Meow! If anyone ever had any doubt about the venom that is out there on the topic of gifted, one just has to take a look author Marjorie Ingall’s (aka Snarly — never was there a truer moniker) oh-so-diplomatically URL’d post of August 2nd. While the title of the post was “I’ve Got Your Gifted Right Here” the URL is http://marjorieingall.com/shut-up-about-your-gifted-child/.
Nice.
I found out about it on a national PG list I’m on. I hate to give her any more attention or traffic on her blog, but…. You can see from the comments that finally got approved, my friends are an eloquent bunch and pretty much handed it to her.
So this morning, in her post “Apparently I’ve Gone Viral” Ms. Ingall is back-pedaling.
Anyway, you’re right: I chose a jokey, inflammatory headline. Totes immachure.
And you’re right: I should have said that I believe there are profoundly gifted kids out there. And that I believe they deserve education that inspires and engages them. Because I do.
Sort of.
But if you are the parent of a bright or very bright child, then yup, you may well be the parent I’m talking about. I wish you’d focus as much energy on making your child a community-minded, self-directed, reflective, diversity-respectin’ citizen as you do on trumpeting your child’s brilliance….
Actually, not really at all.
Ms. Ingalls lives in New York City, but one could just as easily squint and image Montgomery County as the locus of her diatribe. Recently there was a thread on the DC Urban Moms and Dads forum just about how to ask about schools that meet the needs of gifted students without unleashing the hounds. The thing went on for 13 pages, some of it quite nasty.
I’m right there in the belief that school needs to be better for all kids. I guess what I find so frustrating is that parents of EG/PG kids have to wade through years of this crap attitude toward giftedness before finally (maybe?) someone will say, “Oh! But I get, it, your child really is different.” Well thank you very much for making our lives hell for all these years in your effort to impose some utopian ideal of uniformity.
Locally, I see this tension within the community of gifted advocates: those who are fighting for recognition of needs of the the truly exceptional kids in the system and those that are fighting for the more numerous but still a minority “merely” gifted, who need to work within the larger political context of the school system. It’s a gap I hope we can bridge, because we are all fighting in the same direction, and I don’t think advocacy on behalf of one precludes the other.
It is not just gifted students and gifted programs that get this animosity. Any school or program that produces superior results gets attacked. Locally, it is a lottery-entry charter school requiring all students to take AP classes that gets savaged for “elitism”. There are no tests to get in, but the students, parents, teachers, and administrators are regularly attacked in the comments on any newspaper article about the school. The school needs to get its charter renewed this year, and it is turning into a major political fight. This despite the fact that the school has some of the highest ratings in country and between 5 and 10 times as many families want to get into the school as there is capacity for. (There were 84 entrants for 0 slots in 9th grade last year, people just trying to get on the waiting list in case a slot opened up this year. The 7th grade odds were about 1 in 5 of getting in.)
Hi GasStation,
Very interesting to hear about the situation in your area. Do the non-charter schools offer APs? Is it just the fact that the charters require students to take them that has everyone so upset?
In any case, good luck on charter renewal fight!
The non-charter schools offer APs (though not nearly as many different ones). I’m not sure what has people upset, probably just that the charter has gotten national publicity (as the best charter in the country), while the other public schools are run-of-the-mill California high schools.
I think the biggest problem is wanting to fix things for other people. If I can’t come up, hear your issue, and wave my magic wand and fix it, I find it hard to sympathize. Americans are solution-oriented and it is hard to admit that there may not be a solution, or may not be just one solution.
So it’s the lack of a solution, particularly the fact that multiple solutions might be needed just for one child (at different times), that frustrates the would-be sympathizers. Some will stick with it, some have to stick with it, but many will stop sympathizing.
Freedom might work, or it might guarantee an excess of capacity in the school system. Expensive extra capacity. Extra capacity in the form of (gifted-trained) teachers that may lose their edge after years of practicing without having that PG student in their classroom. Doctors need to do a certain number of surgeries of a kind every year, or they will lose the ability to do that surgery well. Teachers need practice also.
I actually think she has a valid point that most of the parents who trumpet about having a “gifted” child in a mixed setting have kids who are merely garden variety bright as opposed to truly gifted. The families with truly gifted kids tend to be discreet about that fact except on GT lists/forum/blogs. I frequently encounter in my social circle obnoxious moms who crow about how smart their precious little hothoused flower is when that kid is only a bit ahead of the curve. While the moms of PG kids are keeping quiet about their truly remarkable achievements.
It is a totally minotaur-laden labyrinth, that’s for sure. I’ve had experiences like Crimson Wife mentions, but I’ve also born the brunt of bitter, self-righteous ignorance like Ms. Ingall’s, as well.
Homeschooling has made dealing with this issue somewhat easier for me, though. I find myself being grateful for increased freedom in the ability to walk away from those who don’t get it and towards those who do. Using the word gifted in homeschooling circles is still risky business in it’s own way, so issues like this still arise. But, in my experience, not necessarily in quite as vitriolic a manner as they do when the discussion is related to funding and the public system.
I do strongly believe in taking opportunities like Ms. Ingall’s unfortunate post to attempt to educate others and I commend those who responded directly to her. But some folks refuse to even consider the possibility of broadening their understanding of any issue. At that point, it becomes time for me to walk away and attempt some good elsewhere.
Interesting post; thank you. I agree with both of you, actually. I think that she is correct that some (note that I said *some*) of the parents who say their child is gifted are probably overstating their children’s abilities. Perhaps they are just blinded by love.
)
But you are correct in saying that yes, there ARE very gifted children out there, and that their parents know exactly how gifted they are, and that their educational needs are quite different from the average or “bright” child.
My older son was obviously gifted as a toddler and preschooler. When he got to K it was so easy he got really stressed out and unhappy. When he got to 1st, he was in a 1/2 split, and his teacher promptly skipped him a grade to 2nd. I’m so happy this happened without any pressure from me. I know, I’m very lucky. (Super lucky, actually; I think it was the teacher rather than the district that made this happen. At least one other kid with similar abilities did not get grade-skipped, and was miserable for years until his parents pulled him out and placed him in a gifted kids charter school.)
Since then, my son has been stimulated and challenged just the right amount, and he is one of the top students in his grade. It’s almost enough to make me feel that maybe he isn’t gifted anymore. At least, because his needs are being met, I almost never think about the giftedness thing, because I don’t have to. Counting my blessings here in flyover country.