The "G" word

I heard it again just this week. "I don't believe in gifted education. I believe all children are gifted."

Of course, all children have gifts. All children are capable of learning new things at school and showing growth in a variety of ways each day. But this statement makes me bristle because I also know that not all children have the same gifts. To treat them if as if they do, denies them the chance to be the unique individuals they are.

Many of us who specialize in gifted education are uncomfortable being saddled with the term “gifted” for the children we are passionate about serving. There is often an assumption that the label "gifted" is an honor or achievement, and programs for gifted kids can be accused of being elitist for that reason. But, for better or worse, it is the term applied to the students that we serve, first by the field of psychology and then by education. It's important that we understand what it means when we use it – also what it does NOT mean.

This is how the Federal Government defines gifted students. 

“The term ‘gifted and talented' … means students, children, or youth who give evidence of high achievement capability in areas such as intellectual, creative, artistic, or leadership capacity, or in specific academic fields, and who need services or activities not ordinarily provided by the school in order to fully develop those capabilities."

At Seabury, we particularly like this definition of giftedness by the great Annemarie Roeper, a pioneer in gifted education.

“Giftedness is a greater awareness, a greater sensitivity, and a greater ability to understand and transform perceptions into intellectual and emotional experiences."

Society has no trouble recognizing gifts such as athletic ability or musical talent. It is generally agreed that that children who show exceptional ability in these areas need different kinds of training and experiences if they are to fully develop their gifts. Children as young as 4 or 5 who show advanced skill in sports are offered opportunities for more challenging play and different coaching than peers who are still learning the basics. Early music education is a no-brainer for a child who begins picking out tunes on the piano at age 3. Anyone would agree these children need an appropriate level of challenge to continue to grow. But something else seems to come into play when we are talking about intellectual ability.

When a child is speaking in sentences at 12 months old, or forming complex patterns with blocks at 2, or counting to 1,000 at 5, many people assume that the parents are pushing her. When a 3-year-old who is obsessed with learning everything there is to know about planets points out errors in nonfiction books on astronomy and can name the moons of Jupiter, his parents feel alone because talking to friends about their child’s intellectual prowess is seen as boasting. And where will they find teachers who understand him?

Parents and educators often struggle with the idea that these are indicators that children like this need something different than the one-size-fits-all-education program we increasingly have in our schools.

Why does our society struggle with the fact that not all kids learn in the same way – that some kids need more time to learn basic skills, while others the same age learn quickly and need opportunities to think deeply and to ask more complicated questions? This doesn't make one child better than the other, just different, each with their own set of talents and areas for growth.

I have a passion for gifted education because I believe strongly that ALL children deserve to learn something new at school every day. I cannot bear to tell our gifted children that their job in school is to read a book and wait for the others to "catch up." Of course the other children have their own gifts, but they are no more likely to "catch up" to those extraordinary minds than I am to catch up to Felix Hernandez in my pitching ability. Does that make Felix better than me? Better at baseball – yes. Better as a person – no. Just different.

Gifted kids are not the "good kids" or the "easy kids" as many teaching colleagues over the years have told me. In fact, gifted kids often have challenges that are unrecognized. The ability to conceive of things that your body and hands are not yet ready to make or do is frustrating when you are little. Having questions that are often unanswerable – like "What is the meaning of life?" – can be difficult and is the reason many gifted young people experience existential depression. The strong sense of justice and fairness, and high degree of sensitivity that many gifted children carry can make them targets or can cause stress as they worry over the suffering of others. There can be a profound sense of aloneness when a child is seeing things and asking questions that other kids their age aren't ready for yet.

Gifted education is not perfect. We struggle to find all the students who would benefit from the services we offer. We hurt our own cause when we are too rigid with assessments or when the label "gifted" becomes a burden or is treated like an achievement. But when we are at our best, we can provide a safe space for highly capable children to be themselves at school.

Gifted students are not better than other children. But, they, like all children, deserve the chance to learn joyfully, to grow at their own pace, and to be understood and appreciated. That is why Seabury exists. That is why gifted education is my passion. That is why we need to continue to work to make sure ALL students, gifted or not, get to learn something new at school every day.

– Sandi Wollum

Is Seabury a Montessori Program?

Parents who visit our early learning program often ask us whether our program is a Montessori program. Like Montessori classrooms, they see students engaged in a variety of tasks and making choices about the activities they are participating in. They see an emphasis on learning with the whole body through hands-on activities and sensory experiences. They see developmentally appropriate materials and a focus on students learning skills of independence.

