It was suggested that I blog about things that come up along the way; things that are important to me. Here is a burning issue for me: Why do so many people say,"They are too young to learn x, y or z." Sure, there are definitively life lessons one can not learn until it is time. Knowledge is not the same thing.
Reminds me of learning about potential energy in high school physics.
Potential energy or stored energy is the ability of a system to do work due to its position or internal structure.
I am so perplexed when I hear,"Johnny's teacher suggested we no longer teach him new things after school. That is why he is bored in class. Don't teach him so much at home and then he won't be as bored at school" Hmmm. Research doesn't back this up. Odds are Johnny has always been infinitely curious and has a great need to know about his world. Does it make sense for a parent to say,"Little Johnny, I am sorry but I can not answer your question. This is a third grade question and you are in kindergarten. You will need to save this question for a few years." Of course not. And yet it happens. All the time.
What is a parent to do? Let's start with understanding how development occurs.
You see the highly gifted (or any gifted) child does not start out developing as any other child and does not slow down to the same level. You can oppress their learning but this is different from their ability to learn. Giftedness is an ability to learn or potential energy. It is not what they have already learned.
Deborah Ruf's work on the levels of giftedness show this as cognitive development from birth. This is the whole child not parts.
http://www.educationaloptions.com/resources/resources_levels_giftedness.php
Dabrowski's Theory of Positive Disintegration speaks to the amount of information a brain gleans from their environment. Controversial certainly, but interesting to ponder.
http://www.sengifted.org/articles_social/Mendaglio_DabrowskisTheoryOfPositiveDisintegration.shtml
The idea is those who are highly sensitive and learn much from very small bits of information. This theory shows the sensitive brain is picking up more from its environs. This is everything from a shirt tag being a distraction to seemingly understanding advanced concepts with little experience or information. It is all in the potential energy/ability of the mind. These children's brains are growing and working differently. It just is and no amount of wishing it weren't so or asking them not to learn is going to change that.
Now, a child is given advantages by having parents stimulate their environment. Absolutely. This is proven. This should not be confused with potential in a highly gifted child. It is a question of physics. If there is not enough potential energy to move an object; it can not be moved. The potential has to be there and so it is with the gifted child.
Your highly gifted child has the potential to learn at great depth AND great speed. Honor this and go with it. When asked a question by a child, answer. See what happens.
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Learning from microsopic bits of information is what we always refer to as the knowledge beamed in to their brains from another planet.
ReplyDeleteThe scary learning that occurs as they gather bits from here and there and put them together into a coherant idea well beyond the bits themselves. The whole is greater than the parts indeed!
I have run into parents that proclaim they will not identify their child as gifted, gifted children have a harder time in school... how the heck can you keep a child born with a gifted brain from being gifted? They might hold them back in school until they totally shut down and lose the desire to learn, but is that really in the child's best interest -- or society's?