it’s creating an illusion of grandeur for a lot of kids (and their parents). My neighbor is forever talking about how her kids are in the GIFTED program and it drives me crazy.
O Swistle, that is one big can of educational WORMS. Achievement versus ability and holy hell program design and the allotment of resources accordingly. IMHO, labelling should only occur according to *need* and at least half the time really high achievement actually means that the kid is doing *really well* in their regular learning environment, as opposed to needing something different. And yeah, the problem of kids starting to believe that achievement/success is a result of ability rather than a combination of ability/persistence/risk-taking …. Can of WORMS.
ABSOLUTELY!
My kids are both identified gifted but neither of them is ahead, oh boyo no. Their tests show that they think a little differently, can use a challenge or a puzzle to work out, but they are not ahead of where they should be age/grade wise. I know several children who are ahead. They get all As and learn everything quickly and are organized and ready for the day. My daughter’s school also has some kids who are both gifted AND advanced and honestly those kids impress me because they are way smarter than I am already ;)
I’m not sure that one is better than the other but they are definitely not the same. I’m glad that our school system seems advanced in the definition of these two and seems to work with the children individually to give them what they need. My oldest gifted would not do well to have work piled on and be expected to get all A’s. He’d rather you give him a puzzle to work on, a challenging idea, an interesting topic…
Totally agree. Also, I fully believe that anyone who works into conversation, especially as an adult, that they were “gifted” is… um… not gifted.
Point the second: My husband and I both worked in urban schools for some years, and now both work peripherally with schools in other capacities. He was actually the “gifted” teacher at a school that had a gifted program that worked by enrolling those kids in the extra class he taught… project-based, focused on critical thinking skills, etc. At least in urban schools, I would argue there’s a real disparity with gifted/honors vs. regular academics, such that, if you’re white, you’re in gifted/honors, and if you’re not, you’re in regular classes. Lots of reasons for this, OBVIOUSLY, but that seems to be how it shakes out a lot of the time.
I think gifted kids are different, not just ahead, and I’d agree with the statement that that can’t be determined too early. I’m pretty sure my oldest could be classified as “gifted” (and I have four and am not claiming that for any of the others, so it’s not a “my kid is awesome” thing). He’s DIFFERENT. He’s dyslexic/dysgraphic, has absolutely no social skills whatsoever, didn’t have a real friend until 4th grade. But he thinks of things differently. He understands mechanics and engineering and complex social/political ideas in ways that I don’t see in other kids (mine included). There’s a phrase, “twisted gifted,” that really describes him. I don’t think “ahead” counts (this is what happens in schools a lot now, due to social/economic gaps outside of school), and in fact, he’s behind on a lot of things (gross/fine motor, writing).
Anyway, blah blah blah. This got way too long.
Totally agree. It’s not like one smart parent + another smart parent = super smart offspring. That would yield some kind of super being, who would then probably mate with another super being, to create a super super being. It just doesn’t work that way. Sometimes it can, sure, but sometimes it just means better access to education and other opportunities. It’s not like there’s a direct correlation that we can use to create a genius army.
I TOTALLY agree. (And I got a good giggle out of your first bit about the so-called gifted guy being rather dim. I know that guy! He was gifted in elementary school and sixth grade and then… his bulb dimmed.)
(I have also had this experience with people who claim to be in Mensa. “Oh really? YOU?”)
I wonder if part of the Gifted program’s goal (is there a goal?) is to give the Kids Who Are Ahead some extra work to keep them from being bored? And causing problems because of the boredom? Or maybe it allows Kids Who Are Ahead Academically But Not Socially to be challenged without having to bump them up a grade?
I remember that Being Gifted was a big deal in elementary school and middle school (for my hometown, at least). But after that it petered out. There was no Gifted program for high schoolers. Which seems to fit right in with your theory that the kids are just Ahead and need some sort of distraction until the others have caught up.
Interesting post and topic!
I agree that there is a difference between ahead and gifted, but it gets sticky because while they are not the same, they are correlated (meaning that often gifted children will be ahead, and stay ahead). Even with the baby example, there is a correlation between early development (like in walking) and high intelligence, though as you note this doesn’t mean ALL early walkers are super smart, or that super smart kids are all early walkers.
Gifted programs have a lot of problems though: for one thing, you can’t really tell with accuracy who’s gifted and who’s not until age 7 or 8. Yet many school districts do testing much earlier. Parents will also finagle the system in various ways to include their (actually average) children in gifted programs. (A previous commenter notes how this can also have racial undertones.) Being in the gifted program doesn’t necessarily mean much, as you note.
100% correct, and this is from a “gifted” kid! I actually have no idea if I was actually gifted, but I went to elementary school in North Carolina and was pronounced gifted, then moved to California, where I was also gifted, then moved around some more and was no longer gifted. It makes no sense. I think I was definitely ahead and really enjoyed my gifted classes but the last time I was tested for “giftedness,” I really hated my school and had A Lot of Things Going On in my personal life and didn’t try on the test and was no longer “gifted.” I think I was mostly interested in learning different stuff that I wasn’t getting in my regular classes, but I wouldn’t call myself gifted.
