https://www.facebook.com/liupam/posts/832450013482994

When Gifted Programs no longer cater to the Gifted
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My requests to the headmaster for my son were simple: don’t label him anything, don’t tell other students his academic achievements so far, don’t put him in any special gifted programs, and put him in a class where he is among the oldest.
That is for my 15 year old son who would have been graduating with a bachelor degree in Math and Information Technology this year. Instead, he chose to take a break and go to high school.

To fit him, we visited many schools, and of course, the first thing we did was to look into schools that are catered to gifted teens, thinking he will fit in best. Afterall, he has won quite a few state and national medals for both his literary and mathematical achievements. Unfortunately, I learned that I would have done him disservice should I put him in a gifted program.

I learned that schools and programs for the gifted are not meant for gifted students at all. For you cannot really teach giftedness. Being gifted in something is simply that: it is a GIFT of nature and you cannot really make one more gifted by hothousing him/her.

Most gifted programs and schools are pressured to deliver insanely good results, and we can understand why: since they have top quality students, they are expected to deliver top quality results. I know of too many students who are piled with so much work, they can pursue nothing else.

However, academic results depends much more than just nature, it often involves a lot of grilling, repeating, discipline and often hothousing as well.

My son spends less than two hours a day studying ever since he was a little kid, so I know he will crumble in a gifted school.
Most educators wrongly assume that a child who does well in examinations is disciplined, hardworking and obedient. I can agree that SOME are truly so. But those are more qualities of a high ability child than a gifted one. Children who are gifted in their areas need not be disciplined, hardworking or obedient to ‘get it’. They have their own ways of solving their problems, and sometimes need not do things their teachers’ ways.

They can find and devise short cuts, they can think differently, they can improvise and sometimes, they solve problems without being able to articulate how they do it. They just ‘know it’, and they are efficient with their work.

Schools and gifted programs cannot cater to that. Imagine the mayhem they will cause if gifted kids are allowed to use their ‘natural’ gifts. Those mathematical ones would fall behind in their literacy department and vice-versa.

Most of these schools have a specific program and the curriculum is so tight and try to achieve so much that any creative pursuits will interfere with the ‘flow’ and deters the progress of the syllabus. Hence, the pedagogy has to be stringent, inflexible and pretty fixed. Drilling is part and parcel of the whole gamut.

Since I was not looking for a school that will propel him to academic excellence, we already know how to do that ourselves. I was looking for a school that respects every child and allows each to blossom.

I chose to put him in the nearest private school that is not known to be Number 1 academically. The school prides itself to teach discipline, confidence and respect for individuals, with a strong focus on sports and clubs. In other words, things my son is not the strongest in.

So yes, my son came home after his Math class today with homework. We looked at it, and it was work he already scored a high distinction in when he was 10 years old. He happily did the work and said he just didn’t want to go to detention for not submitting homework.

Yet, with a twinkle in his eyes, he said his teacher truly respects him, and his thoughts were often heard out in class. He also did not have to take any qualifying tests to get into the top Math class for his level.

I am glad for the little privileges or recognition he manages to get for coming down at least 5 levels from what he was doing (he has completed Year 3 University Math), and I am even happier he has learned how to share his knowledge without being disruptive.

It is interesting, that while some of us struggle to stand out, others just want to blend in. We are so happy now he bears no label of being the special or gifted one, no expectation, and no need to be perfect. Bliss!

That, to a child, is the biggest gift of all.

If you have a child who is naturally gifted* academically (I believe every child is naturally gifted in his own ways), perhaps a gifted school or program is what you want to avoid. Think about letting him cruise through a mainstream school, and then find programs to propel him so far that even gifted programs and schools cannot imagine. If you have a high ability child, then gifted programs will be perfect.