Recently I came across two blogs written by students who are "into" academics. These blogs are fun for others to read and may inspire young people to launch blogs to share their own passions.

 

Daphne’s Word Blog is written by a logophile, a person who loves words. Each entry discusses a word or words that the author finds fascinating.

 

Ivan’s Number Blog includes interesting information about number patterns and problems that require time and thought to solve.

 

Each of these bloggers encourages readers to submit their own words, problems, and solutions.

 

You may want to use these two blogs with students who have an interest in vocabulary and in math, and/or you may want to use the blogs as examples of what your own young people might create. Students could construct blogs in any area of interest (e.g. The Civil War, butterflies, favorite books, creative writing, fire engines, dinosaurs, kites, careers, famous composers, etc.). Entries may be added as time permits or a routine schedule for posts can be established to encourage self-discipline.

 

On several other occasions I have written blogs about the virtues of finding mentors for gifted students. See

The importance of mentoring is worth revisiting over and over again. Some students have such esoteric interests that it is only through one-on-one coaching and support that they can get the intellectual nourishment that they need. So I want to bring this academic option to your attention once more with some other links available on the Internet.

 

The recent Washington Post opinion piece, Class Struggle: Why Grade-Skipping Should Be Back in Fashion, has created quite a stir in gifted education blogs and forums and in reader comments. Some of the points writer Jay Mathews makes are that

According to the NAGC Position Statement on Acceleration, there is more research supporting this intervention than any other in the literature on gifted individuals. Several interventions fall under the umbrella of acceleration: not only grade-skipping, but also telescoping, early entrance into kindergarten or college, credit by examination, and acceleration in content areas through such programs as Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate at the high school level.

 

Australian author and scholar Miraca Gross is a strong proponent of radical acceleration for exceptionally and profoundly gifted children. She is well known for her longitudinal study of students with IQs over 160. Many of the titles of her books and articles can be found at the link provided in this paragraph.

 

If you are a parent or educator who is interested in exploring the possibilities of grade-skipping for a student or students, go to the website for the Davidson Institute for Talent Development and search on the words grade skip. Also, take a look at the Iowa Acceleration Scale, which is a tool to help schools make effective decisions regarding a grade-skip.

 

This month’s issue of The Atlantic contains an article titled School for Hackers: The Do-It-Yourself Movement Revives Learning by Doing. The article is consistent with the project-based learning concept where students explore real-world problems and challenges.

Because we have become so used to providing young people with ready-made toys and technology, we often miss opportunities for them to use their own ingenuity to problem solve and create. In addition, we are not passing down what used to be common knowledge about folk crafts, creative cooking, model building, woodworking, gardening, collecting, etc. There is a movement now to revive the do-it-yourself (DIY) philosophy and get kids involved in building and creating. 

Through the do-it-yourself movement, students learn research skills, understand subject matter at a deeper level, and are more deeply engaged in their work.

 

 

There are many resources that will help you introduce kids to the DIY movement.

 

 

How Can You Tell If Your Child Is a Prodigy? features 8-year-old Autumn de Forest, who has developed into an early artist. Her 4-foot-by-5-foot canvases sell for as much as $25,000. Her talents were discovered quite by accident when she asked her father if she could use some leftover stain and wood from a home project on which he was working. You can see a video clip of Autumn discussing her art and view samples of her paintings.

 

If child prodigies were never given the opportunity to discover their talents, would we know that they had the potential to excel? Is the same not true for young people who are very bright but not prodigies? By exposing a young person to as many physical activities, intellectual undertakings, and art forms as possible, you may find an area or areas where that child will excel. Even if the youngster doesn’t excel, she will still be better off for being exposed.

 

When we think of prodigies, men’s names often come to mind. One doesn’t hear the names of women as often. Lynn T. Goldsmith explores this and other issues in her paper titled Girl Prodigies, Some Evidence and Some Speculations. Goldsmith cautions us when she states that prodigies are notable for their rapid mastery, but not necessarily for their lifelong contributions to the field. Many prodigies burn out and do not make the contributions as adults that we expect. Conversely, most original adult contributors were not necessarily prodigies themselves.

 

Questions:

• Will a child naturally excel in an area or is it necessary to first expose him to that particular area of study?
• What is our obligation as adults to expose children to a wide variety of interests?
• Why are we far more aware of male prodigies than female prodigies?
• Since child prodigies don’t necessarily go on to produce as adults, does that make them just curiosities or something more important?