Overview
Special Education isn’t just for kids who are behind. It’s also for kids who are way ahead. Gifted kids often suffer in regular classrooms. They get bored, check out, and sometimes even drop out. Gifted Education tries to give them a challenge.
Core Idea
The core idea is Asynchronous Development. A gifted 8-year-old might have the math brain of a 12-year-old, but the emotional maturity of a 6-year-old. They don’t fit in any box.
Formal Definition
Practices used in the education of children identified as gifted or talented. Strategies: Acceleration (skipping grades) and Enrichment (going deeper).
Intuition
- The Race Car: Putting a Ferrari in a traffic jam (regular class) is bad for the engine. It needs a track where it can go fast.
Examples
- Pull-Out Programs: Kids leave class for 2 hours a week to do logic puzzles. (Better than nothing, but often not enough).
- Magnet Schools: Schools specifically for smart kids (e.g., Bronx Science).
- Skipping Grades: The cheapest and most effective intervention, but schools hate doing it because of “social concerns.” (Research shows the social concerns are overblown).
Common Misconceptions
- They will be fine on their own: No. Without challenge, they never learn how to study or work hard. When they finally hit a wall in college, they crash.
- It’s elitist: It can be. White/Asian kids are overrepresented. But there are gifted kids in every demographic; we just need better ways to find them.
Related Concepts
- Twice Exceptional (2e): A kid who is Gifted AND has a disability (e.g., Autism or Dyslexia). They are often missed because the disability hides the gift, or the gift hides the disability.
Applications
- National Security: We need these kids to invent the next vaccine or defense system. Wasting their talent is a national loss.
Criticism / Limitations
- Labeling: Being labeled “Gifted” can create a fixed mindset (“I’m smart, so I shouldn’t have to try”). Being labeled “Not Gifted” can crush confidence.
Further Reading
- Ruf, Deborah. 5 Levels of Gifted.