Rationale for gifted programs

When children are young, schools begin to analyze the youngsters’ abilities and sort them into clusters based on their predicted success. The system labels the cream of the crop as gifted. Clark (2002) defines giftedness as “only a label that society gives to those who have actualized their ability to an unusually high degree or give evidence that such achievement is imminent”. The American government defines giftedness as “students, children or youth who give evidence of high performance capability in areas such as intellectual, creative, artistic, or leadership capacity, or in specific academic fields, and who require services or activities not ordinarily provided by the school in order to fully develop such capabilities” (Clark, 2002). Gifted students learn in a different manner and at an accelerated rate compared to their peers in the classroom and therefore require gifted programs to develop and apply their talents.

Gifted children need outside instruction and development opportunities to expand their minds and become most useful to society and themselves. In a list of reasons compiled in Fostering Academic Excellence, McLeod and Cropley (1989) describe the specific advantages to placing gifted children in adequate programs:

Not only is it important to give the gifted the extra push which is beneficial to society, those students’ minds also operate in a unique way and require a different style of teaching. “The intellectually adept think and learn differently from others…it is important to teach them appropriately” (Freeman et al., 1999). As Merenheimo is quoted in the Journal of Biological Education, “gifted pupils have an analytic strategy of perceiving information. The less gifted use either atomistic or serialistic strategies” (Freeman et al., 1999). Gifted children were also found to be more ambitious—both in the difficulty and effort put into the task—in their schoolwork than others their age. (Freeman et al., 1999).

Schools should bear some responsibility to nurture the talents of the gifted students in their charge. “It is clear from the evidence that excellence does not emerge without appropriate help….To reach an exceptionally high standard in any area, potentially gifted children need the means to learn; this includes the material to work with and focused, challenging tuition, sometimes including tutoring or mentoring that is not provided in normal schools” (Freeman et al., 1999). Two methods mentioned by Freeman that schools use in the teaching of gifted children are: 1. Accelerating the learning of children, either by moving them up to an older age-group or compacting the material they have to learn, and 2. Enrichment, rounding out, and deepening the material to be learned (Freeman et al., 1999).

Gifted students may not reach their full potential with the standards of regular classwork, which can appear to progress at a slowed rate. They may become isolated from their peers on a social level, since intellectual pursuit for the sake of itself is their primary motivation. These students may receive the desired enrichment when put among other high achievers via accelerated coursework and by allowing them to develop their own ideas and viewpoints. Programs tailored for gifted students can cultivate an environment conducive to their success.

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