From Psychology Today—Nurturing Genius
Joseph Cardillo, a blogger at
Psychology Today, has written a series titled
Gifted Children: Nurturing Genius. In the three-part series, he voices surprise “that the population least likely to learn and achieve its potential is the highly gifted.” He pulls much of his information from the research of Jan and Bob Davidson, founders of the
Davidson Institute, a private foundation that serves profoundly gifted young people under the age of 18 through a wide variety of programs.
Cardillo explains that the category of "gifted" really covers a wide range of abilities, from those who may only need moderate academic advancement to those who may be extremely advanced—many years beyond their age peers. Even though there is a wide range of abilities, educational policies tend to view the gifted as a homogeneous group and provide the same program for all.
Furthermore, gifted education in the United States varies greatly. Some states have no mandate for gifted education, so they don’t have to serve these students. Others have a mandate, but no funding, so they’re not able to do much. Often gifted programs only provide enrichment, much like an indoor camp. Highly gifted children need so much more. Just because a child gets all A+'s does not mean that person is receiving an appropriate education. Profoundly gifted youngsters need a variety of strategies, including acceleration, extended learning at home in an area of interest, mentors, and challenging summer programs.
There is really good information on these topics in this series of blogs, which includes discussions of:
- characteristics of profoundly gifted children,
- initial signs of giftedness,
- things that parents can do to advocate for their child, and
- ways to work through the possibility of various types of homeschooling
For example, in Part 3 of the series, Jill Adrian, Director of Family Services at the Davidson Institute, has some good suggestions for how parents can advocate for their students in school. She says,
“it’s about going in there and approaching things as collaboration: asking the school, how can I help you and how can you help my child? And doing this with a little empathy about what the school system is dealing with, but ultimately, you’re asking for a favor for your children at this point in time. And so presenting cost-effective options that can work for your child and your school may work best.”
One cost-effective option that is discussed in Cardillo's blogs is acceleration. Tools such as the
Iowa Acceleration Scale guide schools in determining for whom acceleration is appropriate. In addition to grade skipping, more and more very young teens are taking college classes. Students take advantage of dual enrollment programs where they attend both high school and college classes. Using subject acceleration, a child may remain at his grade level for most subjects but take one or two subjects (e.g., math, science) in a higher grade class.
We must be careful not to lump all gifted students together. There is a wide range of abilities and needs within the group. One size does not fit all.