Gifted Education, Part One
(You didn't think I'd be able to say everything in one post, did you? Part Two will have me talking about what I hear and saw at various events and what direction I think the district will take.)
As I gather up my thoughts from the Work Session on Advanced Learning,the two-day Equity and Gifted Education Summit at UW and more reading/research, I come away with three main thoughts.
1. Is there such a thing as a child who is gifted academically?
I ask this question because it felt to me at the Equity and Gifted Education summit that there were clearly some people in the room that didn't believe that. Not a large group but there were enough to make me notice.
Or, they may believe it but think that under no circumstances should any child go to any kind of self-contained classroom including AP classes.
I ask this question because of the huge pushback that Advanced Learning - and in particular, HCC - gets at this blog. Is that the case for some readers?
Of course, it then begs the question of gifted versus bright?
From Education.com:
All gifted children are considered bright, but not the other way around – a concept parents of bright children have a hard time understanding, explains Andrea Mishler, who’s been a Gifted and Talented (GT) teacher for nine years. The fact that their child gets straight A’s, but does not qualify for the GT program leaves them frustrated and scratching their heads. Mishler’s district doesn’t look at grades when deciding who is eligible for the GT program. “Sometimes gifted children are such perfectionists, they won’t Seattle Schools Community Forum: Gifted Education, Part One:
