The following two-part series on gifted students appeared in the Sweetwater Reporter News, July 21 and 28, 1991. Free reprint rights for nonprofit educational purposes. Recognizing the Gifted, Polishing the Diamonds By Russell Smith Special Contributor Over a generation after the Sputnik effect on American education, the national education policy has still not reached a large percentage of gifted youngsters. Who are the gifted? Generally, and sometimes even set by law, the gifted are considered to be those in the top 5 percent of all students. Identifying the 5 percent was traditionally done by the IQ tests developed early in this century by the French psychologists, Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon. Today, we still utilize an advanced version of the original Binet test, but gifted kids are now being increasingly identified by multiple criteria, among which the more important are observation inventories and product portfolios. Even with improved methods of detecting the gifted, there is still the problem of providing for their special needs. The Marland Report, a three-year study commissioned by the U.S. Congress in 1972, revealed that only 100,000 gifted children were being recognized and helped out of an estimated gifted population of 2.5 million. By 1988, over 1 million were still not being served. In my opinion, to waste the untapped brainpower and creativity is a dangerous waste of our most precious natural resource. To me, gifted children are like diamonds among the pebbles of mankind. Many are of a lesser industrial quality, while others are gem quality. Some are rough and uncut, but have tremendous potential awaiting exposure. Others shine with a natural brilliance, are properly proportioned, and are multifaceted. And yet even among the highest echelon of "diamonds" there are levels of difference. Some seem fantastic and flawless to the human eye, but they all have one thing in common. The gifted, like raw diamonds, need help and nurturing to reach true potential. Of course nature's genetic gifts are useless without the nurturing of the home environment. Still, a fine line must be drawn between pushing a child and asking a child to do his or her best. Research indicates gifted children have two priorities: first, they are children; and second, they are gifted. I recently had the opportunity to work with hundreds of gifted students who attended the summer program at Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Texas. My daughter Sabrina was in the kindergarten gifted program called Threshold and I was taking a graduate course in G/T. One of my favorite assignments as part of the course I took was working with small groups of gifted 6th graders. One of the ways we encouraged analytical thinking by the students was an exercise using analogies. We placed a common object in front of the students and asked them to think how the object was similar to the gifted. Here are some of the responses invented by Lisa Bates of Early, Brandy Ballard of Merkel, and Mark Thinnes, Stephen Valdez and Zach Taylor of Abilene: Mark said: "The gifted are like a toy stuffed baseball because they are stuffed with knowledge. They are like a clothespin because you can pin up your ideas." Stephen said: "The gifted are like a rookie baseball card because the rookie starts a professional season and the gifted start ideas. They are like a paper package of grated pizza peppers because their feelings get crushed too." Brandy said: "They are like a flashlight because they light up their brain with ideas. They are like watercolors because they can make things colorful." Lisa said: "The gifted are like a yellow marker because they highlight things," and "they are like a straw because they can bend." Zach said: "The gifted are like plastic because they can stretch their mind," and "they are like a balloon because they can blow up their thoughts." With thoughts like these from such young minds we can see how America's future depends heavily on the success of our nurturing programs for the gifted. And research indicates we have failed to serve a large percentage of the gifted. By the 4th grade about 40 percent of the gifted nationally are underachievers at a rate two years below their grade level. Even more alarming is the estimate that up to 20 percent of the high school drop-outs have gifted abilities. Teachers and parents can make a difference by stressing problem-solving skills and changing from activities based solely on memory into activities that stress big principles and provide for independent thinking. Letting the gifted become professional producers will be one of the educational success stories of the 1990s. To fail to meet the needs of America's gifted will only serve to fail ourselves. -30- Super Smart Kids Need Some Extra Help, Too By Russell Smith Special Contributor Programs for the gifted have been getting a big boost in the past few years from parents, educators, and even our much-maligned state legislators. Amazingly, some school districts bitterly resisted the trend of gifted education until the lawmakers mandated that all Texas public schools must have gifted programs in place as of the 1990-91 school year. Some hollered "elitism!" while others hollered "no money!", but in the end gifted advocates hollered "smart kids need help!" and on paper at least there is a total state effort to teach gifted kids. Of course there is a real difference between having a gifted program that is helping the gifted, and one that is merely fulfilling the state requirement and just going through the motions. Additionally, the Baby Boomers who survived the math and science gyrations of the pos-Sputnik educational policy are now parents of school-age children. if they have a gifted child, they want more than just a paper chase through the classrooms-- they want productive gifted programs. Unfortunately, the Baby Boomers often feel they have given birth to nothing less than the next Jonas Salk or Sally Ride. Everyone hopes his or her child will be the brightest of them all, but statistics prove your child has a 1-in-20 chance of being in the gifted top 5 percent of the population. Dr. Bertie Kingore recently spoke of this fond wish of parents during the recent gifted and talented program at Hardin-Simmons University. In a seminar course for teachers, she said, "I believe every child is a gift, but not every child is gifted." Parents who try to push their child into gifted status often end up with what educators call "pseudo-gifted." The child may well be advanced at an early age, but in the long run the environment push at home will not suffice to turn the child into a genius. Researchers at Harvard estimate as much as 70 percent of the gifted child's potential is based on genetics. It is interesting that the Japanese, for all their educational success stories, have a tragic flaw in their dealings with gifted students. They have a saying about students who shine brighter than the average Japanese: "The nail that sticks out gets hammered down." Unfortunately, America has also been letting its precious jewels slip unnoticed through the cracks of the educational system. Schools in America have made significant strides in reversing the brain drain, but much work remains to be done. Parents have been in the vanguard in helping to improve gifted education in America. Studies show that they are far superior to teachers in recognizing gifted children. The problem for most teachers is that they have very little training in detecting gifted traits. Also, they only see a child 9 percent of the total time in a year, while a parent has the children at home for the rest of the time. The extra time allows parents to watch more closely for the clues that indicate a gifted child. Some of the clues are: unusually advanced vocabulary for the child's age; exceptional attention span; love of reading; exhibition of sensitivity and curiosity; an advanced sense of humor; exceptional memory; and the ability to learn basic skills quickly and with less repetition. Even after they have been identified, the gifted have to face many myths about themselves which are widely held by many Americans. Here are two myths about the gifted: Myth--"The gifted will do fine on their own." The gifted need special nurturing, just as a rancher cares for special stock, or as a gardener tends to his prize plants. Additionally, a gifted child is gifted all the time, not just for a few hours each week. Myth--"Gifted programs create elite snobs." If elitism creates excellence, great. America can use a lot more excellence. But the creation of elite snobs is highly unlikely because of the advanced sensitivity exhibited by most gifted students. For a final comment on the needs of America's gifted, I turn to Paul Mertens, a teacher of the gifted in California. He teaches junior high students handpicked from the entire Los Angeles school system, and they earn hundreds of college credits each year on advanced placement tests, almost unheard of for a junior high. Mertens was recently interviewed for Newsweek magazine and said, "Some people think democracy means being absolutely equal and having the same curriculum for each student. But in a real democracy, we owe to each individual the opportunity to develop his talents to the utmost." -30- Russell Smith is an educator, journalist, and computer consultant in West Texas.