Sunil said...
As there is no structured policy or process for identifying gifted children, there can be no equity in the access to any programs that are in existence.
Gifted children have the potential to make a significant contribution to society. They should, as all children, be provided with learning environments suitable for their special needs.
It is important that the government support accelerated programmes, because of their special needs, particularly in the State School System, so that gifted children from poorer socio-economic backgrounds have the opportunity to gain access to a suitable education.
Students who are gifted, while advanced intellectually, still require a special classroom environment to learn. Their emotional and social development often lags behind their intellectual development. Having their intellectual peers as classmates allows them to be them self. They do not have to "dumb-down" to "fit-in". This provides them space and time to develop and grow socially and emotionally
It is great that the SEAL programme runs at a secondary school level and long may that continue. However, programmes for the gifted at the primary school level is very ad-hoc, outside programmes variously sourced (if at all) and whether anything at all is offered is reliant on the the commitment of the principal at the time. A department developed programme that all public primary schools could access and implement would be useful. The "dumbing down" starts then- way before high school.
ReplyDeleteI agree with ejahn that primary school is a real problem area that needs to be addressed, but since the number of children affected is quite small and the public sentiment is very much not in favour of addressing the issue I cannot see that it is an issue which can be successfully pushed.
ReplyDeleteMy eldest had a nightmare 6th grade and I think that one of the reasons that my younger children are much less stressed about the problems of primary is the up-close knowledge that the SEAL program and BHHS are there for the next step.
I wrote to the Greens several years ago about their education policy and one of the things I really wanted to convey to them - to everyone who thinks that this program is elitist - is that all I want for my children is an atmosphere where they fit in, where the other kids laugh at their jokes and read the same books. I'm not looking for my kids to get a better deal than anyone else - I just want them to have what every other kid is entitled to - a place to grow and fulfil their potential as human beings and students.
jos and ejahn, I think that you have hit upon two very important points. Something that appears to be severely lacking in the government's current policy is any recognition of the social and emotional necessity of gifted programs. Giftedness is rarely confined to academic ability. Gifted students often posess maturity well beyond their years which is displayed in their morals, perspective, sense of humour, choice of companions, etc. There are so many schools formally or informally catering to a variety of student differences, to not cater to the social and emotional paticularities of gifted students is inexcusable.
ReplyDeleteThe second thing I wanted to mention is to agree on the importance of indentification and differentiation in primary school. As a teacher it is very painful to receive a student into the SEAL program with obvious intellectual gifts, but who has had their intrinsic motivation and study skills stripped during primary school, through a combination of boredom, neglect, isolation and misunderstanding.
Gifted education should be available to children from primary school. Many gifted children quickly learn that mainstream education does not cater to them and that school is not a place where they will learn. By the time these children reach high school they are often already turned off school. Few primary school teachers have any training in gifted education, which means that gifted children and their parents have absolutely no advice or support. SEAL programs are absolutely necessary, but to be fully effective they should be available to children from the earliest years of education. Why should children wait until they are in high school before they are given the education that they need?
ReplyDeleteWhat is a concern is even if the primary school does differentiate the scholastic ability of the students, and provides a vehicle for them to be challenged (though this seems to be more teacher based than school based), knowledge of High school programs such as SEAL that cater for gifted children is sadly lacking. I am explaining to the teachers what it is rather than the other way around.
ReplyDeleteThe Government needs to educate the teachers as to what is available for students who are gifted, so they can then educate the child and parents in what is available to cater for their needs.
There's no doubt that primary school is a huge problem for far too many gifted kids. I've had one child reach BHHS SEAL (thank goodness!) after too many years of bullying and little provision for his abilities. And now I have another who is really just passing the time until she can get to BHHS too. I have come SO close to home schooling many many times over the years, because of the difficulties involved in having a highly gifted child in a regular school. Too often the debate about gifted education is all about academic ability, instead of the broader and more damaging issues like their highly defined sense of fairness, emotional sensitivity, perfectionism and many others. These characteristics are not confined to gifted kids, of course, but are extremely common and when one child has lots of them, they need to be dealt with appropriately.
ReplyDeleteInstead of which parents are told things like "she's too small to be accelerated" and my favourite "we're not sure he'll cope emotionally, he has difficulty relating to his age peers" - maybe because his AGE peers are not the same as his intellectual peers?
And the list goes on....