Oh man, I know. My kid is one of those who is “ahead” or a faster learner, or something. He’s not “gifted” b/c he goes to a tiny school that doesn’t test for it. I can totally see how being labelled “the smart kid” is going to backfire on him. He doesn’t have to work to learn, and that is a huge deal for me. He’s totally coasting (granted, he’s only in 2nd grade), but he gets perfect grades without even trying. I don’t want learning to be a struggle for him, of course, but I want him to learn how to learn, if that makes any sense. Because if he doesn’t, he’s going to be that smart kid who seems like a dim adult. And that is the only reason I push his teacher to do something extra with him. I don’t want a superkid, I want a kid who knows how to learn.
And now that I’ve typed this out, I totally sound like an obnoxious “my kid is sooo smart and superspechul” mom, when I just wanted to agree with you.
WHY in the WORLD would any adult ever work into conversation that they were “gifted” as a child? Unless you ask me specifically about my classes when I was a kid, I would never even think to mention that detail. Weird.
But! I totally agree. I think most of the kids I knew in the “gifted” classes were just ahead. (Unlike me, of course, I really AM “gifted”. *snort*)
Words like ‘gifted’ and ‘remedial’ being used on children in elementary school really sets them up for some disappointment in later years. I was not labeled as gifted when I was in school. I was labeled as remedial because I simply couldn’t catch on to that whole reading thing. Lots of tutors and lots of hard work to get through something as simple as The Cat in The Hat.
Calling me remedial would suggest that I in some way was never going to be as great as the children who were being called gifted. Children like my brother who had a 12th grade reading comprehension level in kindergarten.
I did learn to read however, and actually in the end far surpassed many of the so called gifted students. Sure I still read very slowly, but that is not an indicator of pretty much anything, other than the fact that it is guaranteed it will take me longer to devour a book than most people.
Everyone works at their own speeds it doesn’t make them better or worse than anyone else.
Having gone to private schools as a child, I’m only loosely familiar with what a “Gifted Program” is. I think they referred to it as “Gifted AND Talented”.
Even as a kid, when I heard about it from public school attending neighbor friends, I wasn’t quite “sold” on the idea.
But, now that you have shared that a grown man was bragging about being in a gifted program in middle school it has now moved me to an official position: LAME.
Dude, let it go. We’re not impressed. I’m dying to know what he’s done with his life since he was such a “gifted 9 year old”. Fed starving children in Africa? Help negotiate peace in the Middle East? Come up with a simple solution to help America get off foreign oil?
In my son’s school they don’t break out the kids who test as “gifted” (frankly I think the term “ahead” applies just as well to most of these kids). They stay in the same class and the teacher just gives them different or alternative projects (in theory). Frankly, the only reason we had my son tested was so that we would have a something on paper to back up our insistence that his teacher stop making him read low level intro stuff during in-class time and let him read the books he was interested in and capable of reading. It was like without the stupid piece of paper we couldn’t get any traction on that and my son was starting to loathe reading time, which was totally unacceptable.
Yes, yes, yes. Another way to think of it is as a regression to the mean. People on extreme ends of any measure of intelligence are more likely to become more average over time rather than more extreme.
What is the point of the label gifted anyway? Who, exactly, is bestowing these “gifts”? When did it fall out of fashion to call people just smart? My brother was considered slow as a young child, in many areas, to the point that it was strongly suggested to my parents that he be held back in kindergarten. They didn’t do that because we’re twins and my parents didn’t like the drawbacks that would come with having twins in different grades. Anyway, I’m sure you can guess how this story goes: he’s now a fancypants doctor with many prestigious credentials and the smartest chap you’ll ever meet. He’s just one person of course but based on his experience I’ve always been leery of the label gifted being applied to young children who seemingly are just ahead.
There’s a club for adults who were labeled gifted as children who’ve gone on to do not much. It’s called Mensa.
Exactly!
My Kindergartner is currently ahead in math and after the meeting with the teacher where we discussed this, my husband was quick to point out his own acumen at math. As if our son inherited multiplication tables. This irritated me because only did it discount the hours I’ve worked with our son, it also discounted the hours of work OUR SON did to get where he is now. Our son is not necessarily gifted, he just really, really digs numbers and has parents willing to talk about his beloved numbers with him.
My son has made some comments about how he is smart in math and I have been quick to point out that he has worked hard at math and that he has to continue working hard because there is a crapton that he still has yet to learn. I started to ask him about angles and threw out some algebra for good measure. That quieted him quickly. Ugh.
Yes, and also, as I was reading this, I was thinking just what Shelly wrote- why would an adult EVER mention that they were in a gifted program as a child? I think that if an adult mentions it, that means the adult was probably “ahead” as a child, not really gifted, and that the adult thinks mentioning it will make him/her seem smarter.
What really sucks about gifted programs is that they end up creating these groups of overcompetitive overachievers who end up with all sorts of issues later on when, as you said, the rest of the population catches up to them. They’re pulled out of regular class to go to the gifted class one day a week, and so they have two classes’ worth of homework to do, and they get themselves into this frenzy of “I have to do it all and I have to be the best at it” and end up making themselves ill from the stress.
Not that I have any experience with this, or anything. Ahem.
If my kids are labeled gifted, the school is gonna have to make a really compelling argument for putting them in the gifted program. Because I HATED it, and do not want my kids to dread going to school or fake being sick to get out of going to that stupid class.
I really agree with the people who’ve said that it’s all confounded with persistence and risk-taking. My daughter is ahead in reading, but she is SO unwilling to try new things that she’s afraid she won’t ALREADY be good at. She likes her violin, but she doesn’t want to try new songs on it that she hasn’t already mastered; she’ll read Junie B. Jones over and over and over rather than try a harder, more challenging book; she’ll do a worksheet of simple addition all day long (and get it right!) rather than move on to learning something she doesn’t know. I am gently, with gritted teeth, and not in these words, trying to teach her that if she’s 35 and still reading Junie B. Jones she will no longer be ahead. Resilience, hard work, and trying new things to be good at count for at least as much as inherent intelligence or ahead-ness.
