IEPs for Gifted Kids
Genius Kids Need Special Attention Too
I have two children who have special needs for different reasons - one because of autism and one because of what his therapist cleverly termed "stubbornness." In both cases, an Individual Educational Program (IEP) was composed with a careful structure for where they needed to be and what needed to be done educationally with both of them.
My oldest son also had special needs - but his needs were ignored. Like me, he is exceptionally bright. Like me, he got to school and found out that he was bored. And like me, he underachieved due to this boredom.
Now here's the problem. Children with learning disabilities are treated specially in the system, and enabled to excel. But our most intelligent children are often ignored. When they underachieve, it's blamed on laziness. And that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
I can attest to this from experience. When I was in elementary school, I came in with four years of reading experience; I'd learned as a toddler, and read the Bible out loud to my grandparents habitually by the time I was five. My math skills were excellent. I was already writing bad poetry at the age of six, putting me on a par with many college students.
The teachers didn't know what to do with me. My first grade teacher was excellent, continually finding ways to challenge me, though she worried because I didn't play much with the other children. My second grade teacher, however, was of the shut-up-and-sit-down variety. And my third grade teacher was worse.
It was in the third grade that I discovered you didn't have to do homework. That boring, tedious, daily repetition of stuff I'd learned years ago was not necessary! It was downhill from there. By the 8th grade, I'd acquired a number of failing grades, despite getting perfect scores on almost every test.
Why did my school allow me to fail in this way? It wasn't my parents. They had discussed with the school the possibility of sending me to a nearby district where they at least had advanced placement classes that would challenge me. They'd also talked about skipping me forward a grade or two.
But the school talked them out of it. I was smart enough, and they thought I should learn to excel at the level I was in before trying a new level.
In other words, they didn't understand my issues as well as they understood those of the LD kids, the mentally retarded kids, and the juvenile delinquents.
My problem: I was bored. I went to class, and learned nothing. I said things my teachers had to look up. As a very smart girl in a backwoods school, this got me little but resentment, and I had maybe one or two friends until high school.
I had problems. Real, serious problems that an IEP might have been able to address. But because I tested high, an IEP would never have been considered for me.
My Challenge To American Education
I am not alone, not by a long shot. I'll have a dozen comments on this article from others who were in the same boat, and who today probably don't achieve to the level they ought.
This means that America is losing out on a huge opportunity. While it's important to not leave the learning-disabled and disadvantaged children behind, it's also important to encourage the best and brightest children to excel. There are hundreds of thousands of kids like me, my husband, and my son. There is no excuse for our educational system to ignore them because "they'll do all right."
All right isn't good enough in this world. America's competitors are getting stronger, and the challenges we face harder. If we don't grow our own generation of scientists, engineers, and programmers, India will pull ahead of us in a couple of decades. We will become what no one alive today can imagine: a second-rate power.
The answer is not homeschooling, nor is it school vouchers so kids can go to private schools (though that might help right now). The only answer is a complete overhaul of the educational system, a new focus on the basics, and an IEP for every child who is not performing as well as he or she should.
The harsh truth is, there's always room at the bottom. The kids who really, truly don't have the academic ability to excel in school will always be necessary in surprisingly well-paid service jobs: sanitation, plumbing, even running small businesses. There is room in our country for every type of intelligence, and every level.
But there's only a little bit of room at the top, and if we don't have our bright kids prepared to take advantage of that competitive world, we WILL lose.
We know the smart kids can do well academically. Instead of academics, we need to worry about motivation, an understanding of success and failure, a competitive drive, and the ability to study. We are graduating thousands of brilliant kids who don't have any of these things. As a result, our smartest fall through the cracks, and the second tier - who have to compete against these bright kids and DO get these skills - are the ones who are getting top slots.
Is this the way to do it - let the second best come out on top? We're a nation of champions, geniuses, and excellence. It's time that showed.
Published by Jamie K. Wilson
Jamie K. Wilson is the wife of a US sailor and mother of two teen boys, one Marine, and two beautiful baby girls. The family hails from Louisville, Kentucky originally. View profile
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19 Comments
Post a CommentToo little, too late or nothing at all.I have an extremely smart daughter,she was in the gifted program from third grade to middle school, then the AP classes and honor classes that don't offer her anything at her level. She completely lost her motivation for school, she fell into a major depression after I became disabled from an accident. Her grades went down,but still in mid 90 avg. but the struggle has been brutal. I requested evaluations that showed her to have a very superior cognitive abilites and the sp ed dept basically told me I was wasting their time because she does not have learning disabilities. It is horrible as a mother to see your genius kid deteriorate. She tried to skip by taking suficiency tests, but "school policy" only allows to advance one level, when she being a freshman had a higher level in Spanish than the seniors. Every meeting, every report, every comment I've seeked has been stoped by the 504 representative aka vice principal of the HS, has made a habit to rub my daughter's grades in my face, and in other words telling me he will not help her unless she fails in school or kills herself. I am frustrated, angry and desperate at the same time. I can;t afford private school, me being disabled, can't homeschool her and to top the cake, because of the school purposedely postponing meetings, the time passed so I lost every chance of scholarships in private schools. They wouldn't even release her records to me. I cry all the time, I am going to the superintendent and see if he has a heart, I just pray he would help. I wish someone could help these kids, now she is a junior and when I suggested to have her graduate early (she already has all the credits for an advanced diploma)or to get college credits outside school, they hit the roof, for what I could hear through the vines is that the only thing they need is to "keep her in the building" The vp even told me once "I just saw her this morning and we had a nice conversation, she told me she is doing great!!" and my daughter was in bedthat day, because of another depression flare. NICE WAY TO SHOW THEIR CONCERN! Please Lord, wash these filthy politicians and cover these kids that need you so much.
