"Gifted" and "Talented?" Come on...

This week, I met my middle school’s “Gifted and Talented” coordinator and I realized something: sometimes, the “smart” kids aren’t always the same as the smart kids.

Let me jump right into what I’m trying to say. The problem with most Gifted and Talented (GT) programs in the lower schools is they teach kids that they are smart. While the optimist says it teaches self-esteem, the realist in me tells me it teaches arrogance. At a young age, the “smart” kids are realizing that school comes easier to them than it does to the other “regular” kids. Slowly throughout high school, some of the “smart” kids begin to fall behind when things suddenly become hard. When the going gets tough, these kids just quit.

All through lower school, I was excluded from middle school GT activities (I was always a little disheartened that I was never invited to read Huxley’s Brave New World with the “smart kids.”) This taught me to always work hard and that there are things that won’t come easily to me. I also have to mention that I was extremely lucky. I went through high school under the shadow of one of the most brilliant and hard-working people Brookfield has ever seen (he’s at Harvard studying astrophysics now.) Thus I have always known I am not at the top of the Christmas tree (As Qui-Gon Jinn wisely puts it, “there’s always a bigger fish.”)

In addition, it seems the “GT” program has had very few “success” stories (of course this statement fails to include some of the amazing non-academic achievements of these students.)

Malcolm Gladwell argues in his best-selling book, Outliers, that these sorts of “special” programs give the already-gifted students extra-opportunities to grow, thus putting them ahead of the other students. They will continue to excel beyond others, giving them an unfair advantage. What so many teachers do not understand is that the students who really need this type of advantage are the students who will give a real effort in school, not those who get high scores on arguably arbitrary “intelligence” exams.

(Consider an example of two students: one who scored high on an IQ exam but prefers video games to books and one who scored average on an IQ exam but discovered a love for mathematics in their high school years. The first student would get extra attention in the lower schools and would have to opportunity to take harder classes, better preparing them for the rigors of high school. However, this student may not take advantage of the extra opportunity he was given. The other student would go through the lower schools with no special treatment and would be less equipped to pursue their love for math in high school.)

In other words, it is unreasonable for GT programs to identify their candidates from WKCE test scores and IQs, for true gift and talent is the affinity and predilection for hard work and modesty.

Of course, it is truly unfair when a student is both brilliant and extremely hard working: a gift I have always envied.

Let’s take a friend of mine for example; let’s call him Albert for now. Albert is one of the hardest working people I know. He can’t get enough of physics: he loves it as much as the average teenage boy loves football. But, because he was not labeled “gifted” at an early age, he was never given the chance to take upper level science and mathematics at a younger age. He had to work with the system and took his first physics class as a junior. Had Albert been given the opportunity to take physics as a freshman or a sophomore, he would not have had to think twice. But he wasn’t. Students like Albert are the ones who really need extra attention in lower schools. Students like Albert are the ones who would have truly benefited from the extra attention.

GT programs can be an incredible tool to further nurture students but the selection process should be reformed in order to prevent arrogance from becoming a fatal flaw for students when they reach high school and to benefit students who need an extra push to maximize their success. How? Perhaps stop using IQ and WKCE scores as a selection tool, and instead ask teachers which students need extra attention. Lower school guidance departments and GT programs have to come together in order to come up with a better GT identification system. Otherwise, it will continue to compromise the academic futures of “gifted” students and deny the extra opportunity for growth to “regular” students.

Oh, and let’s get rid of the pretentious “gifted” label. Let’s face it, that’s just ridiculous.