Should We Teach Gifted Curriculum to All Students?
What are the possible downsides?
There are as many things that can go wrong as there things that can go right. So, let’s take a look.
Right now, I’m recalling what reasons might be for a good or bad fit for the general student population to suddenly receive material and curriculum that is designed for students who are advanced learners, i.e., gifted students.
When I was still in practice assessing and guiding families of gifted children, I helped them to find the best school for their own children. Our area has school choice and parents can shuttle their children to schools outside their home districts if there is room for them. There is one public school here that started an Exceptionally Gifted Program in their 2nd through 5th grades. It’s been at least twenty years since the elementary school program was started, and it continues to have the best scores across all grade levels in its school, more students who go on to higher education, etc., even in the classrooms that aren’t in the Exceptionally Gifted Program. One reason for that is that spaces are limited in the Program and most parents want their children to go to the same school with each other. They are bright motivated parents and children. The children can take the tests each year and may gain entry later, for example. Exceptionally to Profoundly Gifted generally means Levels Four and Five, sometimes Level Three. Here’s your refresher list:
By the time the first class of its exceptionally gifted program graduated and went to a nearby middle school, the middle school principal decided that if the material and instruction were good for gifted children, it would be good for everyone. The principal stepped up the curriculum in the middle school (back then; I don’t know what they are doing now) but no longer required any screening for the students to see if they would all be ready for the work. As usually happens, the students who had participated for three years in a radically enriched and accelerated program with like-minded and able classmates were left to drift through the next three years as totally demoralized and depressed human beings. A half dozen of those students are subjects in my two Levels books. They uniformly described the change as awful.
As I said, I don’t know what the district is doing now. It is extremely common for programs to come and go. I do know that the Gifted Program is still there and apparently doing well, 1st in the state and mentioned annually by US News as a top public school. When one looks at the website for eligibility requirements, it becomes clear that those scores and “cut-offs” are not shared: two achievement tests and one ability test. Over the years, I’ve learned that is wise. It gives them more leeway and discretion than spending time arguing with parents, for example. Scores are NOT everything … and this view is from someone whose PhD focus was on Test & Measurement. Most people with my credentials design and develop tests. I prefer practical applications. The real life parts.
This list below is just one example of how to answer the question posed in the title. So is the first chapter, The Relativity of Giftedness, of my The 5 Levels of Gifted Children Grown Up (2023), the 18 year longitudinal study of how unalike people of different levels and profiles can be to each other.
Here is a brief list of the pros and cons that come to mind at this time.
Pros:
· Some students who would never have been recognized as gifted (lots of reasons for that!) turn into engaged super-learners.
· Children who have been traumatized by war, poverty, abuse, racism, sexism, hunger, or generally chaotic lives, may not have found their ways to good curriculum and instruction and “come alive” when opportunities like this come their ways.
· Some children don’t have the same kind of experience with test preparation, tutoring, or good schools (we tend to use the zip code method for school placement in the United States), and they thrive in the new environment of better curriculum and instruction.
Cons:
· Many of the students haven’t experienced the scaffolding of material necessary for suddenly being plopped into a classroom with curriculum and expectations that is unlike anything they’ve seen before. Scaffolding means slowly but surely introducing material so that it isn’t shocking to the students. But if some students are ahead already, that same scaffolding isn’t needed.
· The students who have excellent background in an elementary school program or because they went to a wealthy district which has more students who have always had access to appropriate material, end up hating school during their middle school experiences. Many of them can’t even fathom what’s going on with the other students and start to feel arrogant or dismissive and even angry that they have to wait and wait while the teacher slows everything down (the usual direction it goes because everyone is still teaching for passing city and state achievement requirements for proficiency).
· And, in a world where everyone seems to think we should group children in school by grade levels and age — there is absolutely no research that supports this system; it’s simply what someone in Europe in the mid-1800s decided to do, and few, with the clear exception of Maria Montessori, have tried to change it — the range of learners in each classroom is literally so vast that teachers are left with the impossible. Sigh.
The Podcast
I was asked this question during a podcast and that snippet is here. I’ve embellished a bit in this post but watch me struggle during this interview. It’s like, “Where do I begin?”
This post includes another snippet from a podcast interview with Deborah Ruf (me) by Julia Krysztofiak-Szopa, for Julia’s podcast — Dzieci Zdolne — which means Gifted Children.
It’s only 6 minutes long and comes from a much longer podcast. Aside from the short video podcast, I’ve added links for further reading and explanation if this is a topic that interests you.
Julia lives with her family in Poland and it was such a delight to get to know her. Like me, she has lots of thoughts and ideas and she loves to talk! Me, too. While my own children have been out of the nest for more than twenty years, she still has children at home. Her questions to me are mostly related to those listeners who are still raising their gifted children.
Take a look and listen. I hope my answers here are useful to both readers and listeners.
The first edition of Losing Our Minds: Gifted Children Left Behind, 2005, was renamed with no other changes to 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
The 5 Levels of Gifted Children Grown Up: What They Tell Us (2023). Find on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Levels-Gifted-Children-Grown-Up/dp/B0C9SHFRLH or Barnes & Noble: 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).
Dr. Ruf is available for the following professional services.
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