"I want to go to Japan," announced recently turned five year old Sofia. "we can take a paper crane and place it at Sadako's statue". Sofia had recently finished reading Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Ellen Coerr. Fascinated and saddened by the story, she had already read it three times in the past week as well as researching the statue on Wikipedia with her dad and using the Atlas to calculate the distance from her home to Hiroshima, Japan. At 3 1/2 Sofia had already been assessed with an IQ at genius level and was evaluated at five as highly gifted. Not that her parents needed a test to show them her level of intelligence. Mastering telling tell time had been a mere hour lesson while on vacation just because she wanted to learn.
Sofia's parents, like others of highly gifted children, are disenchanted and disturbed by the lack of resources in the school system for their child. Lack of funding often eliminate programs for gifted and talented and even so those programs often only consist of a twice a week pull out. So two hours a week the child isn't bored. Parents turn to private school, home school or hoping to support the kids' talents at home. It is a dilemma.
The regular classroom
Regular classrooms are challenged by gifted students. While heterogeneous class makeup is in vogue, the downside comes in teachers having little resources to allow gifted children to work at one, two or more levels above the majority of students. Often gifted students are utilized as teacher's helper in teaching the other students. Boredom and as a result acting out are common on highly gifted students in regular classrooms. It is the talented teacher who can challenge the kindergarten child that can divide and utilize decimals in the same classroom with those just starting to recognize letters. Some districts such as in New York City are devoting schools to gifted and talented but that is the exception. Unfortunately, the existing cookie cutter school system leaves little resources for such innovation.Private school
I've written on cake before about private schools. Private schools often afford more attention with smaller classes and choice in the philosophy of education. From traditional to Waldorf to Montessori there exist a myriad of options depending on your location. In silicon valley we score an A for private school options and a C in public schools (learn more on Forbes.com). Private schools can be an excellent option. They can also be an expensive education that is no better for the gifted student than the local public school
Homeschool and the gifted
A growing number of parents of gifted children in desperation are opting to home school their children. It does not work for every child nor every household. It takes time patience and dedication. Kathi Kearney shares a story of a parents' decision to home school their three sons as the decision to become their kids "education facilitator". I love this. Recognizing they couldn't always be their children's best teacher, they expanded their resources utilizing tutors and University experts to teach as well. A common criticism of homeschooling is that parents might not have the knowledge to teach their children. If we are discussing the bare minimum expected in our school system, I would be surprised to discover that parents weren't well equipped for the job. And while home school kids often move ahead of their traditional peers regardless of IQ, the unique opportunity for them to develop expertise and in depth study exists. Creative parents use tutors, university students, online resources and museums to supplement in areas where they may lack expertise. I, myself who am not homeschooling at the moment, have learned more about muscles, bones and the human body than I ever did in biology simply due to my daughters' passion and curiosity about it. But homeschooling is another option that is neither right for everyone nor a possibliity for everyone.
So, while we create more cookie cutter schools what do we do for the gifted, the struggling and everyone in between?
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