Homeschooling Gifted Kids
Why Do Parents Make This Choice?
One population of homeschoolers that is rising is gifted students. There is no federal legislation that requires schools to meet the needs of gifted homeschoolers. If you consider a 100 IQ score to be average, and a standard deviation from the norm to be fifteen points, federal law requires that the child who scores an 85 on IQ tests receive support and an individual education plan to meet his or her needs. However, a child who is fifteen points from normal in the other direction receives no such legal protection.
Some states require that gifted students receive individual education plans, but other state, like Massachusetts, don't even provide one dollar for state-wide gifted funding in public education classrooms. Massachusetts ranks fiftieth out of fifty states--behind Mississippi and Arkansas. While Massachusetts has the highest number of colleges on all states in the country, and is home to some of the best prep schools (Groton, Milton Academy, Deerfield Academy) and colleges (Harvard, MIT), it is dead last for gifted public education funding.
What should a parent do if his or her child scored one, two, three, four, or even five standard deviations from the norm on IQ tests? Should a second grader with a 160 IQ who performs at a sixth or seventh grade level be forced by an underfunded public school system to perform at a second grade level? With no legal protection for gifted education, many gifted students languish in school, and later become behavior problems. Twent percent of all high school dropouts are gifted. Gifted students commit suicide at a rate four time that of non-gifted students.
Private school is an option, but should the burden of high tuition be forced on the parents? If a student has an IQ of 70 and requires specialized schools, federal law requires that the district pay for the tuition. Not so if the student has a 130 IQ and requires special schools.
Homeschooling, then, becomes the default option for many parents. If you know that gifted kids drop out of high school before meeting their potential; if you know that drug abuse rates among gifted students whose needs are NOT met in classrooms are higher, proportionately, than non-gifted students or gifted students whose needs are met; and if you know that gifted students whose needs are NOT met have suicide rates 400% higher than the average student, then homeschooling becomes the only option for those parents who cannot afford $10,000 or $20,000 or more for tuition.
No Child Left Behind has literally turned into No Gifted Child Allowed To Move Ahead. Homeschooling has become popular among some parents of gifted students, but only because the schools have pushed such students and parents out of the system: where is the place for those who want to stay?
Published by Lea Barton
Published in newspapers, magazines, newsletters, on websites, and in academic reference guides since 1986, I have more than 2,000 articles, reviews, and columns as part of my portfolio. View profile
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- Massachusetts is 50th out of 50 states for gifted funding.
- Gifted students whose needs are not met have higher drug abuse and suicide rates.
- Homeschooling becomes the default for these students.
5 Comments
Post a CommentI know I am late on responding to your article,Lea, but I have a good excuse-- surgeries :-). I want to thank you for writing this article. In our country we give services to 20-30% of the below grade level students (as we certainly should), but we totally ignore the 2-5% that are gifted. This is a ridiculous mistake.
I do remind our gifted son (and ourselves) that we appreciate and respect everything everyone does. My son doesn't like cleaning up his computer room, but does he want to clean a building every night? No. We have appreciate all people and respect what they are able to do. This should be High School's job--not having kids memorizing trivia. They need to learn parenting (and the responsibility of it), solving problems and looking (and trying) occupations.
When our country ignores the gifted they need to stop and think--who do you want doing surgery? I didn't want a neurosurgeon that received D's in Med School. Naturally, my surgeon is gifted (wonderful!)! F
Thanks for writing this. I was labeled "gifted" in kindergarten, was bored out of my wits by middle school, and dropped out as soon as I was old enough because I simply wasn't learning anything. My kids are all homeschooled, from the gifted ones to the borderline MR to the autistic and it's the best thing for all of them.
ooh I love that last paragraph. No Child Allowed to Move Ahead. I too have written on this nefarious law for AC in a few of my articles. It is devastating.
Thank you--this is why we are homeschooling our child as well, so I speak from personal experience. I look forward to finding your future article!
This is a very good article. Thanks for speaking up about this. That was the main reason we chose homeschool. Maybe this will wake some people up to be more open to homeschool. Homeschooling is about giving our children the education they deserve, not about locking them from the outside world. I may also touch on this subject in a future article. Thanks for the inspiration and well-written piece.