[Ohiogift] Labelling the gifted

[Lauren Sindelar]

Before someone misses my point: the "label" of gifted in schools should not
be touched. The "description" of calling the child gifted over and over
again is what I'm talking about.
On Apr 16, 2014 9:00 PM, "Lauren Sindelar" <lewest2003 at gmail.com> wrote:

> I disagree with their reasons. However, I do feel that the actual word,
> gifted, when used too often, could be harmful to the student. I think that
> we need to be very careful about when we use the word, and try to make sure
> the child isn't around as much as possible. I know they know they're
> different, and most of them probably realize they're smarter than their
> peers. But, they don't need to hear it everyday. Not only does it take some
> of the meaning away, but it puts unnecessary pressure on the student to
> perform at certain standards at all times and, when those standards aren't
> met, it may not be the parents and teachers who are disappointed, but the
> student. I'm not saying that it's harmful for all students - everyone is
> different. But, I'd be willing to bet that there is a subgroup of them
> (think along the lines of lack of resiliency, I guess) that would benefit
> from a lack of the "gifted" description.
>
> Just my two cents, which are certainly up for debate - I'm speaking from
> personal experience and not the whole.
>
> ~Lauren Sindelar
> On Apr 16, 2014 8:07 PM, "Margaret DeLacy" <margaretdelacy at comcast.net>
> wrote:
>
>>
>> http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2014/04/16/28peters_ep.h33.html?cmp=ENL-EU-NEWS1
>>
>> Commentary
>> Gifted Ed. Is Crucial, But the Label Isn't
>> By Scott J. Peters, Scott Barry Kaufman, Michael S. Matthews, Matthew T.
>> McBee, D. Betsy McCoach
>>
>> "But how does the label of "gifted" help teachers and administrators
>> determine the appropriate programming for students? In our view, the term
>> is not only unhelpful, but actually harmful to the interests of bright
>> students. "Gifted" is an educationally nondescript concept, yet it also
>> connotes an endowment that some students receive while others do not.
>> Moreover, the term seems to suggest that high academic performance is a
>> permanent quality, both due to chance and applicable in all domains.
>>
>> The truth is that "giftedness" is irrelevant to K-12 educational
>> decisions. What is relevant is whether the instruction a child receives is
>> sufficiently rigorous to challenge that child. When that is not the case,
>> there are many potential causes."
>>
>> Margaret comments:
>>
>> I disagree with this.  I think the authors are insensitive to the
>> realities of a school environment where time and energy are at a premium.
>>  These constraints make it exceedingly unlikely that a child will have
>> access to "rigorous" instruction without a formal procedure for identifying
>> the students who are likely to need significant interventions.
>>
>> Suppose I went to a nursery and said "one of my plants is failing to
>> thrive.  What should I do?"
>>
>> The nursery worker says, "what plant is it?"
>>
>> I say, "I don't know.  I don't believe in labelling my plants."
>>
>> The nursery isn't going to send someone out to my home to see what plant
>> it is.  I don't have the time to try to figure it out.  So the plant
>> doesn't get what it needs.
>>
>> Labels are never perfect.  They are always probabilistic.  Labels can be
>> switched or wrong.  But a good label would tell a knowledgeable person what
>> kind of plant I probably have, how it fits in a taxonomy of plants, and
>> what sorts of issues it might have.  For example, there are tens of
>> thousands of species of rhododendrons.  But even if all we know is that the
>> plant is a rhododendron at least that would also mean it probably needs
>> acid soil. At least we would know to check for that issue.
>>
>> Margaret
>>
>>
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>
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