I have a cranky history with the gifted. Mostly when I was in school I felt like I was smarter an d regularly did better things than the clique (yes, it’s totally a clique) in the “Talented and Gifted” group, and wtf is that really, other than “let’s make everyone else feel dumb.” I was never considered for this because surely anyone with a hearing impairment must be dumber than a box of rocks. I remember when I aws a kid my teachers were always shocked when I did well. I remember one teacher telling my mom she was taken aback that I got an A in her class despite insisting on sitting in the back of her classroom.
But all those TAG kids were just the ones with the bright personalities that everyone liked to indulge, the ones the teachers liked to work with, the dramatic ones that were in choir and theater.. nothing more. And you have kids like me that teachers thought were smart. but were ahead (did I just call myself dim? I don’t think i’m “smart” but I sure as hell know how to work it/find out what I need to know, which apparently a LOT of people don’t?) but then would turn around and act disappointed when the other kids caught up and I wasn’t still 11 years ahead. Or tsk condescendingly and tell me I wasn’t “living up to my potential.”
I dont’ tell my kids they’re smart, but I tell them that nothing is easy and not to quit just because something is challenging… I also teach them ways to figure things out, and where to look things up, and let them know that basics aside, it’s not necessary to know ALL THE THINGS, just know where they can look them up and how to use those resources. And to follow their heart and do all the creative projects they want regardless if they’re in the clique or not.
Our school seems to be ‘with it’ because they do not start TAG till 3rd grade. I am constantly finding things out that our school really is on the up and up with, and it makes me happy.
I love this post and the comments.
AS SOMEONE WHO WAS IN GIFTED CLASS, I just want to note how incredibly annoying it is when people talk about how they were gifted.
I’ll also second Mrs. CPA that Nurture Shock is awesome on this aspect of development and lots of others. Swistle, I think you would LOVE it.
Oh yes, Swistle, such interesting thoughts about the difference between gifted and ahead.
I second (third?) the suggestion: read NurtureShock if you haven’t already. And I’m not just saying that because Po Bronson is my imaginary boyfriend. (But he is. HE IS.)
I can’t stand the term “gifted”. I imagine a wrapped package where someone’s brain should be.
And “the gifted life”? That’s where 95% of those who are labeled gifted get their “gifts” from. We are so lucky if we are gifted in these ways and are given a HUGE head start in life.
I went to public school and was in a “gifted and talented program” and boy did it screw me up. I was told I was “smart” but I had trouble with school so then I felt ashamed and tried to hide my academic problems by never asking for help. This meant I didn’t learn anything for a solid 4 years. I swtiched schools in 5th grade and the new teacher noticed that I was really behind in some areas and I went from “gifted” to “needing extra support.”
As a former teacher, now parent and former “gifted” person, I think its probably easier (for the kids) to have differentiated instruction in the classroom so you have a mix of abilities in different subjects and students get a more tailored classroom while exposed to lots of different kids with different learning styles.
ooh, great topic! I have totally average kids and I was a totally average kid and you know what? It didn’t matter. I thought I was “gifted” my whole life and then only when I looked back at my report cards ten years later did I realize I was just normal and the only reason I felt gifted was because my parents gushed on the praise so heavily, and then I later succeeded because of that THOUGHT, even though I was totally normal. So I guess you could say my parents were gifted.
Would it be too ironic if I said this post is brilliant? Agree, agree, agree.
Gah. I see this same sort of dilemma all the time in the arts, too. We tell kids how amazingly talented they are to encourage them, but then this translates LOGICALLY to “well of course I will be a rich and famous actor/musician/whatever”. Then they grow up and face reality and end up 35 years old, still being supported by their parents, dissatisfied with life, still waiting for this rich and famous life they were promised.
But you can’t exactly say to a kid, “Nice piano solo, but don’t go thinking you’re anything special,” now can you?
I like the distinction you’ve made. I was “ahead” in fourth grade and was considered being bumped up a grade.
Thankfully my parents didn’t agree with the school so I didn’t.
Because it surely would have come to light in high school when I mightily struggled in math & science.
And the infant room memory made me giggle. Omg, it’s a superbaby!!
So,Yes, AHEAD not GIFTED!!!
PS…my word verification was “addled” LOL
Oh man, yes. All my early school life I was considered gifted because I could read so well, so young, but did that translate to a stellar career later on? Did it mean I even did especially well in high school? NOOOOO!!! All it meant was that I picked up on language comprehension earlier than most.
And I DID feel like a disappointment for awhile, as though I should have been a famous author or editor or something and that I was just WASTING all these GIFTS. When in fact as an adult there is no difference between me and anyone else who enjoys reading and can read fairly quickly.
Totally agree with this! I was considered “gifted” in elementary school and for certain subjects other classmates and I would leave the “normal” classroom for the “A/G” classroom. It stood for “Accelerated/Gifted” and we had our own special education teacher, books, and syllabus for certain subjects.
At the time it kind of just made me feel weird. To leave the normal class, some of my friends behind, and go to this new classroom with other kids I wasn’t that familiar with.
My parents would brag about it and I remember thinking it should be making me feel “better,” but all it did was make me feel “different.”