I fought this battle for four years to no avail. I finally pulled my son out of the public schools to homeschool him. Several states do offer IEPs for gifted kids, just not mine - Texas. Don't count on the Feds to do anything.
I whole heartedly agree that exceptional children, on both ends of the spectrum, need IEPs. If you think of the bell curve of IQ, the low end qualifies but the high end does not? The high end is just as far away from the norm. Exceptional children need their schools to make exceptions. Grade skipping/ acceleration isn't always the answer. IEPs for gifted are necessary. How do we convince more people that this is so?
Wow. This article was great. I fell into this category growing up, and was never challenged until my junior year of college (thermodynamics class for an engineering major). That was the wrong time to learn that I didn't know how to study! Right now, we're faced with the same challenges with my daughter. We have skipped essentially two grades with her, which has helped academically, but I worry about what this will do to her socially. An IEP for gifted children is an excellent idea, so that EVERY child can reach their greatest potential.
I agree with every word. We are going through this right now with our daughter. Her teacher last year had the attitude of "She's way ahead of her classmates, but I'll only challenge her more when she starts excelling at her classwork." Her teacher this year got it right: she will never do exemplary work in class because she doesn't want to stick out. She will seek the middle ground in order to blend in. There is another student in her class who has learning disabilities and who gets a teaching assistant specifically devoted to helping her per her IEP. I want an IEP for my gifted daughter, but when you propose things like this you get called elitist (or "crazy and self-involved."). Bravo for posting this.
(pt 2) so desired once by association with the actual gifted children. They are simply posers. Nevertheless, we simply do not have the time to deal with the inadequacies of the public school system. I don't necessarily think that private schools are the answer, either. I have looked at the cirriculum for several "top" private schools. My son has already surpassed that as well. For us, right now, homeschooling is the only answer so my kids will not be burned out and bored. No more wasting time pounding our heads against brick walls--the time and energy can be better spent!
I agree with all you have written. There needs to be an overhaul in the public school system. I was an underserved gifted student at one time. My two children are gifted. I tried hard to institute change as a parent. My son skipped a grade and he was still ahead of everyone. I gave up on the "common good" this year and am homeschooling because I do not feel I should sacrifice my children's intellect to try to help "the system" that will not listen and waste my valuable time that could be better spent truly educating my children. They need me more and they are my responsiblity. So I made the choice to funnel that energy into my children instead of a brick wall. One of the biggest problems with gifted kids is that their teachers are not gifted. I believe gifted teachers should possess high IQs themselves. I have found that most teachers of the gifted were the ones in school who never scored high enough to be in the gifted program and thus latch on to the designation that they
ive support by my schools I wouldn't have had to struggle so hard to get the benefits that I have, and then perhaps I would have been able to do better. I hate to sound as if I don't want to take responsibility for my own issues. I will admit if I was more homework-inclined I might not be doing so badly, but I also believe that if I had been more interested earlier on, I wouldn't have developed such bad study habits.
The system as it is needs an overhaul. Unfortunately I don't see it happening anytime soon.
I'm a high school student in Kansas, and I've had the same problems you're describing. I have had a gifted IEP since 2nd grade, I have been taking accelerated classes since 6th grade, and I skipped 8th grade. But it wasn't because I had a ton of support-my parents and I fought hard to get all of these things for me, but by the time they were implemented, it was too little, too late, and I have struggled despite having these advantages. I have always had very high test scores, and I tend to do better in more difficult classes, so I know that my problem isn't that I lack motivation, most average-level classes are just boring to me. I strongly believe that if I had skipped 4th and/or 5th grade rather than 8th grade, I would have done much better. Not that what I did manage to get didn't help. I'm absolutely certain if I hadn't gotten any support at all I would have been held back a grade at least once by now.
My point is that gifted kids need more attention. If I had been given act
...it took me 18 years to go back to school (not sure why my comments were cut off, other than being too long winded). My adulthood has been plagued by self doubt and anxiety over my decision not to go to college straight out of high school.
To the person who said that the writer was crazy and self involved, I am pretty sure you would not say that about someone with a learning disability who wanted to express their feelings about what they were going through. Honestly, being gifted can be a HUGE learning disability because gifted students are often overlooked and not given the attention they need in order to live up to their full potential. Being incredibly intelligent can be a curse for many reasons.