Different ways of looking at what you are making

This morning I came across the following story. It was used in the context of business but I think it applies nicely to many other aspects of life.

A man stopped by a building site and asked the first man what he was making.“I’m laying stones,” said the man, and went back to his work.

He moved to the second man and asked him what he was making.“About $5 per hour,” remarked the man, and got back to work.

The man came to the third man and asked him what he was making.
The man smiled, threw his arms in a wide arc and beamed, “I’m building a Cathedral!”

Life in a family of gifted people is not always straighforward and navigating a path can at times feel like a rollercoaster ride, but as often as you can, and with as much gusto as you can muster, "look up every now and again and think about what you’re making."

Hogwarts in the (Perth) HIlls

I spent last weekend at Hogwarts. Well, maybe not THE Hogwarts, but the kids at the first gifted family camp in WA seemed pretty sure that was where we were and there was no mistaking the Harry Potter theme especially on the Saturday evening.

More than 40 children ranging in age from 6 to 12, along with about 20 mums,  dads and a Grandma spent the weekend at Camp Woody in the hills, enjoying the chance to meet new friends and mix with like minds. Many families travelled from country areas for their kids to have the chance to attend.

During the weekend potions were dreamed up and tested, anatomy was studied, healing balm made (not strong enough unfortunately to soothe my tired feet, but certainly marvellously for scratches and bites), magical creatures were designed, owls, marauders maps and whomping willows were created, teams completed a wide range of tasks for the Challenge Cup and there was still plenty of free time to spend with new friends.

It was amazing to see how quickly the House teams came together as a group, how students who are more usually reserved relaxed their guard and got right into things and how much energy 40 gifted children can generate when they are passionately involved in things.

The camp however was not just for the kids. The parents also had plenty of time to share their stories with each other, to share what worked for them and the ways they manage the challenges of life in a gifted family and to be able to talk about topics that interested other gifted adults. Many of the parents embraced the theme of the camp, dressing up for the Saturday night and even becoming part of the concert. Many commented on the difference in their child in a setting with like minds.

I did not hear anyone claim to be bored all weekend. In fact one boy lamented the fact he hadn’t had time to complete one activity in a workshop because he had been too involved in another and asked to come back in his own in free time the next morning so he could do it then. In fact the only complaint was that we ran out of time for the planning Quidditch game on the final afternoon. That really was a shame because I was also looking forward to seeing how it could be done.

Despite many tired bodies by the end of the camp (not just the kids) their minds seemed energised. I heard from several parents over the next few days how, contrary to expectations, their kids did not sleep on the way home. Rather they recounted events, wrote spells, made plans, continued drawing maps and talked about new friends.

The comment of the weekend would have to be “Why can’t these kids be my class all the time?”

Lessons we can learn

30 years ago parents of children with disabilities had a difficult job advocating for their child. Parent’s needs were not often considered and few children had the opportunity to attend schools. A great deal of time and effort went in to bringing about change.

The following points are drawn from a poster presentation at the ARACY conference in September 2009 about children with disabilities as a special needs group.

They apply almost as readily to gifted children whose needs also often fall outside the norm.

• Early identification and early intervention have been shown to lead to best outcomes. 
• Service providers work in partnership with parents and families (and later schools) to provide them with the skills and knowledge to support and optimise their child’s development and their ability to participate in community life. 
• Parents often move through a number of stages including shock, confusion, anger and disbelief before they accept the diagnosis.*
• At various times the parent will be an advocate, information seeker, spokesperson and public educator for their child.
• Parents with a disabled child are in frantic need of formal and informal support and need thoughtful professionals who respect their feelings
• Such a child impacts on parental wellbeing and functioning 
• Services should be child focussed and family centred.
• Professionals should acknowledge and respect parent’s expertise and knowledge and help families recognise their children strengths
• Professionals must respect families desire to be in control and give families the information they need to make informed decisions. 
• There is a further need to promote positive and collaborative partnerships, for mentoring to be available and for improved partnerships with educational institutions to increase efficacy. 

 (* for many parents of gifted children there is also an element of grieving for their own lost opportunities as they reflect on their own path through school).

The Balanced Diet Approach

A balanced diet takes into account the essential food groups and how much is needed of each. The aim is provide the body with the right ingredients so that it can grow strong and healthy.

The world of finance follows a similar balanced approach with a healthy mix of investments for best success.

What if parents deliberately planned a ‘balanced diet’ of a range of learning opportunities for their child?

What would your essentials be? How would you balance your child’s need to develop for social and academic skills, their emotional development and their artistic or creative growth?

In which areas might the school support your child’s growth?

Which areas might be addressed at home?

Which might be best addressed through extra curricular activities (perhaps music or art lessons, or specialised sports?

It can be a useful exercise to spend some time working out what your child’s current needs are and what your conception of a healthy learning framework might look like (at this point in time). Then you can work out the areas in which the school might contribute. It is important though to remember that no school, regardless of how ‘good’ they are or how willing, can meet all the needs of the child. Getting the best outcomes needs a partnership. It is true that it can take ‘a village to raise a child’.