There were all levels of students in the A/G class, just a mix-up of those that were any degree above the general students. Some I remember thinking “how did they get in here?!” It was exactly what you’re saying – just a temporary jump ahead, but b/c we were any amount above the “norm” we were in that class together. More was expected of us, we had a bigger workload, and we had far more reading to do.
By the time I reached middle school I was in normal classes again. I still feel like I am smarter than the general public, but I’m glad it evened out to kind of fade into the crowd and be in “normal” classes.
Alicia and Shelly: Notice how many people are dropping it into this comments section.
I don’t know about this. Elizabeth walked at nine months and then today, she told me “I have very walking feet!” So obviously, at almost three, she still feels like she is gifted in walking. ;)
I tested as “Gifted” in Kindergarten (circa 1990), mostly because I learned to read at 4, so I was merely ahead of the other kids in K.
My problems started occurring when I got to the 4th grade, because the scheduled Gifted/Talented time was during math lessons. Now, I was waaaay ahead in reading but probably average to below-average at math and hated it anyway. So when they told me I could take a short test to prove I knew fractions and I could get out of math entirely, I was sold.
I test well, so I fudged my way through the test and entirely skipped 4th grade math.
That seems… kind of stupid, if you ask me. I don’t think I’ve ever caught up in math. Thanks, Gifted/Talented Program, for making me dumber.
So yeah, I’m with you – I think most “gifted” kids are just ahead in one arena or another and will eventually average out like everybody else.
I think someone already mentioned this, but you really should read Nurtureshock. So interesting how we push “ahead” kids into gifted programs and then don’t ever let anyone in or out of those programs, even if “giftedness” manifests itself later and “aheadness” drops to “normal” later.
I’ve seen this first-hand with my twins vs. their peers and Marin. The twins read and WROTE really early. Like, by 4ish they could write me notes with all (or MOST) words spelled correctly. By K they were fluently reading. My friends’ son was in their K class, and he wasn’t reading yet. Now, in 3rd grade, my daughters are still EXCELLENT readers… but my friends’ son? He’s reading at the same level as they are now. And Marin is age 5 and she’s not reading or writing at all yet without help.
But THEN… I think they ARE “gifted” (ack. hate that term) with spelling. I’ve never, ever had to repeat a spelling for them. They see it once and it’s locked IN. Whereas Marin must ask me DAILY how to spell her sisters’ names and I have to tell her anew each time. They’ve never gotten a spelling word wrong, and they always pass the pretest on Mondays (with words they have not seen/practiced) so that they don’t have to take the actual spelling test on Friday. To me, spelling is more of a “gift” (I STILL struggle and am a terrible speller), where reading is more of a skill, ya know?
Interesting topic, as always.
I was valedictorian of my high school. At 18? Pretty big deal. At 30? I stay home full time with an infant and a toddler and haven’t worked in 3 years. I did see my toddler using my valedictorian medal in something he was building the other day, so I guess it still counts for something.
I think you are spot on with that people will just catch up and that in the vast majority of cases a lot of “gifted” kids will be at best above average by the time real life kicks in.
I totally agree! I was supposedly “gifted” but later on, everyone caught up to me. It was hard to constantly hear how smart I was in elementary school but then in high school… I was just average, pretty much. Got mostly Bs
My 2.5 year old daughter talks a lot compared to other toddlers we know, and my sister in law keeps saying how “ahead” and “smart” my daughter is, like it’s a great thing. I usually respond by saying “maybe, but other kids will soon catch up”. Or “yes maybe vocabulary and speaking, but there are kids younger than her who know the alphabet, but she only knows the letter A”. I really don’t want my daughter to feel pressure of being “gifted” or “smarter” and then one day, coming to the realization she is average. Being average is not bad! Just a let down, if there has
been so much build up.
Swistle, you always manage to hit the nail on the head. And after reading all these comments I’m grateful for a few things about the way my school did the “gifted” program. For one thing, we were NEVER referred to as the gifted kids or anything similar. The program was called “Extra Enrichment Education” and referred to as “triple E.” Testing wasn’t done until third grade and then it was really just based on our standardized test scores (ITBS? Anyone?) Also, in elementary school EEE only happened once a week. So we didn’t miss out on any classroom stuff regularly. In middle school it was every day, but they took us out of reading classes because pretty much if you were in EEE you were already reading ahead of the grade level.
Maybe my perspective is skewed because my brothers actually used to make fun of my sister and I for being in the program (they weren’t), but I can’t imagine trying to work that into the conversation as an adult. Because WHO CARES? I’m way more likely to bring up my chemical engineering degree because I worked for that! Did I work to be ahead in reading or math when I was 8? Not so much.
Wow, this is so spot on. I was labeled as one of those “gifted” kids before kindergarten. I’m pretty sure advanced was a better description. My parents expected so much out of me, that when I didn’t do anything GREAT with my life I was a major disappointment. So much so, they are able to write me out of their life.
Well… I’m almost embarrassed to admit it, but I was one of the students in the advanced classes. They were faster paced, covered extra material, and the assignments were more challenging. In my recollection one of their best features was that they were a *safe* place to try hard and to get good grades. If you got good marks in the normal paced class you were singled out and targeted by classmates (we were a very bad year for bullying). I think the teachers liked it because they could stray from the curriculum to whatever interested them and often instructor enthusiasm can influence student experience.
Our school did not have the classes for our final year of high school and I remember the regular classes as being painfully slow, often because the teacher had to re-explain basic math for the student to understand it. Everyone was less enthusiastic (myself included).
