The Pitfalls in Identifying a Gifted Child. ⇒
5 July 2010, mid-afternoon
What is the downside of forcing more advanced students to stay among their peers to teach and learn from them in a social environment that more closely mimics the outside world? Is the fear that they will become delinquents and drop out because they aren’t being challenged academically? Well, maybe that’s an important lesson for children identified as gifted to learn – sometimes the institution won’t change to suit your particular needs, and sometimes you won’t be intellectually stimulated.
The gifted program in Ontario is a strange experiment. You take a bunch of children, tell them they are super smart, and put them in small classes with smart teachers. It almost sounds like a self-fulfilling prophecy. Still, I know quite a few gifted kids who crashed and burned during and after high school. I think the program does breed a certain sort of laziness. It definitely breeds social awkwardness. I know plenty of gifted children who have trouble dealing with other people. (I wish this post still existed. People, keep your fucking sites online. Update: Krishna points out it is still up at archive.org.)
This is a post from my link log: If you click the title of this post you will be taken the web page I am discussing.
Certainly who’s included in a “gifted” program and what they get out of it is a tricky proposition.
But looking back, at lot of my high school education was dodgy simply because they didn’t have enough time/resources. Don’t get me wrong, I had some good teachers. But stuff like at the start of the year, handing me the grade 11 math text book and telling me to read it and teach myself and not to bother going to class wasn’t exactly a good education…certainly, given a better setting I could have learned a lot more.
by Ryan on July 5 2010, 6:21 pm #
Here is a link to Hitoshi’s blog post. Gotta love archive.org.
by Krishna on July 5 2010, 6:59 pm #
ha, i was a giftie and i certainly have social inadequacies that can be ‘blamed’ on being in that program. or perhaps i would have gotten teased more if i hadn’t been a giftie. who knows.
by reuben on July 5 2010, 7:05 pm #
I wonder if it is possible to track down the original purpose and mission statement of the Scarborough Gifted Program? All those things must be accessible government documents. I wonder if the person who created it is still alive? Can I go visit them at the Tyrell Corporation like Rutger Hauer in Blade Runner?
by m on July 5 2010, 11:03 pm #
At one point I was looking to get a hold of some of the old albums we use to keep in our classroom in grade 6 and my old school’s secretary told me the TDSB has an archives collection that all schools send everything to. Here is their number: (416) 397-3680. They may have copies of all mission statements.
Archives Ontario might have something as well.
I imagine OISE should have mission statements from old school boards?
I don’t think it would be that hard to find them if you’re actually interested.
by sh!ma on July 6 2010, 9:18 am #
Come to think of it, the reference library must have this stuff. Now I’m all intrigued.. maybe I’ll walk over at lunch and see if they have it.
by sh!ma on July 6 2010, 9:23 am #
L should know all about this sort of thing. We can wait patiently for her to discover this thread.
by ramanan on July 6 2010, 9:31 am #
Here is a pamphlet about the Gifted Program in Woburn. I notice that they don’t mention you in the “where are they now?” section.
by m on July 6 2010, 1:57 pm #