Same-Aged Classrooms for a Gifted Child … Really?
School is not real life; this doesn't help with social skills
Everyone knows
… that the reason we put children in school by age for their instruction is that there are centuries of excellent research that proves this is the most effective way for children to learn, right?
Well, no, actually, there is no such research at all. I think it had something to do with following the Henry Ford factory efficiency model and no one ever seemed to think of questioning its validity for the schooling of generations of children around the world.
In the “olden days” of public education, we had the one room schoolhouse. It worked quite well. Students proceeded through the curriculum at their own pace and worked with anyone else, of any age, who was ready for the same material and production. My goal is not to give a history lesson here but to point out that we no longer do this in schools. Whether you are ready for more or not, it is not allowed because the student will get ahead and, “What will we do with her next year?”
Here is a little IQ lesson, though.
Whether or not you approve of the concept of IQs or IQ testing, the research shows that IQ results correlate with all kinds of real-life outcomes. The average IQ in the US is 100 and regular standardized tests that most people take in school (or when they enter the military or any other government job like the US Postal Service) all start as low as around 50 IQ and as high as about 150 IQ. Yes, there are some other kinds of tests that have different scales, but that’s not what I’m talking about now. And most of you readers were never tested on a test that has scores any higher than that.
The average IQ difference between people who choose to marry each other is 12 points (except in the upper tail where the scores are all squished together … more on that another time). Basically, they get each other’s jokes. They catch a glimmer of recognition and being on the same page. That old magic feeling of someone thinking we’re amusing!
The genetic mingling of the parents’ genes gives them children who will usually be within 15 points higher or lower to their parental average. Same with siblings — only 15 points between them on average (generally one standard deviation).
Most people know that there is a bell curve shape for most human qualities, and IQ is no exception. There are more average people than there are very low or very high IQ people. There are more people of average height than amazingly tall or short people.
American school classrooms are usually set up by age.
Kindergarten screening tells the schools which children are most ahead and most behind others their age. The principal stacks the kids by estimated ability, from the cursory screening, and then considers gender, behavior, ethnicity, and socio-economic background, and then deals the kids out, like a deck of cards, to the four different kindergarten classrooms so that every class has the same number of each kind of kid. This means that the four most advanced children will all be in different classrooms. No one will get their jokes except maybe the teacher!
The typical IQ range in such a classroom is 70 to 80 IQ points, but we are generally comfortable with and drawn to people who are within about 12 points of us. Then we tell the kids that they need to learn to get along with their “peers.” But peers might not be age-mates unless they — by some stroke of luck — are fairly close to us in intellect and get our jokes, get us.
And every school year the school people re-sort the children to make each class is much the same as the others in the grade level as possible … to be fair. And, if, by luck, your child found a soulmate or true peer and started paying more attention to that other child than to the teacher, the two children would likely get separated for the next school year so they wouldn’t be distracted from the important work of waiting for everyone else to learn what they already know. *sigh*
School is not a very happy time or place for many, many bright children.
And, unless I’m missing something, I am not aware of any other time in our lives when we have to spend all our time with people our own age. Is this really a great way for gifted children to learn social skills or coping skills? It’s asking a lot.
Books by Deborah Ruf, PhD
The Five Levels of Gifted Children Grown Up: What They Tell Us (2023). https://www.amazon.com/Levels-Gifted-Children-Grown-Up/dp/B0C9SHFRLH or https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-5-levels-of-gifted-children-grown-up-phd-deborah-l-ruf/1143719859?ean=9798988323709. This is an 18 year longitudinal study follow-up about the original gifted child subjects in 5 Levels of Gifted: School Issues and Educational Options (2005, 2009).
Keys to Successfully Parenting the Gifted Child (2023). Keys to Successfully Parenting Gifted Children (2022, 2023)
5 Levels of Gifted: School Issues and Educational Options in 2009. Here are links to the 5 Levels of Gifted book on Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/5-levels-of-gifted-deborah-ruf/1126358834 and Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Levels-Gifted-School-Educational-Options/dp/0910707987 or directly from the publisher: https://www.giftedunlimitedllc.com/store/p12/5_Levels_of_Gifted.html
Dr. Ruf is available for the following services.
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One-Hour Test Interpretation
Gifted Child Test Interpretation & Guidance
20-Minute Consultation
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Thanks again for this interesting post, Deborah!
I was wondering if you have any references for this statement:
"The average IQ difference between people who choose to marry each other is 12 points (except in the upper tail where the scores are all squished together … )"
I would be very grateful for having references from literature.
I often hear that one SD difference in IQ would be a critical difference in understanding each other but I never found any good research about that. I am very much interested and also in what is the case in the tails.... where there are less and less people.
Great lede! Maybe you can pull from your books the specific examples of same age people from public school experiences--one from the one room school house and the other from grades systems. What an eye opener. I am a product of graded system and my husband came from a town so small he got his education in the one-room school. I never asked for an IQ test but I know he was over the top brilliant and understood me.