Math and Writing Troubles for Many Gifted Children — Why?

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As said in the previous posts, teachers may believe that advanced learners are okay in the mixed-ability classroom because they continue to do well on achievement tests and because so many of them appear to adapt well. But much of the damage is hidden or camouflaged. Gifted children can develop common emotional patterns — including loneliness — when they are in the wrong educational environment. This post finishes the section about specific school subjects and the issues related to gifted children not seeming to be ready for anything more than grade-level work.

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The descriptions of each child are completely from their parents as part of their participation in the book study on giftedness. All are anonymous.

More Math Issues

In the previous post, I told you about many school subjects, because of the ways they are taught, make it look as though the gifted child isn’t so gifted after all!

Layne Freeman — In the fall of third grade at Layne’s school for highly gifted children, the teacher was concerned because Layne hadn’t memorized her subtraction facts. I suggested that she be shown how to do multiplication and division out of sequence. She learned those in a snap and then understood subtraction.

Ross Oliver — Ross won the state’s Knight’s of Columbus Math Award and tested into algebra after completing the fifth-grade EPGY [1] program. Despite all of this, his fifth-grade math teacher required him to attend classes for group work instead of with a math mentor. When working with classmates, his teacher wouldn’t allow him to use algebra because “it would be an unfair advantage.”

Writing

Parents worry when their gifted child’s teacher says that the child is not doing well in writing. Gifted children’s writing difficulties take numerous forms, but no matter the particular issue, teachers usually view it too seriously. It is as though they believe that there is no way that the child should receive instruction at an appropriate level in any other sub- jects until his or her writing is also at a more advanced level.

There are several reasons why gifted children are frequently behind in their writing ability.

· First, writing is inefficient when compared to speaking and reading skills. When most children are young, their writing is so slow and physically arduous that they resist writing anything until they know that they will not have to change it or redo it.

· Second, many highly intelligent people do not do “first drafts,” and yet this is a process that schools encourage. Gifted children may appear to wait until the last minute to get assignments done, but many actually think about what they are going to write until the concept is well developed in their heads.

· Third, these students may have difficulty deciding which of their abundant thoughts and ideas should be selected for writing down. If the teacher doesn’t like what they’ve chosen, they may have to do it over — and since the assignment didn’t interest them in the first place, they decide that perhaps it’s better to avoid it altogether.

· Fourth, they see little point in the art of writing since, in their minds, writing is simply a tool to communicate that only has to be minimally legible. Besides, typing on a computer is faster.

Boys are far more likely than girls to have these issues with writing. Adults need to guide the gifted child one step at a time by keeping assignments short and specific. Patient and kind persistence eventually helps most gifted students become excellent writers as they mature.