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Gifted or not?
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Reading an article about disparity in New Orleans schools gifted testing really got my wheels turning. According to the article, the public testing system is stringent and ignores the whole nature versus nurture arguments as it asks poor students about things to which they have likely not been exposed. Still parents can opt to spend several hundred dollars for a private tester that seems to assign a great deal more students with a gifted label. This private testing is also accepted by schools especially set up for gifted children.
I have noticed, both in public, private, and homeschooling circles that giftedness is a sore spot amongst parents. Most parents feel that their child is gifted in some way. Parents whose children definitely qualify as gifted resent other parents pushing to get their children included in this group. After all, if all children are gifted, then no child is special.
Having a child who was identified as possibly gifted during early education, but never tested as different schools had different ages, and qualifications, I have my own ideas about how gifted children are allowed to slip through the cracks. Even more dis served than gifted children are talented children who don't show extreme intelligence, but are clearly talented, since talent not the school's business to nurture. I have one of those too.
Visit back this week, as I plan to get more into details about how gifted and talented children are served, or not served depending on school systems, bureaucracy, and lack of nurture.
Meanwhile, I will leave you with this thought. I contend that all children have a certain amount of giftedness, dare I say genius. Some are just more evident than others. It is up to the adults that come into contact with that child to identify these gifts, and help children develop them.
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