Programs for our Gifted?........ or for our Talented???

Just recently I was working in a regional area, speaking with parents and working with children. The same issues seem to arise regardless of whether I am in the city or in one of the regional or country towns I visit.

The question of whether a child will be, or should be, included in a pull-out opportunity run in the school invariably comes up in discussion.

Often the students who are selected for pull out programs or gifted extension opportunities are those who are achieving at a high level. These are talented students.

Students who have been identified as gifted but are not achieving to the level of their potential (who are by definition underachieving) are much less likely to be included in the same opportunities.

So are our gifted programs really for our gifted students or are they for our talented students?

More important than what might be right, is that we are clear about who we are making the opportunity available for. If we are actually catering for talented students, we should say so. If the opportunities are for gifted students, the type of programs that might be needed may well be different. These would likely include some students who were achieving at a high level, along with some whose potential had not been tapped as yet. These might be students who don’t put a lot on paper, whose skills are in areas that see less opportunity day to day in the regular classroom. It might include children who were still learning how to make good decisions or to choose between the multitudes of ideas or options they could envisage, or who were hands on, problem based learners.

The programs schools run often have to be developed within constraints or staffing availability or expertise. But I think it is important that even with these constraints that schools are clear in their own minds about who they are offering opportunities to. Calling it a ‘gifted program’ but only including high achievers is bound to leave both parents and gifted (but not high achieving) students somewhat disillusioned. Programs for ‘gifted’ students should include those identified but not yet achieving highly. It should also offer opportunities to gifted students with learning difficulties (twice exceptional students). But not necessarily for all these students at the same time, in the same group.

Offering a selection of programs for gifted students with strengths in non verbal domains, as well as for those with strengths in verbal and written domains will ensure that both the gifted and the talented have a chance to access opportunities to extend and enrich their learning.

Without the opportunity it is be much harder to become talented……