Moms Talk: Are we serving ALL students well by dividing student populations, based on definitions of giftedness and on test scores intended to identify gifted children?
Note: I’m updating my site with previously published essays and articles. This was first published in by the Eureka-Wildwood Patch on Wed, Aug 10, 2011 at 2:25 am CT.
Many K-12 education programs are under review, due to budget concerns, and I’m curious to see how gifted education will be impacted in our local school districts.
Because change may be coming, now is the time to ask if we are serving all students well by dividing student populations based on current definitions of “giftedness” and on test scores intended to identify gifted children.
My oldest son will enter sixth grade this year, so my first-hand experience with gifted education is mainly with kindergarten through fifth grade. My son was nominated to be tested for our district’s gifted program by his kindergarten teacher. I was surprised, but intrigued, as I had not given much attention to the idea of gifted education before. When my son was tested and identified as a gifted learner, I was glad for him, but I felt hesitant to fully embrace the program. This is because I knew of other kids who were very bright, focused, and curious learners but who had not been offered a chance to be tested. Or, they had been tested but deemed “not gifted.”
I felt uncomfortable with the idea that kindergarteners could be identified as gifted because that seemed to infer there are those who are “not gifted.” This did not seem right to me.
As the years passed, I formed certain impressions of gifted education. The first and most important was that my son benefited from the experience. He enjoyed the learning opportunities assigned to him. He said the difference between work in regular school and at the gifted center was that he could actively work on questions in the gifted program. He learned by doing more frequently, and often as part of a group project. He applied research to real world problems and interacted with representatives of local industries. This was in contrast to listening to lectures and working on projects individually at his home school.
However, there was also a downside. He had to ride the bus to a different school once a week to participate in the program. This took him away from friends who were not in the program, which affected him socially. He also did not care for the 30-minute bus ride to and from the other school. There also was some talk of the “smart” kids being taken away from school once a week. To the kids left behind, this seemed like the gifted kids were being rewarded, which sometimes resulted in resentment toward my son.
Parents of kids who were not in the program occasionally spoke of the challenges of assuring their children that they were also smart. Because I have another bright child who is not in the gifted program, this is an issue I dealt with at home as well.
The disruption of classroom communities and the exacerbation of sibling rivalries leads me to wonder if we are serving all students well by separating a group of students to create an elite, “gifted” population. Perhaps it would be better to create learning opportunities for high performing students at their home schools.
Ultimately, we most appreciate community members who have emotional intelligence and good social skills, along with other forms of intelligence and creativity. If nothing else, renaming the program as something other than “gifted” could be a good start toward creating an integrated learning community that benefits more students.
What do you think is the best way to make sure all students benefit from active learning opportunities?
Editor’s Note: Layla Azmi Goushey is a member of our Eureka-Wildwood Moms’ Council, which is a group of parents who volunteer as community leaders and who will lead us through important, online discussions. Moms’ Council members are serving to help shape and influence our Patch content to assist busy parents.
Layla Azmi Goushey teaches English at the Wildwood campus of St. Louis Community College. She has a master’s degree in fine art in creative writing from the University of Missouri – St. Louis (UMSL). She is a doctoral student in Adult Education/Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at UMSL. Some of her areas of interest are adult literacy and technology-based critical literacy, Arab-American literature and the Harry Potter series. She teaches an online interdisciplinary studies course based on the Harry Potter series at St. Louis Community College-Wildwood.
Layla Azmi Goushey 