American Prodogies
albert einstein
stephen hawking marie curie
nikola tesla what do all of these people
have in common
they’re all famous figures who are known
for their contribution to society
so what makes these people smart and how
can we make other children
brilliant just like that i wish i had a
concrete answer for you
there’s currently no solid evidence as
to what makes some people more
academically inclined and capable of
these grand accomplishments
still we’ve seen numerous attempts in
society to create what we hope
is the next genius that will one day
change the world
parents send their children to expensive
private schools hire renowned tutors who
can become extremely involved in their
child’s education
almost attempt to create a future genius
whether you believe in these techniques
or not is
your business however there’s currently
one program that attempts
to create bright and clever minds that
is instead harming our children
that program is the gifted talented
program
i personally was part of my elementary
school’s gift and talented program
so twice a week i was shipped off to a
separate classroom with a small group of
other children
we thought that we had a special gift
and if treated properly
we could become the next geniuses that
would one day change the world
and now that i’ve gone through the
program there’s been some time to see
the effects
i’ll act as exhibit a on the question if
gift and talent programs
actually work well i’ll be frank
well i consider myself a smart person i
don’t think i’ve become the genius of
the gift and talented program or
date wanting me to be in fact i’m
not alone in this sentiment millions of
children across the country and across
the world
are placed into these
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rather than any advantages they and
furthermore who are left out of the
program can also feel damaged
we are currently harming children by
having a gift and talented program
and potentially stopping them from
becoming change making figures
today i want to explain how gifted and
talented programs are
harming children both inside and outside
of the program
additionally i want to find an
alternative that will uplift students
rather than dragging them down
let’s start at the beginning what are
gift and talented programs
according to the national association of
gifted children
the most common gifted and talented
programs include accommodations in the
classroom
grouping with students of similar
ability acceleration or even skipping a
grade
furthermore every program has a
different method for identifying these
gifted students
but the most common include scoring
highly unwritten exam
or teacher recommendation
now that we’ve identified what different
programs are and how children are chosen
for them
they can move on to discussing why these
procedures are problematic
starting off written exams these exams
favor those with money because they are
able to pay for special tutors who can
get the child to score high enough and
qualify as gifted
it becomes unfair because those with
money are essentially able to pay for
their child to be identified as gifted
and those without money are at a
disadvantage
they don’t have the resources to pay for
these fancy tutors
and are practically going into these
tests blind
as a result the written exams become
elitist because the wealthy can
pay for their child to be recognized as
gifted but those without money
are left with little to no resources and
a smaller chance of being identified as
gifted
furthermore written exams aren’t an
inaccurate way for identifying different
children
because it is a broad term that can
apply to different people such as people
who saw
math such in math and science or more
artistic ventures such as painting
however written exams are unable to
account for the latter group
and therefore fail to identify a large
number of
truly talented students they are
automatically given the label of
non-gifted and their talents are never
nurtured or cared for
and even students who do excel at
something mentioned on written exam
can be given a label of non-gifted just
because they have test anxiety or
they simply miss the cut off by a few
points
according to the american testing the
ideas association
nearly 20 of students have test anxiety
and almost all of them would have been
automatically identified as non-gifted
additionally students who don’t have
test anxiety can be left out of the
program
just because they had a bad day and
simply tested bad and missed the class
by a few points
overall clinton exams are an inaccurate
way for identifying gifted students
moving on to the next method of teacher
recommendation
this method is clearly flawed because
every teacher has their own biases which
are
impossible to set aside import
for this reason gifted students can be
left out of the gifted program
because their teacher has something
against them in fact according to the
american education research association
teachers are less likely to recommend
low-income students of color
despite displaying identical performance
this means the students who are most
disadvantaged are again
being disadvantaged in the gifted
program
both these methods of written exams and
teacher recommendations
have one common flaw even in an
idealistic world where students
aren’t left out of the program these
methods group together moderately gifted
and highly get the students together we
both really gifted and highly get the
students are
two different groups i need two
different things
moderately gifted students are students
who simply display advanced talent
but just need more challenging work that
takes into account the skills they
already had
highly gifted students are students who
not only display advanced talent
but display talent at or near that of a
professional
they don’t just need more challenging
work but rather they need to skip a
break
and develop a substantial amount of time
to their gift
however the current methods for
identifying gift students
simply groups them together this means
that gift programs either become
too challenging too fast for moderately
gifted students
or become too easy for highly gifted
students to a point
where their talents are never nurtured
either way
one group experience is harmed the
damages that they receive from this
can follow them throughout a lifetime
many students who have gone through the
gift program often feel that they come
out with disadvantages rather than
advantages for example the program
fosters the idea that skeptical students
have a natural ability
this makes gifted students feel that
they don’t need to make a real effort at
school
because they have a natural ability
which means that they will excel
this call is a problem because many
foreigners often have a superiority
complex about school
and feel as though they don’t need to
work for their intelligence
on the flip side this can also cause low
self-esteem
according to psychologists many former
gifted students have low self-esteem
because they are used to being told that
they will naturally excel
and when that doesn’t happen they have
no way to go
one former gifted student i talked to
said she often feels like she has to
strive for perfection
and when she doesn’t achieve that she
feels as if she’s failed
this has overall caused low self-esteem
for her throughout her lifetime
other form of gifted students often quit
activities that they don’t
actually excel at and this causes them
to not develop a work ethic
or the skills needed to learn complex
topics
additionally according to the institute
for education
for educational advancement gifted
students are
more likely to have low social skills
they often feel alienated from their
peers and often have
social anxiety these damages aren’t just
temporary
they follow children throughout their
lifetime however
it’s not just gifted students who suffer
students who are left at the perfect can
also feel damaged
when kids who are left out of the
program often feel
simply average because the gifted
program comes with the narrative that
they only choose students who are
gifted and having natural ability
students who are not chosen by the
program feels so they will never compare
to those inside the program
this uh additionally we give extra
resources
to those who are deemed advanced or more
gifted
but neglect to think about those that
are in regular classrooms
they’re falling further and further
behind and they could greatly benefit
from these resources
but we would never know because they
ever received them
and instead just continue to fall behind
you would think with all of these
disadvantages there would be some
benefit for
some group of people however a study
conducted at the university of houston
challenges that belief the study
followed gifted
and non-gifted students and if there was
any benefit
for those in the gifted program the
study concluded there was little to no
benefit for
any of the groups so if the students are
so good to programs aren’t providing any
benefit and we’re instead of harming
students
why do we keep them around gifted
gift programs are damaging our students
and i believe that they should be
eliminated
instead i propose that we introduce
mixed learning into classrooms
mixed learning is the practice of having
all students run together
but subjecting everyone to high
standards additionally the resources
previously spent on gifted classrooms
would be available to all students but
primarily
used by students who are struggling and
need additional help
this model of mixed learning has proved
beneficial in many other countries
many countries in europe such as finland
has seen children
benefit from these breeds from this
model of mixed learning
traditionally we should place a growth
mindset in classrooms
a growth mindset is the mindset that
anyone can learn new skills or improve
their current ones
it rejects the idea that intelligence is
a name
a growth mindset gives all children the
minds that they need to grow in the
future
beyond schooling both these methods of
growth mindset and mixed learning help
push students further rather than
driving them behind
students shouldn’t grow up believing
that some students are
naturally smarter than others and the
alternative i propose do just that
we should strive for a society that
isn’t focused on creating the next
genius or prodigy
instead we should focus on the schooling
should focus on helping all students
achieve their full potential
thank you