"Gifted Education is not an Honor-
It is Not a Privilege for good Grades -
It is a NEED."

"We must forsake the label as an object of desire and embrace it as a true measure of need."
Comment by Joyce Clark, President, PAGE

President's Message
Spring, 2002

At a recent meeting in a rural district in Pennsylvania, a team of teachers decided not to recommend "Johnny" for gifted support, despite high grades, high standardized test scores, and an IQ of 131. Their reasons; he didn't DESERVE to be placed in gifted support because he was not working very hard and hadn't EARNED the PRIVILEGE of getting into the gifted program. Besides, he hadn't yet memorized all of his multiplication facts!
Just a week before this meeting, at a staff development workshop in a suburban district, several teachers expressed their frustration that certain students were ALLOWED to remain in the gifted program even though they were acting out in class.

At a third meeting, several parents in a large district complained that their children had not been placed in gifted support. They felt their children DESERVED to be placed because of their high grades and exemplary behavior. What else did they have to do to prove that they had EARNED a place in the program?
The perceptions about gifted education and the meaning of giftedness demonstrated by these examples represent one of the biggest obstacles gifted children and their families and teachers face in working to provide appropriate educational experiences for gifted children.

Identification as gifted IS NOT A STAR ON THE FORHEAD of the child who has been identified! It is not a RIGHT or a PRIVILEGE, EARNED through good behavior and high grades. Being gifted does not mean being nice, or polite, or punctual, or neatly dressed, or respectful or rich, or happy, or teacher pleasing. Students don't lose their giftedness through bad behavior or lack of motivation. If fact, their bad behavior and seeming lack of interest may, in fact, be further evidence that their learning needs are not being met

Identification as gifted indicates a LEARNING NEED! Gifted children learn differently from most. They think differently than most. They feel differently than most. They ARE different than most. Not BETTER, not MORE IMPORTANT, not SUPERIOR; just different. And those differences grow exponentially the more profoundly gifted the child is.

Ask any parent of a profoundly gifted child how PRIVILEDGED or HONORED their child feels every day. Ask any good teacher who is desperately trying to meet the needs of the gifted children she serves (along with the needs of all the other children in her class) how much of an honor it is to have gifted children in her class.
A child identified as gifted has demonstrated learning needs that cannot be fully addressed through the general education curriculum. That is the only reason for identifying a child as gifted. Schools have been mandated by the state to identify and APPROPRIATELY SERVE gifted children. Gifted is not a label to be celebrated, it is a need to be addressed.

Of course, working with gifted children can be pure joy! There are moments that stop the heart and quicken the pulse. But the truth is that truly meeting the educational needs of our gifted children may be one of this nation's biggest challenges. We must forsake the label as an object of desire and embrace it as a true measure of need.

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