But Seabury's early learning program is not a Montessori program. Montessori schools are developed around the philosophy and practice of Dr. Maria Montessori, a physician and education innovator who lived in Italy in the late 19th and early 20th century.

Seabury's early learning program is a program developed specifically for gifted learners – students who have unique characteristics and who benefit from practices designed to meet their intellectual, social and emotional needs. Gifted students learn quickly in their areas of giftedness, and young gifted students can often be identified by having moved through many of their developmental milestones early (talking, walking, etc.). Their large vocabulary, intellectual curiosity, incessant need to know why – and to crave concrete, complex accurate answers to their million questions often makes them appear older than they are. But they are still young and have the developmental and social needs that all young students have – the need to learn with their whole bodies, the need to move frequently, the need to learn to share and be independent and take turns.

Seabury's program combines what research has told us about how gifted children learn with the best of experiential learning programs for young children to provide a program that is intellectually stimulating, creatively engaging, and developmentally appropriate. Like in a Montessori classroom, students learn at their own pace using a wide range of hands-on materials and activities. Like in Waldorf programs, students have opportunities for creative expression through art and play and movement. Like in Reggio Emilia, we emphasize open-ended questions and student-led exploration.

All of this, fused with a deep understanding of the way gifted children learn, create Seabury’s program, which is specifically designed to meet the needs of gifted kids beginning in the early learning years.

– Sandi Wollum

Head of school

Let's hear it for the girls

It happens this time of year every year. Parents come to my office to inquire about enrollment for their son. He is bored in school, getting in trouble often, having difficulty sitting still, and generally frustrated. We talk about why Seabury might benefit him. We would challenge him and give him a group of peers he could relate to. We would place him with teachers who understand his needs and would be patient and positive about his incessant questions and his need to move.

Often these parents also have a daughter. When I ask whether they might also be looking for a placement for her, I am often met with this response: "Oh no, not her." She loves her teachers. She has friends. She gets along with everyone. She's happy. When I ask if they have considered having her tested alongside her brother, I am often met with resistance. But statistically, siblings typically have IQs that are within 5 to 10 points of each other unless there is a developmental disability. So I know that there is a good chance that if the family has one gifted child, they probably have two gifted children. If I can talk the parents into testing their daughter, they are often shocked to find that her IQ is as high or higher than her brother's.

I worry about gifted girls who are doing "fine" in regular classrooms. I was one of them. When I was in elementary school, if you had asked my parents whether I needed a different kind of educational setting, they would have said no. If you had asked me, I would have said the same thing. With my limited experience, I didn't know that school could be an engaging place filled with deep thought and interesting investigations. I thought it was a place where you did what you were told and all was well as long as you made the teacher happy. As an introvert, I was happy with my few close friends. It wasn't until junior high when I was placed in a gifted program classroom that I finally understood what school could be. It changed my life.

What fascinating discussions we had – discussions that spilled over into lunch and left me thinking about possibilities long after school was over. We considered questions I had never encountered. I was given the opportunity to really think and work that was challenging and not just tedious. 

My own school experience led me to the field of gifted education. I want all kids to have the experience of being challenged at school – of getting to wrestle with difficult questions and intriguing possibilities. I worry about our gifted girls who, research says, are more likely to go underground with their abilities than boys. I worry about those little girls who figure out at an early age just what to do so that they don't stand out from the others in their class. They wonder "how many times can I answer questions before the others decide I'm a know-it-all?" 

When gifted girls who've learned to fly under the radar get straight A's without needing to work hard (maybe long, but not hard), what do they learn about how to deal with challenges? How do they understand what their true abilities are? If they expect that everything to come easily, what happens when they hit college, and it isn't easy any more? Will they doubt themselves and their previous successes ("imposter syndrome.")

Parents often struggle to find right educational placement for their child. When their girls have friends and get good grades, parents believe they are ok. In a sense, they are. But is ok enough for our gifted girls? 

Be on the lookout for gifted girls. Let's give them the chance to be stretched and challenged every day – to see that school is more than slumber party invitations and turning in the paper with the neatest handwriting. Let's give them the chance to see that they can think hard and ask incredible questions. Being in a gifted program changed my life. I am committed to giving today's gifted girls the same amazing experience.

– Sandi Wollum 

(For another personal perspective, read this powerful piece by Erin Brooks, the mom of one of our Jellybean students. It appears here in Crushing Tall Poppies, a blog focusing on gifted education.)