Gifted Education Policy Changes I'd Like to See - Part 3 of 3
My ultimate goal is to contribute to educational policy changes and to develop approaches, funding, training, and flexible systems for the ways we "do" education, both public and private.
Families with gifted children in different Levels of Gifted need options and alternatives when their schools are not set up for meeting their needs effectively and for providing a good fit. They should be allowed to go where they can find those options. However, it does not have to be either/or. Once the public schools change the ways they deliver an education, families who thought they had to go to private schools to make things work will be happily going back to the public schools. I don’t think schools should be funded by taxes on local home owners and businesses.
I am a proponent of both school choice and competition in the marketplace. Educational systems work for the taxpayers. The taxpayers are their customers. Again, the taxes should come from a national federal system and not the local home owners. Parents and their children should have a legal right to choose the school that will deliver what they need. This is not the same as parents dictating what the school should do. That makes little sense, because not every family’s needs are the same, and the educators in the nearby — or district assigned — school may already be meeting the needs of most of their students. Families need school program and setting options, however, because their children may have learning needs that are not routinely addressed in the school to which their family is assigned.
Families benefit from “free market” competition. When schools see they are losing students to another school, the school often makes changes. Families need the right to try out something that would be better for one or more of their children — a different school with a different student base with more “true peers” or a faster, deeper pace of instruction, etc. Only when they have access to their “best fit” environment and school setting can children develop to their fullest potential academically, socially, and emotionally. And, as with the families in this book, sometimes it takes some time to figure out what is needed. There should not be rules that dictate that we only get one chance.
The Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJHSST) in Fairfax County Public Schools, Virginia is a perfect example of how when a public school offers a great educational opportunity, families who want to be part of it flood into the district. Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJHSST) In the case of TJHSST, many families planned their whole lives around accessing entrance to that school. They moved from other states, took jobs in companies near the district, and made sure their children were ready to compete there.
A problem arose for the district, though, when the School Board and administration attempted to integrate a wider representation of their student population into TJHSST without first addressing any possible educational gaps in achievement between and among their schools. The families who had found the perfect place for their children were unhappy that — as with other options for their highly intelligent and very prepared children that did not provide the best opportunities and adjustments for their children — the Math and Science School would now possibly end up deferring to less-prepared students and change the outcomes for their own children. And the possibility they feared could be true.
Many local families in the Fairfax County School District did not have the social capital, access, and experience to do the same kind of preparation ahead of time as did the current students at TJHSST. Some did not have access to the “best schools” in their district, and the “best fit” was not present for many underrepresented students due to poverty, cultural differences, and less access to peers who expected to go on to universities and professional careers.
Without a total restructuring of the district, which is similar to most large districts around the country, the school would have to at least move some children much earlier into schools and classrooms that have many students planning for the careers that require university training and the careers their minds make them capable of pursuing and doing successfully. Even when students have poor or traumatic backgrounds, they can find solace, appreciation, and community in a school that has a critical mass of exceptionally gifted students present. As the grandmother of a Level Four (exceptionally to profoundly gifted) subject reported:
When I was growing up, my family was very poor. But, because I went to the working class schools in my working class town, there were some kids there who were not poor and who just assumed they would go to college. Their parents could pay for it. I knew I was as smart as they were and I realized I wanted to go to college. It was then, when I was a sophomore in high school, that I started to ask my favorite teachers how I could do that. The teachers made it happen. They showed me how.
True peers are important, and this woman’s story is an apt example of the “true peer” issue. Youngsters are influenced by those around them; and being around others who care about school and professional-level goals can cause people to elevate their personal expectations.
Very few people want to pay for private school benefits if they can get what they need in their public school. The existing drawback often is that the pathway leading up to an exceptional high school opportunity keeps too many people of color, boys, and people in lower earning classes separated from a “good fit” experience that would have prepared them for what they needed. And everyone needs a good fit from the beginning of their school experiences and not just when they reach high school. Too much social, emotional, and self-esteem damage can happen along the way if this is not accomplished. And remember, a good fit is not just about matching people by IQ. It is about matching them with programs that fit their ways of learning. It is about flexible grouping, having far less grouping by age, and by thinking outside the box.
As Amanda Ripley pointed out in The Smartest Kids in the World and How They Got to Be that Way (2013, https://a.co/d/9dZzh8r), it starts with elevating the teaching profession to being trained, mentored, and paid as an elite professional group similarly to what our medical doctors currently experience. And to do that well, real estate taxes and zip codes should not have a role in the determination of a district’s budget and costs. Children from every walk of life should be able to meet each other for at least part of their every day. I do not recommend programs that don’t include the opportunity to work with, mingle with, and play with others near their age and not necessarily in their social, cultural, or intellectual “class.” You cannot grow up to help solve the problems of the world if you aren’t personally and experientially aware that there are any problems.
The US Department of Education, an important department that needs to continue, needs to have a more integrated role in making all of this happen for not only our gifted children but for all our children. A county-by-county, state-by-state system continues to marginalize some families while catering to others. Only a top-down federal system can facilitate equal access and full opportunity. Policymakers from the US Congress and the US Department of Education, and the courts, can look at the details of the changes that allow for the tweaks a local community might need to make. Denying any family or student what they need, however, can never be tolerated. It is essential to have trained, experienced leaders to work out the details for what each person’s best fit and need are. Caution can be and should be part of the action equation to make sure laws and rules do not devolve into rigid bureaucracies that stymy local ability to provide a “good fit” for its students.
Where there are learning abilities and style differences among children, ongoing regular options to meet the needs of those children can and should be provided. In districts that are appropriately designed, part of the easy solution is to group children with others who share the same needs. It is important not to let the restrictions of “building space,” e.g., an elementary school that only serves children through grade five, relegate highly intelligent, gifted children to languish in a school building that offers them nothing but boredom and largely wasted time. A consolidated, larger district can create a variety of centralized options when a federal system oversees financing and fair access.
We are so far from using these ideas right now that much of what I’m writing here might make your head spin. The reason we have such deep and ridiculous divisions and achievement results from one state to another, however, is evidence enough that the system is not currently fair at all.
My current published books about the gifted:
(1) 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
(2) 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). On Amazon, Keys to Successfully Parenting Gifted Children (2022, 2023) Print and ebook. The Nook version is also now on B&N. This is a short book 80 pages including pictures — that is a great starter for parents just wanting some answers … fast! The content was originally from a PowerPoint I created for the parents of gifted children presentations around the country. The contents zero in on some of the most important things about raising gifted children that parents want to know.
Losing Our Minds: Too Many Gifted Children Left Behind (Oct. 2024). The book provides a detailed analysis of the different levels of giftedness, the concept of "good fit" in educational settings, and the impact of various school environments on gifted children. It also includes personal stories and experiences of gifted children and adults, highlighting the challenges they face in finding appropriate educational and social environments. Available now on both Amazon and B&N. It is not the old purple book from 2005. Also, the Kindle and Nook versions are formatted so readers can click back and forth easily and find their place again. Follow this link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DL3BSC9X or this link: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/losing-our-minds-deborah-ruf/1146410968?ean=2940185888872
Environmental, Familial, and Personal Factors That Affect the Self-Actualization of Highly Gifted Adults: Case Studies (D. Ruf, 1998) doctoral dissertation. Free PDF https://dabrowskicenter.org/ruf
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