I know, I know, advocating for the highly gifted can be a hard road to travel. This why so many give in to homeschooling. The school system is not designed to fit the highly gifted child and vice versa. Now, this is not to say some schools don't do a GREAT job because there are amazing schools out there. I don't blame the schools. Highly gifted accomodations are counter-intuitive to the round hole/round peg nature of our system. With all of that said; advocacy is an important part of the highly gifted child's life.
This post is an introduction of the idea. In later posts we will delve into acceleration, classroom placement, IEP meetings, etc.
The best place to start this conversation is recommending every parent read "A Nation Deceived" http://www.accelerationinstitute.org/nation_deceived/
I will be very up front and say I am not necessarily an acceleration advocate. I believe accelerating a child without access to depth and breadth of a field of study continues to compound the problem. Highly gifted children are voracious learners in their area/areas of interest. This is not to say acceleration won't be necessary but I do believe there are life lessons along the way that are geared toward age and not intellect. In an ideal world school systems would pocket all of their highly gifted students into a small community school so they have age peers as well as access to mentors and higher level education. This was the very scenario that worked so well for our eldest daughter. We realized how well it worked when we moved into a disastrous situation with a school that was clueless.
Now I know the argument that is going to be made here....a teacher can't teach 30 kids AND differentiate curriculum. I am going to blow your mind and agree. You're right. They can't. It is an impossible request to ask a teacher to teach to a fifty point spread in IQ. It is impossible. Oh, I know, this brings up that heinous idea of "tracking". Here's the thing. Tracking isn't an ugly idea. People have taken it and made it into something emotional. It isn't. It is a FACT there are different levels of IQ and learning ability. It isn't because I want it to be so; it is. I would love to have the ability to put my children on a bus in the morning and know they have been well served. This is not the reality of the situation and all of my hoping isn't going to make it so. This is why tracking is not elitist. Elitism is creating artificial boundaries to keep certain people out. I am asking that school systems create passing lanes and HOV lanes for those that need them.
Advocacy in school requires a lot of time on the part of the parent. You will have to do the research and you will have to get creative with how to help the teacher. Meetings can be hard because your child requires a LOT but the idea in the world is the highly gifted kid will make it. There are so many stereotypes to overcome. This is where publications such as "A Nation Deceived" are important. They show empirical evidence the present and accepted way of educating the gifted is not working and can be very detrimental to the child.
As a parent, make certain your child is ready for the journey. Not all children want to make this journey. My eldest and middle daughters want nothing to do with advocacy and would rather homeschool than deal with the meetings, labels, explanations, etc. It is very important to listen to your child. This is hard for them and they will often have to advocate for themselves. My youngest is happy to communicate her needs and has no problem saying she is different with different needs. To each his own. Sometimes the child MUST make the journey because there is no other school choice. This child will need true help making their needs known and the art of compromise will be essential.
So, with that let's open the floor to discussion....advocacy, anyone?
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I agree that it is unfortunate that our society's notion of egalatarianism and democracy has replaced common sense. We spend untold millions of dollars trying to make children with significant cognitive and medical difficulties "fit" into a "regular" classroom because it wouldn't be politically correct to have a special ed classroom. (And we subject those students to No Child Left Behind testing -- a standard some will NEVER meet, so it is cruel to do it.) And we spend nothing on highly able learners and wouldn't consider having a gifted and talented classroom.
ReplyDeleteAcceleration or radical acceleration may work for some students and may be optimal for some, it is not a panacea. Bodies really do go through puberty at a certain age, and that changes the brains/interests as well. So a student is not necessarily well-served being years younger than his/her classmates once in jr. high and high school. I met my spouse in college, and certainly couldn't/wouldn't have been able to do that if I attended at age 14 or 16.
I don't see homeschooling highly gifted children as giving in. It is a form of advocacy in and of itself. I think of it as pacifist advocacy though. I chose where to direct my energy and their energies. Instead of directing it to battling a school system on my children's behalf, we direct it straight into the joy of learning with the breadth and depth they crave.
ReplyDeleteI understand, though, that homeschooling is not everyone's first choice and that the logistics of home educating highly gifted children may not be possible for some. In those cases, advocacy is certainly important. As is vigilance. I see this with my niece. Once accommodations have been agreed upon, the advocacy process is still not over. It is still up to parent and child to ensure the agreed upon accommodations are actually delivered.
Your comments are very perceptive and accurate. Advocacy is hard work, and often unrewarding, but if you don't advocate for your gifted child, then perhaps no one will.
ReplyDeleteTAGT has several articles related to advocacy, particularly if working with public schools, at www.txgifted.org/parent-pages/advocacy.
I also recommend NAGC's Advocacy Toolkit at
www.nagc.org/index.aspx?id=36.