Actions Speak Louder Than Words

What message do we give gifted children?

Consider for a moment a local school. It is much like other schools you might encounter, with mixed ability classes but this one does have some pull-out opportunities for gifted students (or perhaps for talented students – see a previous post from Aug 30 ).

Now consider another school, also fairly typical of other schools you might find nearby where you live. Classes at this school are also mostly mixed ability groups, with a little more challenge offered to the highest performing students in some subjects. A wide array of co-curricular opportunities are offered after school for students. Many of these involve competition at some point against other schools or teams.

Now think about yet another school. Like the ones already mentioned, it has mixed ability classes. A parent of a child who has been identified as gifted talks to the teacher about her child’s need for greater challenge and complexity to re-engage him in learning. The teacher responds with a well thought out package of work to be completed at home over a number of weeks.

Whether they are aware of it or not, each of these schools is giving a clear message to their gifted students. Although they recognise that their gifted students need something different which is positive, they are communicating the message that it is not important enough or perhaps that it is inconvenient to meet those needs during the school day.

While you think about what message your child might be picking up from the setting they find themselves in, here is one last (local) school to consider. What does a school communicate when the out of class opportunities are held in a building called "The Learning Centre"?? That ‘learning’ happens here, but not in the classroom? (while I first heard about this Learning Centre from a parent, the final comment was made by a student who told me she had figured out why she didnt seem to learn much most of the week)