When you have completed the process you will have a framework for discussions with the school about the role they might plan in balancing the diet. And a road map, for the time being, of what you will take responsibility for and what extra curricular activities you might organise.

This process of reflection and review on the balance of the ‘diet’ is one that it is worth completing regularly. The plan might only have the right balance for this year (or even part of a year) but monitoring it can bring the same benefits as keeping an eye on your child’s diet.

Free Stuff

While I have been moving into my office I have rediscovered a few things! Amongst these are 25 copies of a DVD which I have decided to give away. This 30 minute DVD called the The Gifted Puzzle was made in 2004 by the Australian Association for the Education of the Gifted (AEEGT) was filmed at a family camp in NSW.

This DVD covers a number of topics that will be of interest including identification, siblings, transition points and acceleration. It features parents chatting about questions and concerns and shows the positives for both parents and children of connecting with others. You also see the kids in workshops and hear their thoughts on opportunities to mix with like minds.

If you would like a copy of The Gifted Puzzle please enclose your name and postal address along with $1.10 worth of stamps (to cover the cost of the postage) inside an envelope and send to Thinking Ahead PO Box 171 Como. We will post off copies each week until the 25 are all gone (I will endeavour to update the website to let you know how many copies remain).

Tips for Raising Learners

Over the last few months I have been thinking about some of the challenging (but very interesting) ideas I came across when reading a book titled ‘What’s the Point of School?” by Guy Claxton and will post more on those as the ideas distil a little more.

Towards the end of the book there is a focus on families as learning communities, acknowledging that as children do not come with an instruction manual, parents necessarily spend a lot of their time in the ‘Don’t Know’ zone. It urges parents to embrace being a Learner (rather a ‘Knower’), reminding us that it is never too late to further exercise our own ‘learning muscles’. In the process we can provide valuable role models to our children about the process of learning.

Here are the tips for a family as a learning community

•  Be a visible learner for your children 
•  Involve children in adult conversations
• Let them spend time with you while you are doing difficult things
• Involve children in family decisions
• Tell your children stories about thyo0ur learning difficulties
• Encourage children to spend time with people who have interesting things to share
• Don’t rush in too quickly to rescue children when they are having diff
• Restrain the impulse to teach
• Don’t praise too much – use interest rather than approval
• Acknowledge the ‘effort’, not the ‘ability’
• Make clear boundaries and maintain them
• Don’t over stimulate – boredom breeds imagination
• Choose multi-purpose and open ended toys
• Encourage different kinds of computer use
• Talk to children about the process of learning (without offering too much advice)
• Watch and learn groom your children’s learning

Skills for the 21st Century

There is no doubt the world is a different place now to when we were children and that different skills are needed to negotiate it. Consider the sorts of things that a child starting school now takes for granted that were undreamed of when I started school in 1966 (the list is enormous!).

Knowledge is being generated at such a pace that it is no longer possible to learn ‘everything’, nor is it possible to memorise the answers to life’s myriad of questions. Our children will grow up into a world that despite our life experiences, even we can’t imagine. They will require skills we are not yet aware of to solve problems that do not yet exist.
Change is inescapable but it also adds new dimensions to life.

How can we prepare our children for the world they will grow into?

One useful tool is the creative thinking process which provides us with tools for managing change. Building confidence in the ability to generate many and varied possibilities to paradoxes, challenges or concerns and then searching for meaningful connections between them is a way to empower kids (and adults) and build their confidence to manage change effectively.

This processes of generative thinking followed by focussing thinking work in harmony. They are the opposite sides of the same coin. Both are important, too much creative (generative) thinking can leave us drowning in divergence, with no path forward. Without it, we may not look widely enough or consider unique or original possibilities. The evaluative (focussing) thinking lets us look for patterns and underlying connections and to evaluate by criteria relevant to the problem we are trying to address.

A ‘safe’ climate is important for creativity, after all idea generation requires an element of risk taking. Deferring judgement is also critical to the flow of ideas. It is worth keeping in mind that praise is also a judgement. The challenge perhaps for our brightest students is that they may feel pressured to have the ‘right’ answer. Opportunities to come up with more than one solution or idea and to see adults talk through the process they use in decision making can be helpful.

If we are truly looking for solutions, we would also benefit from encouraging novel ideas but then cautiously sticking to more familiar and ‘safe’ ideas when we focus our thinking. Novel ideas are rarely born fully fledged and often need more development. Often they look ambitious or unlikely initially.

Of course, there is no one right way to the future and there are many opinions about which skills are most important. The World Future Society have a slightly different view.

‘The single most critical skill for the 21st Century

In this era of accelerating change, knowledge is no longer the key to a prosperous life. Foresight is the critical skill. Knowledge quickly goes out of date, but foresight enables you to navigate change, make good decisions and take action now to create a better future’