Effective Parents and Teachers of Gifted Children
Recently I was doing some research on the effective characteristics of teachers of the gifted. It struck me that the characteristics of effective teachers are often what I would consider to be the effective characteristics of parents. See if you don’t agree with me. I’d love to hear your comments.
- High degree of intelligence, intellectual honesty
- Expertise in a specific intellectual or talent area (mathematics, writing, etc.) This may be more applicable to teachers than parents. However, a specific intellectual or talent area may influence a child to pursue that same area. This is often noted when accomplished musicians had at least one parent who was a musician.
- Self-directed in own learning, with a love for new, advanced knowledge Modeling by adults is often the best teacher.
- Equanimity, level-headedness, emotional stability
- A genuine interest in, liking of gifted learners
- Recognition of the importance of intellectual development
- Strong belief in individual differences and individualization As parents, shouldn’t we respect and encourage the differences in our children?
- Highly developed teaching skill and knowledge Is it fair to say that parents should have a highly developed parenting skill and knowledge? We don’t go to school to become parents, but we can certainly educate ourselves through reading, perhaps taking classes in parenting, and observing other families.
- Patience
- A sense of humor Having a sense of humor is critical to handling any stressful situation.
- Move quickly through material Children are often capable of more than we expect. I’m not talking about unfairly pushing kids, but just recognizing that they have the ability to think through important issues given the tools and the opportunities.
- Treat each student as an individual
- Avoid being a "sage on the stage" all the time As parents, we need to guide our children to make good decisions rather than always telling them what needs to be done or how they should think.
- Consistently give "accurate" feedback Some parents don’t give accurate feedback because they are afraid it will damage their child’s self-esteem. We do not serve children well by constantly protecting them. Accurate feedback can be given without being harsh. Your children will also trust you more if they know that you are being honest.
When looking at schools, we often have high expectations for teachers. As parents, we also need to have high expectations for oursel