Boredom and Immaturity Can Cause Problems for Gifted Children in School

Gifted Students: Parents and the Schools

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Certainly many students throughout history have experienced occasional boredom in school. However, recent reforms designed to “level the playing field” for all children and put more attention toward helping slower learners have left gifted children with too little to learn and do all day long. Even more dismaying, children of other ability levels — not just gifted students — frequently have their learning needs unmet under this system as well. Experienced teachers know that an excellent way to manage children’s behavior in the classroom is with instruction and assignments that grab and maintain the students’ interest. When schools fail to provide a time and place for children to continue their natural love of learning, the school itself becomes a source of problems.

Why are so many bright children bored in school? Gifted children have long attention spans, and the length of the span increases with the level of giftedness. Average elementary grade children have attention spans of 15–20 minutes, and teachers keep lessons to that length for this reason. This is also the reason that children’s television programs move quickly from one topic to another. But for gifted children, 15–20 minutes on a subject is completely wrong, irritating, and even disrespectful; gifted children want to learn more before moving on. It is not surprising that children who are eager, absorbed learners at home quickly lose their enthusiasm for school in the primary grades. There have not been any extensive changes for gifted children across the country, especially not in most public schools. And there are gifted children from all backgrounds. Too many of them continue to be left behind.

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Here are some examples from parents about their gifted children in the early years of school.

Stephen Williams — We expected that a respected private school would provide a good, challenging educational experience. We were disappointed, as Stephen’s knowledge was more advanced than other children in his class — he learned new concepts faster.

Phil Burns — In first grade, the reading teacher insisted that the children use their pointer finger to follow along in their own books. The class slowly and laboriously enunciated each word as they read aloud together. Phil (who read at a fifth-grade level) was clearly bored. He quickly flipped through the pages to count how many there were, turned to the correct page and read silently, and then searched for other things to do to keep his mind occupied. Each time the class turned to a new page, he read quickly and then lost interest. Because of this, the school told us that something was wrong with Phil and that he might have an emotional disorder. He was graded and judged completely on his behavior and compliance (or lack of compliance).

Author note: Teachers must consider whether they are expecting compliance and attention under circumstances that are completely wrong for the child. Adults in authority in this case needed to respond to Phil’s needs, place him in classrooms where he could learn new material, and show him that his needs and interests mattered.