Should Gifted Children Be Accelerated Through School?
There is No Single Right Answer to This!
The phrase 'gifted student' fits a wide range of children. Some people say, and with some justification, that all children have gifts. Usually, though, when people talk about gifted education they mean children with a range of gifts in academic areas. But, even with this more narrow definition, there is a huge range. This is important because lumping all these children together does them all a disservice.
Types of gifted students
Some children will be a little ahead of their peers in many subjects; some will be a lot ahead in one or two subjects, but only in those subjects; some will be far ahead in nearly all subjects. For example, there may be a child who is a gifted musician, but who reads, writes and does math at or near grade level; another child does all the work relatively easily, getting good grades, but is not multiple years ahead of his or her peers. And another child may be stunningly precocious. There are children who get near-perfect scores on the SAT (normally taken by 17 year olds) at the age of 12. One five year old taught himself Hebrew as a birthday gift for his mother. One boy taught himself to read, and then, in nursery school, taught himself to read upside-down, so he could read upside down so he could read to other children. Another child, in early elementary school, made a detailed chart (with species name in Latin, for example) of every bug in his parents' yard.
The main argument against acceleration of gifted students
Many of the arguments against accelerating students are based on the idea that accelerating children takes them away from their peers. With the first two types of students, this has merit. The gifted musician can be given extra or separate classes in music; the child who is a bit ahead in many subjects can have an 'enrichment program'. But what of the truly exceptional children? These children do not really have peers. These are not 7 year olds who have the skills of 12 year olds; these are children who do things that most adults cannot do. Accelerating them through school does not take them away from their peers, because they have no peers.
What will benefit the gifted student?
We should look at each child as an individual, examining his or her strengths and weaknesses, and seeing what the advantages and disadvantages of acceleration would be for that particular child. Lumping children into groups may make it easier for the administration of a school, but it does not benefit the children.
Published by Peter Flom
I am a statistician, working with a wide variety of clients, mostly researchers in psychology, education, medicine, social sciences and other fields. I also have given talks and written articles on learning... View profile
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6 Comments
Post a CommentGood job on an interesting topic, Peter!
Very interesting topic! Thanks.
Florida is piloting a program which I believe will ultimately be the answer to exceptional children on both ends of the spectrum. The program, www.flvs.net, provides a full middle-school and high-school curriculum in a web-based format. It is free to FL residents and tuition-based for anybody else. The students are given specific lessons and assignments and allowed to work through them at their own pace, with as much or as little guidance from the teacher as they need. The students interact with each other in chat-rooms and with class projects.
I believe if every state made a similar program available to their students, it would answer the question of what to do with exceptional students at both ends of the spectrum all from the same budget. That is truly no-child left! behind.
I agree with acceleration in principle; every child should be expected and encouraged to work at his own level. But I also don't think it really solves the problem. Suppose I have a 1st grader who works at a 3rd grade level. We put him in the 3rd grade, where he's happy at first. But he learns quickly (that's why he was at the 3rd grade level in the 1st grade), and it takes one maybe two recitations for him to master a new skill. But the teacher has to do 5-10 recitations for the entire class to catch on. So in a few weeks he's right back where he started, not working at his own level. At the same time he still needs to cover the material learned in the 3rd grade. He just needs to do it in 3 months instead of 9.
The only permanent solution is to let him work at his own pace. A teacher with 20-30 kids in a classroom can't be expected to allow them all to do that, or even to make arrangements for a few of them to do that. BUT an online school can.
Florida is piloting a pro
I agree. Looking at each child individually is key. Nice job, as always. :-)
This is a good discussion-starter and thinking-starter! Thanks.