As far as I’m concerned, the people that brag about being in the gifted classes fall into the same category as people who brag about high school: People Who Peaked Too Soon.
Well… I’m almost embarrassed to admit it, but I was one of the students in the advanced classes. They were faster paced, covered extra material, and the assignments were more challenging. In my recollection one of their best features was that they were a *safe* place to try hard and to get good grades. If you got good marks in the normal paced class you were singled out and targeted by classmates (we were a very bad year for bullying). I think the teachers liked it because they could stray from the curriculum to whatever interested them and often instructor enthusiasm can influence student experience.
Our school did not have the classes for our final year of high school and I remember the regular classes as being painfully slow, often because the teacher had to re-explain basic math for the student to understand it. Everyone was less enthusiastic (myself included). I think we covered what we would have in the advanced class, but just without the extra stuff.
As far as I’m concerned, the people that brag about being in the gifted classes fall into the same category as people who brag about high school: People Who Peaked Too Soon (and may not have accomplished anything else).
This is a great way of looking at it! Also the fact that when your family/group of friends is smarter (or just more specialized in one area) than the average, you tend to assume that the average is higher than it actually is.
I still remember being tested for entry into the gifted program back in 3rd grade. My parents decided against putting me into it because it would have meant taking me out of French Immersion. But I remember a set of illustrated flash cards and being told to put them in the right order to create the story – and seeing the story they were supposed to tell but deciding that was a boring story and putting them together in a different order. I still have no idea if the person testing me realized that I was bored with the test, or if they thought I was stupid.
Hilarious! I am a kindergarten teacher and I JUST referred a child to the gifted program. First child I have EVER referred. I can definitely see/understand the difference between high-achieving and gifted and he very obviously surpasses anything that comes in a normal kindergarten class. That being said, he does not have the social development/maturity to move up a grade even though he could totally understand the concepts. I see this as an opportunity for him to get more enrichment than I can give him in a class with 18 other students. I try very hard to give him enrichment in class but sending him to someone with curriculum, knowledge and the know-how to motivate and encourage him is, to me, his best option right now.
cosign the “Nurture Shock” recommendations (and also “What Should I Do With My Life” by the same author) and I also recommend “The Myth of Ability” by John Mighton. He has some interesting points and I find myself nodding along when I think about math, an area of strength for me, but can’t see it his way when I think about music. I know that I’m not doing any magic in my head when I’m doing math, that anyone could do it. But on the other hand, it seems plain miraculous to me when I watch people sight read music.
I think this pairs nicely with a conversation about advancement versus enrichment. One of the private schools I taught at had LOTS of parents who were the high-pressure type and were regularly concerned that their kids weren’t being challenged. They always wanted to see advanced work – where sometimes the next level of material really wasn’t appropriate, even for very smart children. We talked a lot about, and encouraged, people to think of enrichment. Taking the grade-level concepts but applying them in new ways – just generally broadening the thinking and applying it in different situations.
I HATE the gifted program in our school district and would fight tooth and nail to keep Harper out of it. Not that she’s gifted, but she does well in school. I am not sure how they test for “giftedness” but I will never request it. One of my favorite things about her teacher this year is that she is very good at meeting the children where they are and helping them grow. She ditched the universal spelling list in the first quarter when it was clearly too difficult for some children and too easy for others. She’s very responsive and attentive which is what all children need from their teachers.
Harper was an early reader but she’s only in first grade and the gap is rapidly closing – you’re point about ahead and gifted being different things is spot on.
Sorry for the LONG comment…
You’re right, Swistle, but on the other hand, it’s a desirable label to have put on your child. Why? Because teachers treat so-called “gifted” children differently than other kids. There was a study done a while back in which they gave a class full of borderline retarded kids to a teacher and told her/him that they were ‘gifted’ and gave a class of ‘gifted’ kids to a teacher and told her/him that they were borderline. The kids lived up… or down to what the teachers expected of them.
And then there’s the IQ tests. did you know that IQ tests really don’t measure intelligence? What they really measure is how easy you are to teach. I know a guy with a genius level IQ who simply isn’t the brightest crayon in the box!
Yes yes YES! Thank you for this. Can we get anonymous cards made up that we can slyly slip to parents that note the difference?
Yes. Yes. Yes.
My daughter is in kindergarten, and she was just referred to our school’s talented and gifted program. While I don’t have a problem with the program, it annoys me that they call it “gifted” b/c in reality, she’s just a proficient reader (aided by the fact that she’s the oldest in her class). She is not a child prodigy, by any stretch of the definition. On one hand I am grateful for the program b/c it means that she’ll have an outlet for being challenged, but on the other hand, I don’t see why they need to track these kids out of the mainstream at such a young age. A big part of being in school, generally speaking, is learning to interact with other kids who may not be at the same level academically. I don’t feel like it does these TAG kids any favors to single them out, especially if the message is to make them feel like they are smarter and/or better than everybody else.
Which would be why my tagline is:
It’s all downhill from the “Gifted” class.
I was in gifted and accelerated classrooms from third grade. In my school they assigned kids into the program based on their IQ and based on some other testing. I was tested in second grade and moved over into those classes the next year. We had “regular” schooling but in an accelerated manner for third grade (maybe to see if we were really able to keep up? I don’t know) but for fourth-sixth we had accelerated classes three days a week and special program classes two days a week.
