How will our gifted kids fare this fall?

When it comes to our children, I’m a world-class, equal opportunity, worst-case-scenario type of worrier! I’m worried about how they will feel about going back to school in person. Will they stay healthy? Make new friends? Be anxious after such a long stretch of separation from the norm? I worry about the children who didn’t have internet or a parent who could help them navigate on-line schooling. Are they prepared for this higher grade? But, most of all, since I spent over 25 years teaching identified gifted children, I worry about our brighter children and the dismal “learning opportunities” they will probably face. For one thing, the fall review, customarily needed because many children lose skills over the summer, will probably be much longer and the gaps in learning much wider between classmates than usual. Gifted learners tend to recall skills and information better than most, so they especially hate the tedium of reviewing and practicing already mastered skills.

Secondly, the school climate may have changed in ways that are disadvantageous to our gifted kiddos. In order to promote social distancing, many schools have decided to keep all students in lock-step with their homeroom classmates, rather than let them be grouped for some classes with their intellectual peers. This limits their exposure to a smaller number of students, but it also prohibits the stimulation of having a higher reading class or going to math with a higher grade level.

Finally, our schools have been hit with unprecedented safety protocols. Providing the measures that keep kids safe and protected are certainly necessary expenses, but those expenditures may mean that there are no gifted programs in the budget any more. It makes perfect sense to spend money on plexiglass dividers to benefit everyone rather than to provide a gifted specialist to challenge a handful of students per grade–at least, it makes sense to everyone except those few gifted students!

So, I worry that our gifted students, already a marginalized and at-risk population, will be left without challenge or success. This leads to disengagement, boredom, frustration, and, often, misbehavior. It is hugely unfair, as well as a gross abuse of a national resource. If you are the parent of a gifted student, see “Non-Negotiable Needs of Our Gifted Children” and/or “Accommodations for the Gifted in the School Setting” on my website, giftedgrammy.com, to find ideas for what our gifted kids need and how to advocate for the necessary services.