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MAJOR MYTHS ABOUT THE GIFTED CHILD
Laurie Croft, Ph.D., in Six Maddening Myths of Gifted Education (see http://www.uiowa.edu/~itag/myths.html for the full article) states that “educators of the gifted have challenged the
enduring myths about gifted and talented students.” Some of these follow.
MYTH: Gifted students don’t need special services – they’ll get by.
REALITY: While some individuals are able to overcome an indifferent educational environment, the actuality is that even
researchers neutral or hostile to gifted education concluded that the students that were most seriously affected by poor teaching were the gifted. One of the most prolific and persistent opponents to homogeneous
grouping, Robert Slavin, has specifically addressed grouping and the gifted, concluding that ”acceleration may be justified for [grouping] extremely able students”.. “Unless there is a long and
intensive process of encouragement, nurturance, education and training, the individuals will not attain extreme levels of capability (emphasis added)...While some very bright individuals seem to earn honors despite exposure to indifferent teachers [and] unimaginative curriculum, the question remains as to how such talent fails to emerge” for so many of the gifted. Gifted students need the guidance of trained, sympathetic teachers.
United States Commissioner of Education Marland expressed this belief in his report (1972) to the Congress of the United States:
Large-scale studies indicate that gifted and talented children are, in fact, disadvantaged and handicapped in the usual school
situation. Terman observed that the gifted are the most retarded group in the schools when mental and chronological age are compared. Great discrepancies existed during his study (1904), and continue to
persist today ... (p. 26).
MYTH: All children are gifted.
REALITY:
All children are of value and can do more if encouraged; but not all students can be piano virtuosi, score in the high 700’s on their SAT’s or play professional baseball. Few would insist that all students have equal ability and equal access to varsity athletics; likewise most people understand that some individuals are especially gifted in the visual or performing arts. “Although all children have gifts, or aptitudes, gifted children pursue their interests more intensely and develop their aptitudes at a much faster pace and with greater depth and complexity of understanding.”
MYTH: Gifted education programs are elitist.
REALITY: “There is nothing more unequal than the equal treatment of unequal people. ...the gifted child is the student
most likely to experience an extreme discrepancy between the potential for and the realization of success; when comparing mental and chronological age, the brightest may suffer the greatest academic
retardation. Their academic ‘retardation’ comes essentially from providing these special students possessed of unique needs with ‘equal treatment’.”
A.J. Tannenbaum (Gifted Children: Psychological and Educational Perspectives, 1983) suggests that “what is necessary and
sufficient for the nongifted is necessary but insufficient (emphasis added) for the gifted, who need more and different learning experiences to match their potentials.” Further, “enriching or accelerating an inadequate or inappropriate curriculum” cannot substitute for “designing an adequate and appropriate curriculum for use in the first place.”
“As Braille is a curriculum modification most often reserved for the visually impaired....meaningful differentiation for the gifted is
a matter of degree, of more time at higher thinking levels, and more meaningful and challenging content. This actually is the essence of “equity”, of being just, impartial, and fair.”
MYTH: All gifted students are alike.
REALITY: ”The diverse characteristics within any population of gifted and talented students is as confounding as among
any other collection of students, and contemporary research is strongly committed to understanding the varying needs of gifted girls and boys, handicapped or disabled gifted, the underachieving and the increasing
numbers of students with distinctly different linguistic, ethnic, or cultural backgrounds.”
MYTH: Teachers of gifted students need no special training.
REALITY: “Teachers trained for even minimal periods of time are better able to identify gifted children, and they are
more appreciative of gifted student needs, as well as supportive of differentiated programs....Further, the professional development of teachers of the gifted seems to contribute in a significant way to
proficiencies or competencies identified by both gifted students and trained observers. Behaviors ‘shown by trained teachers far more than the untrained’ include the fast pacing of instruction, emphasis on
higher-level thinking activities, thinking skills, creativity, and discussion, teacher-student interaction, powerful motivation techniques, student directed activities, and the use of educational media and
models.”
Please also refer to http://www.sp.uconn.edu/~nrcgt/news/winter98/wintr983.html for Distinguishing Myths From Realities: NRC/GT Research by Marcia Gentry and Karen Kettle.
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