The special program classes included things like marine biology segments, brain teasers at the start of every class, dissection and various other things. We also had a mentor-ship program and mentored kids in kindergarten/first grade.
Because of where we were in elementary school, we were fast tracked into AP classes in junior high and so on. Obviously once in junior high grades play a factor in remaining in the program which is where motivation and drive come into play along with IQ. In addition, more kids were able to just opt out of the program when they had other choices available to them, if they wanted to.
Here is what really confuses me about “gifted” programs — what do you call the kids who are graduating from high school at age 11 or composing music like Mozart or are like Doogie Houser? I would call them child prodigies, so is there some kind of gifted hierarchy we should be ascribing too? How much of the population is behind, normal, ahead, gifted or a prodigy? And, for the purpose of school, do gifted children and prodigy children both get lumped into the gifted program, or is there some sort of stand alone prodigy program for them? Because, surely, there aren’t that many child prodigies out there, are there? I’ve met some smart kids, but I don’t think I’ve ever met one at our local school who is composing symphonies or doing quadratic equations in kindergarten. What about artistic or creative giftedness? What about savants — are they considered gifted? Savants are usually high achievers in one area. WHAT is the gifted and talented breakout? This topic has always made my brain hurt. (ps I love that you were thinking about this while folding laundry. Some of my most profound ideas about the world happen while I’m washing the floor… and then I look around and realize I have no one to share these thoughts with.)
Honestly? Those who work with the truly gifted will tell you that they “look” more like special education kids rather than “superstars.” (Gifted education actually falls under the same umbrella as special education, however most places do not give “gifted” students IEPs.) I am the parent of two kids who are both categorized as “gifted.” One, we believe is truly gifted and we worried very much about his academic success for the entirety of his preschool, elementary and middle school years. But every single educator who has come into contact with him is amazed at him, even though his work ethic was hideous and his grades have fluctuated between borderline passing and expected A’s. His first grade teacher asked to have him tested the 2nd week of school. We declined because my sister and I had less-than-stellar experiences with our own “gifted” education.(A side note, he’s now a freshman in high school now and has finally buckled down and has become a decent student with great grades.)
My daughter is more what I would call extremely bright and unbelievably focused and driven. She tested into our gifted program and got in with no problems. But no one has ever gushed about her “giftedness”–even though her grades are unbelievable. I was more like her, bright/advanced but also a very hard worker. We’ve always made a big deal about that and less about the “gifted” because I know too many “gifted” kids who end up unsuccessful because they (and frankly their parents) believe gifted = fast track to success with hard work and dedication no where in the equation.
I guess the point of all that is that you are exactly right–true giftedness is very rare so school systems with these huge “gifted” education programs are sort of a sham. This can be partly explained by the fact that money is given to schools for their special education populations (although gifted education gets considerably less than the other end). But parents want to believe their “special snowflake” is gifted, so there is also some demand for these programs. I think the “gifted” tag can be very detrimental to some advanced kids and I agree that advanced or accelerated would be a much better description of what is now being called mostly erroneously “gifted.”
When I was growing up there was a very quantitative definition of “Gifted” in my school district: an IQ of 2 Standard Deviations above the mean, which is equivalent to about the top 2.5% of kids. My own kids are not school-aged yet, so I have had no exposure to the current attitudes and evaluation procedures for GT programs. Have they gotten more ambiguous? Not to say that IQ is a definitive way to identify giftedness, but just that the hallmarks used at that time did not imply that the “gifted” label was applied only to one-in-a-thousand genius type kids.
I know a lot of commenters seem to have negative experiences, but my gifted education was awesome. In grade school in the mid-1980s we did non-academic activities like logic puzzles and blockprinting and basic computing. In junior high and high school, the educational topics were more traditional (in that it was math and english) but the classroom style was much more flexible and adaptable to each individual. I found it to be very enriching. As an adult I have encountered many many individuals more intelligent than I am and have no illusions about being super-special intellectually. However, I believe that the non-traditional classroom experiences I got were instrumental in encouraging creative, analytic thinking in a way that did not occur in my traditional classes (history, science, languages).
Here in our school system, kids are tested for gifted by a standard IQ test — it doesn’t really test if you are ahead, just how you think about things.
We have 4 children — one, our second son, is in the gifted program. He is not ahead in school, for sure! What he is — well, is just different. We have always said he marches to the beat of a different drum. Is he smart? Well, yes, but my other kids are also smart. I don’t really know how to explain him other than to just say that he thinks outside the box. My mom has always (jokingly) called him a “special needs child.”
Ironically we found out that the gifted program here falls under the Special Education umbrella and our son actually has a IEP. I don’t consider him smarter — he just needs a different educational plan — just like a special ed kid would need a different plan.
Also, here, he actually goes to a completely different school one day a week. I prefer this over him just going to a different class in his own school one day a week. At his school, it just seems like he is absent once a week. His friends aren’t seeing him in the hall at school. I think this helps with the whole being singled out problem. Also — his being in the gifted program (this is his first year — he’s 8 and in 3rd grade) has been a life saver for him. He sometimes has a hard time relating to “normal” (I hate that terminology, but you get my drift) kids. He REALLY has to focus very hard socially in a regular classroom. He often gets frustrated that other kids don’t see things the way he does. It can be emotionally exhausting for him. “Gifted” gives him a real break from that and allows him to connect with other kids who are a different as he is.
