Stephanie Tolan’s article "Is it a Cheetah?" is an interesting and entertaining read about giftedness that uses a cheetah metaphor.
While the gifted is not as simple as one thinks, focusing on speed as the mark of a cheetah, makes it a unique and only trait one expects from this spotted creature lest his identity be lost with the rest of the cat family. Educators fall in the same trap identifying different gifted children, only to look for the most obvious – academic achievement. The metaphor somehow falls apart because cheetahs belong to the wild, gifted children don’t. The gifted also need structure to be “tamed” in the context of raising a generation who should know the purpose of their gifts. How tragic it is for the gifted individual to become lost in the wild and his purpose.
The article has generalized schools as zoos that contribute nothing more than the survival of the endangered species. Why schools have played the role of a warden seems to be because gifted children are increasingly shaped by different environments; oftentimes dysfunctional such as the family, neighborhood, and the cyberworld. Schools and even parents have a responsibility not only in nurturing but also in instilling the values and ethical principles in them.
As knowledge and technology continue to expand exponentially, our students face more challenges, the responsibility we expect education to assume only continues to build up. More than the curriculum and testing, there is a conscious effort in the classroom to replicate conditions outside the school that children may soon encounter to prepare them for the world (the “wild”). As a teacher, I see myself doing a balancing act. As I recognize the importance of knowledge and competence, I also see the need to nurture talent, imagination, creativity, but most importantly, ethical behavior among my students. There is always a dilemma between exposing them to the “fun” and “wild”, pushing them beyond their natural abilites, and restraining them to follow the norm especially in discipline and conduct, which I must admit is a different matter yet ingrained in the dynamics of a diverse classroom.
Amidst the expectations from the state and other stakeholders, the demand for students to achieve across many different gifted domains has never been higher and the functions expected from teachers may be even more complex. Identifying the most appropriate environment (whether “zoo” or the “wild”) for the gifted is necessary to human progress, and maybe even to survival itself.
When I was in high school, I flunked one or two subjects each year from first- to third-year. I was one of "those kids" who was always in summer school for one subject or other, usually math, and was forced to take summer classes to progress to the next level. Because my acdemic achievement was poor, I didn't think of myself as one of the "smart kids" who always made the honor roll and always got into the pilot class along with all the other perennial "smart kids." I just assumed that I was not a good student, since my grades were poor, I was always in summer school, and I was lumped in along with all the other kids who got poor grades.
ReplyDeleteThen in 4th year high school the school decided to try a new method of selecting students for the "pilot class". Instead of basing pilot class selection purely on academic achievement, certain kids were also selected based on IQ. Result: I went from being a perennial summer school kid with poor grades from 1st to 3rd year, to being in the pilot class for my senior year. Looking back, this had a marked effect on me and my self-image. If I could make it to the pilot class, maybe I wasn't one of the not-smart kids after all. I began to achieve, and then to over-achieve. I began to try things I'd never really tried before, like writing my own stories. It wasn't really so much that I had been placed in the pilot class that had such a radical effect on me; it was that someone seemed to believe in me, to have faith in my potential. Being placed in the pilot class after years of underachievement was, in my opinion, a seminal event in my formation, and really laid the groundwork for my future performance in college and in my career.
So thank you for what you have written, and please continue to nurture and care and look beyond your students' academic achievement. Appreciate their potential, and know that you can and do make a difference, now and more importantly, in their future. :)
The gifted population continues to surprise me. Your experience in high school is one case in point. Because each individual is multifaceted, one's giftedness is either neglected, mislabeled or unaddressed. Beyond testing and assessments, I hope I will be able to see.
ReplyDeleteI always believe that our thirst for knowledge should be the driving force in education. But the thirst is different for one student and for another and another. That's why school, the teachers, and parents are important in nurturing this thirst. It takes a while but I'm sure patience will bring out the best in each of the students.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this great article. Keep it up!