Who Are You Calling Gifted?

Oops, you forgot to delete the editorial comments.

The only winners in this GATE-fiasco will be the local private schools -- anyone notice the increasing number of ads from them in local media?

I'm not clear about "diversity". If the GATE classes and local schools are defective because they do not have enough Latinos, does that mean schools in Mexico are defective because they do not have enough white students? Why isn't Mexico trying to become more "diverse"?

Oh, revisionist, have you been to Mexico lately to check out the educational facilities and institutions here? There are many fine and dedicated teachers here in Baja. The parents are very involved in the school activities, academic and sports. They proudly show off every certificate and plaque or trophy earned by a child.

Babies under a year have classes to interact with other babies and swimming and "gymnastics" and vocal sounds--phonetics-are a part of the regimen.

I am not sure what the question of Mexico trying to become more "diverse" should enter into the Gate issue, but I do know that there are many U.S. American children in the schools in Mexico.And many of the Mexican kids are learning not only English, but other languages too.

Even in the public schools, the children wear uniforms and are well disciplined and look forward to attaining good grades. Because their parents are involved.

My three children were schooled in Santa Barbara public schools and I was an involved parent. Parent involvement is very important to a student's learning and progress.

As the parent of a GATE student, I feel like this could in part be due to some very influential parents of smart (but not quite smart enough kids). Priviledged families don't like to be told their kid is not at the top of the game, especially with college admissions looming in the years ahead. Lowering the bar on GATE means the diffusion of the program to include these kids, some of whom may in fact be intelligent, but not necessarily Gifted and/or Talented. This is a very clear distinction that the program makes but understandably, is not well understood. Sometimes children who are "special" need additional challenges so they can fully reach their potential. Because of the low numbers of students who qualify for this distinguished program, the schools will be cutting costs by combining the classes.

Ah privileged! The new class/race warfare epithet. And how does one become "privileged"? Perhaps through hard work and promoting a culture of learning in the family, which leads to better jobs, more income and "privilege"?

Look at the many immigrants from all over the world in Santa Barbara, who have started companies and acquired wealth through their own efforts. Were they all "privileged"?

When I was a kid it was the A through F grading system and it covered all bases. It was simple and it worked.

...then in 1972 (Catholic school in Chicago) they decided to do away with grades (as in 4th, grade, 5th grade, etc,.) and they put us into "units". To this day I don't know why they did that.

Well um...let's see, a group of dolphins is called a "school" of dolphins. Ever wonder why we're so smart?

I have no real comment to the body of the article, but one nitpick.

Miss Schiffer uses the GATE acronym throughout the article, while never actually introducing it. However, she later does so for the the terms and abbeviations (initialisms, actually) for Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB), while only using the former three times, and the latter not at all!

Yes, I researched GATE to mean "Gifted and Talented Education", but the point is that I should not have to, as a random reader.

" What would have happened if, beginning in third grade, we had all been put in classes equal to the rigor of GATE? Would we have proven the tests wrong? Would we be surprised by who succeeds? "

You all would have done just fine. The tests are not for students, but for adult academics and their research. You wouldn't be surprised at who was successful, but the academics would of had to reformulate their education models. More profitable research.

Be glad you have a gifted program in Santa Barbara. After what I went through in elementary school, I would have loved to have been place in room full of other smart children in the 4th grade.

I believe that every class in every school should have a high level of instruction, and that if you don't pass the first time, you try again. That's how it works in college. I also believe that if you have some children who grasp the material faster, they should be in a different classroom. What schools should consider doing also is not waiting for middle school before they place students in different classes for different subjects. You don't necessarily need the same classmates all day for the whole school year, especially if you are better at some subjects than others. In other words, if I am gifted in math but not in English, I should be in an advanced math class and a grade-level English class.

As far as diversity, the more I read articles and posts about GT issues, I keep seeing this virulent strain of white people who seem to think that nonwhites (which mean blacks in my hometown, we have very few Hispanics) can't be smart, that if someone who isn't white is in a gifted program, he didn't earn his way in. I take this personally because I am a black man who as child was identified as gifted, now since I lived in Ohio, there was no legal requirement for me to have gifted education, and the school I went to didn't have any other gifted children. But let's say I went to school in Santa Barbara, and was just as gifted as I was growing up in Cincinnati. Some of you would be convinced that if I were in the gifted program, that it wouldn't be because I belonged there. Some of you, if you were school officials, might have even fought to keep me out of the gifted program. So you would have people from disadvantaged backgrounds be deprived of an advantage they deserved because they earned, because of your preconceived notion that it is impossible for certain people to earn such advantages.