Sorry that was so long — just wanted to give a different point of view. :o)
Recommendations from the “Gifted” program teachers and test scores combined to let me skip two grades, and with an early birthday, I was out of high school at 15. Then I got to college, where I was a face in a crowd, and nobody pulled me out of class because I was special, and teachers didn’t automatically know my name, and that SAT score I was so proud of? Meant. Nothing. Rude awakening. I’ve since decided I was just advanced, and getting the label of “gifted” meant that teachers decided to care about me more.
For me (lazy, lazy me) being “gifted” meant that I was just supposed to be good at everything already. So if I wasn’t the best at something, I just quit; music, soccer, math, all went into the toilet when I was bested by somebody else. I have a daughter now, and I’m trying so hard to keep her focused on the experience and enjoyment of an activity, rather than the medal at the end. We’ll see.
Wow! Almost all of your commenters are/were gifted! You have a smart bunch. Unsurprisingly, I was gifted too! I skipped a grade in elementary school and then proceeded to drop out of University and College because no one thought I was special.
My sister failed grade 3, and struggled through high school.
Now, she’s a University professor and has a PhD.
Your post is brilliant and you are brilliant for your articulation. In fact you are the valedictorian of articulation.
I think this is a really interesting post. My oldest two are considered gifted. One of them goes to a “Highly Gifted Center,” which makes me feel like a jerk every time I say it. I think mostly what there are, are different learning styles. My oldest learns best in a certain type of environment, which just happens to be classified as “highly gifted.” (Jerk.) My middle kid, who was classified gifted by standardized tests, learns VERY differently, especially considering he is autistic. I think there is value in finding those learning differences, but I think there are dangers in stratifying kids based on these words that have values assigned to them. (Highly gifted = GREAT! Smart and autistic = kind of a problem. Smart and typical = let’s just throw him in with everyone else.) It’s definitely something to think about.
I find this incredibly interesting to read, and have read all of the comments. I suppose nearly everyone is posting from an American perspective? This does not sound like “gifted” in Ontario, Canada’s public education system as I know it as an educator today.
First of all, no one is in a “gifted” program or track just by the recommendation of a teacher. We have a standardized IQ test in grade three (“gifted testing”). If they succeed on the first part of the test, they are called back for a one-on-one oral examination with our school psychologist.
Most “gifted” students here are not necessarily your A students. The classification of gifted IS a special education term. It is a learning style. Most “gifted” students are actually intensely quirky and what it mostly falls down to is the ability to problem solve and think outside of the box. Reading at a higher level than your peers? Not nearly enough to be classified as “Gifted” as it is viewed here. You’ll be considered “Smart”, you’ll be considered “Intelligent” and “Ready for a Challenge”, but you are not “Gifted”. Gifted here is like ADHD, Autism, and Dyslexia. It’s even typically found to be hereditary. It’s just a term that is very misleading.
We have programs for extending the learning for intelligent children who are ready for a challenge, I suppose, but generally that’s just me as a teacher giving extension work as I differentiate instruction for my learners so they don’t get bored and act up. However, we wouldn’t have children prior to grade three recieving any additional services beyond that just because a teacher thinks they are so-called “gifted”. They have to go through psychological testing in order to receive that designation.
I do agree, however, that by adulthood (and even high school in a lot of areas) “Gifted” is not as meaningful a designation as it was in elementary school (which I suppose is a time when students can get so bored that they do need special programming, but later they have more choice so they can direct their own learning to meet their needs). I do find that adults here with the Gifted designation still have many of those “quirky” behaviours we see in kids… and they tend to be think outside the box problem solvers for the rest of their lives.
Great topic…. of all the things I think about for future parenting this one is huge to me. I want my kids to want and believe they can be the best at something and throw themself into it if they desire. But I don’t want them to attach their worth to it. And I want them to know they can do things they frankly are terrible at, but enjoy, and don’t have to do things they are good at, but hate. I worry that the decision making for putting kids in gifted programs too often stops at, ‘is the child ahead,’ as you’ve alluded, and does not at all consider what the child wants and enjoys. Nor does it define what exactly the point of the gifted program is. As a child I interpreted these programs as: be the best, always, just because you can (even tho eventually you can’t and oh my god no one even cares except you but you think everyone cares). And it hurt me but it also helped me, ahhhh which is what makes this whole things so difficult.
and to clarify our district didn’t have gifted programs, but just a general attitude of how everyone was treated based on their academic performance from a young age…which I bet is common.
Gifted is actually a special education designation, and students are on IEPs, just like students who are on the lower end. (I think this is the same for all states, not really sure.) However, I don’t know that it has always been that way. And, depending on the school/state/whatever, kids who are really just high achievers are placed in the gifted program.
I didn’t read everyone’s comments (because I am not gifted or in this particular moment, an overachiever), but from my experience, kids who were gifted or put into advanced classes basically had PARENTS who strongly supported their kids’ education—taught them responsibility, to do their homework, yada, yada, yada. The kids in the “lower” groups had parents who weren’t as consistent. Over the course of 10-11 years, this makes a big impact on a kid. I don’t think it means the child is naturally or inherently special. It means they have good study habits and skills.
Anyone I’ve ever known who has a child who is tested as gifted tends to come across as a little snotty even when they don’t intend to do so and would be mortified at the idea that they were. I just think if someone says, “My child is gifted,” it just automatically makes people get all weird—the parent of said child and any other parent who is informed of that child’s giftedness.
Although I hope my kids test as “advanced” it has nothing to do with my kids—it is because I know the kids with discipline issues and behavior problems are usually NEVER in advanced classes—which means less distraction and more educational time in the classroom.
