Education Week - May 13, 2015 - 25

Giftedness Is More Than
A Function of Education
PRESIDENT & EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Virginia B. Edwards
EXECUTIVE EDITOR Gregory Chronister
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 23
that our education system has paid any attention
to. In fact, it is really the only aspect
of giftedness that many have knowledge
of or experience with. But giftedness is so
much more than a function of education, so
much more than a child's academic performance.
Many
educators, as well as parents of
gifted children, know that gifted young people
don't always get into gifted programs.
Space can be limited, and children who are
not gifted also might be accepted into gifted
programs when there is extra room.
And let's throw one other area of giftedness
into this big bowl of educational
mismanagement: the twice-exceptional, or
2E, gifted students. These are the children
who are gifted, many with IQs above 150,
but who also have a learning difference
or disability that masks their giftedness.
These gifted students are often overlooked,
generally misunderstood, and frequently
miseducated.
When schools focus on just the educational
aspect of giftedness-the general
expectation of high achievement and high
test scores-then gifted children are seen
only through the lens of academic achievement,
and not for who they truly are. This
perspective contributes strongly to the perpetuation
of the stereotypical gifted child as
an uncomplicated straight-A student.
If I were the parent of a nongifted student,
I, too, would question why schools
need money just to supply the straight-A
students with better educational opportunities
in order for them to excel further,
achieve more, and be rewarded. I get that.
Are schools and the way they administer
gifted education contributing to the hurtful
myths that plague giftedness?
Maybe if our schools could focus on the
whole gifted child-educationally, socially,
and emotionally-the animosity that exists
toward gifted children and the seemingly
elitist programs created just for them would
diminish. If gifted programs focused less on
academic achievement and more on educating
the whole gifted child, attending to his
or her individual strengths and weaknesses,
we could, possibly, attain a more balanced
approach to educating gifted children and
implementing gifted programs. And maybe
then we would achieve a more accurate
view of our gifted youths.
As long as we feed the association of
giftedness with simply being smarter, we
perpetuate the myths. As long as we put
high achievement above giftedness, we are
seriously miseducating gifted students. If
we continue only to look for children who
excel in school as the criterion for gifted
identification, then the "better than" reputation
will endure, and many gifted children
who may not or cannot excel in school will
suffer.
Giftedness is so much more than an educational
label. n
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Education Week - May 13, 2015

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