Also, the way I see it, there are two separate components to any gifted program, one is admission, the other is retention. If you are in a district with a large number of people from a minority ethnic group, but very few of them are in the gifted program, you need to know why they are underrepresented. Is the admission criteria fair? If one of the requirements (or the only requirement) is a test which includes things like analogies, but with words that the student has never seen, or questions where you have to identify which picture doesn't belong, but they are all pictures of things the kid has never seen, then if the kid doesn't do well on the test, that doesn't mean he's not smart. A test I once took had four different kinds of boats, and you had to guess which boat didn't belong. Well to some people a boat is a boat, they don't distinguish between sailboats, carriers, and cruise ships, but that doesn't mean they aren't smart. So every time it comes time to admit students into the gifted program, you should evaluate the fairness of the selection process.

Also there is retention, once they are in, how are they kept in? Are they forced to stay even if they want to leave? What are the circumstances under which they will get removed? And are these fair? If behavior is a component, do the teachers interpret the same behavior differently depending on what color or gender the child is? What is the degree of importance placed on what a child says as opposed to how they say it? Are they treated as less smart because they don't use "standard" English, even if the point they are making is a coherent, understandable, high-level one? Does spelling count? If it did there would be people who posted comments on this entry who would never be considered gifted.

People (white people) tend to tune out when someone asks about discrimination or lack of diversity. They automatically assume that such suggestions are unfounded, but I know from the lack thereof how important being around other people who are on your level can be psychologically. I have read posts all over the internet from people who have given testimonials about being in gifted programs was life-changing, and not because of the hard work, but because of the friends they made, and there are people who would deny that to some kids just because they aren't a certain color or social class or don't live in a certain town or neighborhood.

On another note, I once read an article that says the easiest way to spot a gifted child is "early verbal ability," in other words, what is their grasp of language compared with other children their age? The gifted child is more likely to have a larger vocabulary and better sentence structure than other children their age. The article was referring to preschoolers and kindergartners when making this point.

I believe that observation can do a better job at identifying gifted children than a test. If a child is more mature than other children his age, he is probably gifted. Gifted children need to be in specialized education not necessarily because of harder work or advanced work, but for social and emotional development. A gifted child cannot fully express who he is in a normal classroom and be accepted by his classmates. He has to hide some if not all of his interests and become (or pretend to become) interested in stuff he doesn't care about. In a class with other smart kids, he wouldn't have to.

It should also be pointed out that there is a difference between being gifted and being in an advanced class. Giftedness means you are above and beyond what is considered normal for people your age or in general, either in a specific area like music or science, or across the board. Being in an advanced class simply means you want more of challenge either for your own personal wishes or because you think it will look good on a college application.

I think a lot of commotion could have been avoided if someone had made that distinction. You don't have to be gifted to take hard classes, but if you are gifted you shouldn't be forced to take easy classes, and the person who chooses to take hard classes need to be made to keep up with the pace, as opposed to making the kids who get it wait for everyone to catch up.

It doesn't matter what these classes are called, GATE or Honors, people will find fault with it. Anything that somehow excludes anyone is seen as bad in this new world order. The days of meritocracy or exceptionalism are gone. In order to achieve the "perfect" world, everything is diluted to the point where it's all pale instead of vibrant colors.

The fact is, not all children are they same, just as not all adults are the same. Why default to mediocrity instead of talent? That is a more relevant question. If all kids were the same, then they would all behave the same, get the same grades, and achieve their desires equally. But they are not.

I have children who have been exposed to the GATE system, but they didn't start out that way. In the classes they took outside the system and out-of-state, they were bored to tears and weren't challenged. They had trouble understanding the behavior of the students who suggestively aren't being given a fair shake. They consistently did better in classes where the students were like-minded and serious about their education.

Still, we had to fight to get them included in the program as they weren't groomed by the system that way and came into it later. I am forever grateful that there is a system that allows for kids to achieve a sense of identity versus swimming in diversity. They have learned that it isn't about their skin color but about achievement and believing in themselves.

So unless what the author says is true in that the curriculum won't change, the schools will be doing a disservice to those children that deserve a venue commensurate with their abilities. And before someone comments about race and diversity, my children hail from a non-white background. Again, this isn't about opportunity, this is about achievement. Anyone who says different is plainly missing the point.