[HPFGU-OTChatter] Gifted children

[Laura Huntley]

Shaun:
>Heh - never be afraid to argue with someone if you think you're right. I doubt you 
>need that piece of advice but it important.

Nah, I've never had a problem with not being able to express my opinions.  ^_~  Actually, I've been trying to curb my expression a little bit of late, because I've been told that my being so argumentative tends to upset other people, and I certainly don't want to do that.


>When they are radically accelerated, between 60 and 80% find at least one 'peer' in 
>a class. The odds are much higher in their favour. Now the peer relationship 
>sometimes (a little less than half the time) is somewhat different from a typical one. 
>It can be true that the child can notice that "his friends don't quite treat/see him the 
>same way they do each other."
>But faced with a 60% chance of any type of peer relationship and friendship, versus 
>a 5% chance of the same (because the fact is the "friends don't quite treat/see him 
>the same way they do each other" is a problem that could occur in the aged based 
>class as well), it's pretty clear what the better choice is. Not the perfect choice - but 
>we rarely have perfect choices. We have to go with what is best.

Alright.  I understand/agree with you here.  Given those choices, you've argued very convincingly for radical acceleration.  But...I still think that the *best* option is to try to put these kids with other gifted kids of the same age group.  Where I am, schools like mine are considered second-best to the things that the people working with gifted kids really *want* to have happen...like special programs or radical acceleration (all the schools I've been don't allow this)...But IMO, whatever it's worth...I think schools like mine deserve to be thought of as a good, if not the best, option for these kids, not just in the context "Well, we can't do ______, but at least there's that magnet school."

Of course, a huge problem with this is, in dealing with younger children esp., that allot of kids aren't emotionally ready to leave their parents. And it's not like there's going to be enough gifted and/or PG kids in one area to set up a school in each town.


>In general yes. With PG kids, not really. A PG child of 8 is actually likely to be more 
>aware of matters sexual, and more able to deal with them, than other kids at 12. 

Alright...when I said "aware", what I really meant was "obsessed".  I don't remember a time when everyone around me was *aware* of sex (and even mildly affected by it)...but around 10, 11, or so, it suddenly became a HUGE influential part of everyone's life.

>I wasn't convinced of this until recently but work on asynchronous development at the 
>GDC in Denver is pretty clear. There's even some indication that PG kids 
>(especially girls) may go through puberty 2-3 years earlier than the average, as a 
>matter of course, though, so far, AFAIK, nobody has worked out any solid reason 
>why this should be so (though there are theories... there are always theories).

Now this is really interesting.  I am aware that a small percentage of  girls start puberty as early as 7 or 8 yrs of age, but I've never heard of any correlation between this and any sort of "gifted" status.  Care to expound on any of these theories?  This phenomena is really quite intriguing.  


>So - where are you going to GET these real friends from.

You got me there. ^_^ Ideally, I would say amongst other PG kids...but, as I've mentioned before, it'd be quite hard to create a sort of magnet school for them under the age of say...14ish.  Even if the children were emotionally ready to leave their parents for most of every month of the school year, it's not likely that these parents would *let* them leave.
 
>Acceleration costs virtually nothing. It tends to be an option where others don't exist. 
>And it's a better option than doing nothing.

I agree here as well.  I just...*sigh*...I mentioned earlier that I wished I had made the choice to skip a few grades..but this was when I was in 5th and 6th grade and considering jumping to 9th/10th grade...jumping for 3rd to 7th seems like it would be an entirely different experience, however.

Also...as for being an option.  My mom wanted to me to skip a few grades when I was in 1st as well...I remember not being too keen on the idea (the 5th grade teacher was really mean)...but it turned out not to be an issue anyway, because the school district didn't allow acceleration on that scale -- or any scale, for that matter.  This might have been because of -- as you mentioned -- acceleration is often done badly and therefore gets a bad name, or just because they really didn't want to deal with the hassle if it turned out I couldn't do the work or get along with the older students.

So, sometimes, I guess there are zero options for gifted kids, let alone PG kids..

Which, for what I've gathered, is exactly what you're working against.  Thanks, by the way.  I tend to be a bit -- vehement -- about my beliefs, but I never mean to be disrespectful towards the beliefs of others, nor does the fact that I disagree necessarily mean that I don't appreciate other people's views.

laura


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