I think whatever my kids might have by being advanced for their age or gifted is negated by how naturally highly irritating they are.
There are certainly some kids who are advanced as preschoolers and turn out to be just smart kids. But the child that is a self-taught reader in the pre-school years (not with 100 Easy Lessons or some other program) and is reading and COMPREHENDING at the 12th grade level at age 6 is likely “gifted” meaning that his or her IQ falls within the top 2% of the population. Yes, other kids will learn to read well, but most will not be able to comprehend college level texts, even by 3rd or 4th grade.
Truly gifted kids (as tested by an appropriate IQ test) and especially the highly gifted with IQs in the 99.9th percentile or higher (an IQ of 145 on a typical test), truly learns in a different way. How do you think a 6yo reading at 12th grade level will fare in a classroom teaching beginning reading, or the letter of the week? This is the child that walks into second grade having already mastered the entire curriculum These kids need tob e challenged at their level in order to reach their potential. Often these kids have asynchronous development, meaning their minds are more highly developed than their bodies or their social skills, making them targets for negative feedback from other kids. Being in gifted program with other kids that “get it” quickly can save the school experience for such children.
The difficulty with many gifted programs is that they are not really gifted programs – they are rewards for smart or high achieving kids.
It is incredibly frustrating to paretns of kids that are highly gifted and who are not well served in schools to be considered pushy, whiny or only thinking about their own child. Of course there are “those parents” in the gifted community, but often (not always) these are not the parents of the highly gifted kid that really needs a different experience.
i really appreciate ms. key’s comments. two of my kids have tested “gifted” and, the truth is, i want them in the accelerated program of their school because of their “quirkiness.” my children are WEIRD. and i am so thankful for them to be with children who are also WEIRD. they now have a place where they fit in socially. i don’t care if they are labeled “gifted” or not. but i do think they have “special needs” because of their learning styles, etc. i am so thankful for them to be in a place where that is recognized and acceptable. i don’t care if they change the name to something else–i just want their needs met and addressed, just like any other child of special needs.
1. What Ms. Key said is awesome.
2. I am kind of sad but not surprised at how much negativity is being expressed here. (Just putting this here: just because a gifted person doesn’t grow up and cure cancer doesn’t make them less gifted, got it?)
There is no way to keep those who are just “Ahead” out of the Gifted programs, but truly Gifted students who are sent to school deserve to be educated at their level just as any other student would be. I have heard so much resentment and yes, even jealousy for gifted students expressed by teachers, other students, and parents of non-gifted students that it really makes me ill. The worst experience with this was when I was taking a graduate seminar in gifted education, and two students in the class exhibited classic gifted behaviors, and the PROFESSOR, who made it her life’s work to study and educate gifted children, singled them out as examples for the other students and talked about them like they were lab subjects, and then inexplicably did everything she could to silence them and give them less of a presence in the classroom.
Gifted students have incredible minds, and they also have very special needs. It is so frustrating that so many of them fall through the cracks and lose their passion for learning because education caters to the average at the expense of the brilliant rather than trying to find a way to make certain that every child has the tools he or she needs to excel.
Anonymous- I’m not sure if you’re talking to me, or if you’re talking to the commenters, or both. One of my primary points is that referring to gifted children as, for example, “incredible,” or “brilliant,” is what can easily cause them to grow up disappointed that they didn’t, for example, cure cancer—because of a misunderstanding about what “gifted” means, and of how it pertains to adult life/work. I think perspective about what “gifted” means is what is needed here, not an elimination/criticism of the gifted program.
Swistle: mainly some commenters. I see a lot of resentment coming from some of them, and that’s an attitude I saw in a lot of my classmates in the education program at my university, and even in some professors. There was just an overall attitude that gifted children didn’t belong, and they weren’t really “that smart” and therefore didn’t have special needs, etc. I knew a lot of kids in school who were in gifted because they were “ahead,” but many of the kids in the program were actually also truly gifted and didn’t work well in a normal classroom. Also, being gifted in one area doesn’t mean you’re gifted in all areas, and it feels like a lot of people think, oh, you failed math, so you’re not really gifted, but that isn’t the case at all. My brother is profoundly gifted, to the point it’s almost a disability, because he was smarter than his teachers in school and was so bored that he just quit trying. He failed out of college for this reason. He can pick up and do almost anything he wants with very little effort, but he cannot function in normal educational settings, and many people write him off as being falsely labeled gifted because his performance doesn’t meet his potential (as defined by the world, anyway), but they’re wrong.
I would love to kick those who are just “ahead” out of gifted programs because I think they are the ones critics are thinking about when they talk about gifted being elitist of whatever, because those kids, ahead or not, are only good at getting grades, not at critical thinking or synthesis of knowledge. They don’t have the special needs that gifted kids have but they are the poster children for gifted programs. It’s such a frustrating topic for me and it makes me so angry because of personal experiences and encounters within a failed educational system that is really betraying the brightest kids.
In fact, I get so angry I can’t articulate well, and writing is usually my passion and my only way to truly be articulate, so it’s even more frustrating. Some of the comments just really hit me the wrong way, because I totally get what you’re saying in the blog, and agree with a lot of it, but some of the comments are just like, “You’re right, gifted is just a myth and is elitism in disguise!” And that response really upsets me because I’ve heard it all before, from educators, no less, and I know that the system will continue to fail the truly gifted because of these kinds of attitudes.