The Institute for Educational Advancement (IEA) is deeply saddened by the most recent examples of the horrific injustice that has plagued our nation’s Black community for far too long. We join communities around the world that are banding together to mourn and work towards social justice. We share in the grief and pain caused by these tragedies, yet we are hopeful that this outcry against racism and violence will result in real change. 
 
IEA is committed to being part of the solution. We are listening, asking questions, learning and taking action. IEA serves children of all ages and backgrounds; we understand that the dialogue about inequality and violence will look different in each family.  These conversations are important for us all.  Our children are watching us – they want to help us create a more just and civil society that embraces equality and condemns racism. As an organization, IEA celebrates differences. We teach tolerance, respect and acceptance for all, regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation or background. We hope to inspire change in our nation by modeling integrity, respect and understanding. IEA strives to offer a welcoming space for conversation and healing, a space where uniqueness is honored, and discrimination and violence are never tolerated. Yet we know we can do more.
 
We invite our entire community to the conversation and hope that you will dialogue with us by sending your feedback and suggestions. IEA is taking the following actions:

• We are hosting a Spyglass workshop: “Digital Civics: Changemakers of Tomorrow” as a complimentary offering.
• We are expanding our work to diversify IEA’s community with the help of partner organizations.
• We are gathering and disseminating resources for IEA’s community.
• We are advancing our Public Policy efforts to ensure gifted youth from all backgrounds are identified and served.
• We encourage our constituency to use their voice to vote.

We have gathered a collection of resources that may be of assistance, and we will continue to update this list on IEA’s blog.  Please continue to share articles, books, podcasts or videos that have been helpful for your family!
 
IEA is committed to listening to your voices, and we will work together to create social justice. Thank you for allowing IEA to be a part of your lives.
 
In Solidarity,
 
Elizabeth D. Jones
IEA President
 

RESOURCES

This section will be updated regularly as we receive feedback and resource suggestions from the IEA community. 

Books about Racism:

• NY Times: List of Kids Books on Racism
• Embrace.org: Where to Find Diverse Children Books
• Charis Books and More: Books that Teach White Children and Teens How to Undo Racism and White Surpremecy

Videos

• CNN/Sesame Street racism town hall
• Story Pirates: Black Lives Matter

Articles

• • Your Kids Aren’t Too Young to Talk About Race: Resource Roundup
  • Q/A from NPR: Q&A: How To Talk To Kids About Black Lives And Police Violence
  • Black Lives Matter. Black Minds Matter, Too: The Case For Prioritizing Equity In Gifted Education As An Urgent Racial Justice Issue
  • NY Times: I was a Low Income College. Classes Weren’t the Heard Part
  • NAGC Blog: Black Lives Matter in Gifted Programs

Why is Community Important?

Community is the foundation of our social life. A healthy community provides support, encouragement, affirmation, and a sense of belonging to all members. Feeling loved and accepted also fosters good behavioral patterns, increase productivity, inspire creativity.

Although there are tremendous benefits in building and belonging in a community, the greatest social epidemic of our modern life is isolation. It is not always easy for everyone to find their “tribe”, especially if they are different from the majority; such is the case for gifted and high ability learners.

Why is There a Need?

Gifted and high ability learners possess exceptional capability to reason and learn in one or more domains. They are critical thinkers, curious learners, innovators, and sensitive individuals.

There are estimated six to ten percent of students in the U.S. who are gifted and high ability learners, roughly three to five million students. Though this is by no means a small number, spread them out through the nation, they are still minority groups in most schools. It is much harder for gifted students to find their community.

Though gifted students possess high potential, they are not always top performers. Research shows that 25% of gifted people are underachievers, and they quit trying because nothing they do leads to any measurable success or satisfaction[1]. Lacking the support from a community can exacerbate these outcomes.

Adding social-economic divide to this challenge, the picture becomes more dire. One study shows the gaps between top performing socioeconomically disadvantaged students and their more affluent peers were significant[2]. In fact, high-achieving, low-income students are equally likely to attend college as low-scoring high-income students[3]. These students need a support group that can help them to unlock their potential.

Without a nurturing community, feeling alone, misunderstood, and unchallenged, many gifted and high ability learners get bored, frustrated, or develop bad study habits. Without a community, we are creating a persistent talent underclass.

What is it Like to Have a Community?

Imagine witnessing the moment when someone talks about their passion with sparkles in their eyes, imagine the tears of joy when someone dares to try something new and take ownership of their potential that they didn’t even know existed.

Each summer, gifted teens from across the country, sometimes from outside the United States, gather to spend a week-long retreat at IEA’s Yunasa camps – Yunasa West in Colorado, and Yunasa in Michigan.

Campers from all backgrounds bring a variety of interests and talents, providing an opportunity for all to grow in a diverse environment.

More than a traditional summer sleep-away camp, Yunasa provides a combination of camp activities and enriching workshops designed specifically to help gifted teens find balance as they develop greater awareness and a sense of adventure.

Prior to Yunasa, many campers are trained to focus on just a single aspect of self. At camp, through activities like giants’ ladder, aqua jump, yoga, nature walk, music improv, and many more, they learn to recognize and nurture other aspects of self, while learning the importance of leadership, teamwork, and trust.

Communities are critical for the functioning of a healthy society. For children who learn differently from the majority of their peer group, it is especially important to have a strong supporting network that can help them grow both professionally and personally.

What kind of community do you envision for gifted children and all children? Are there examples you would like to share?

Like this post? Sign up for our email newsletter to receive more stories, information, and resources about gifted youth straight to your inbox.

This post is part of the Hoagies’ Gifted Blog Hop Community. Please click the image below to keep on hopping!

References:

[1] adapted from The Gifted Kids Survival Guide: A Teen Handbook

[2] Plucker, J. A., J. Hardesty, and N. Burroughs. “Talent on the sidelines: Excellence gaps and America’s persistent talent underclass.” Storrs: University of Connecticut, Center for Education Policy Analysis. Retrieved from http://www. cepa. uconn. edu/research/mindthegap (2013).

[3] Martha J. Bailey and Susan M. Dynarski, “Inequality in Postsecondary Attainment,” 2011. In Greg Duncan and

Richard Murnane, eds., Whither Opportunity: Rising Inequality, Schools, and Children’s Life Chances, pp. 117-132. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

]]> https://educationaladvancement.org/blog-gifted-community/feed/ 0 https://educationaladvancement.org/blog-gifted-101/ https://educationaladvancement.org/blog-gifted-101/#respond Sat, 01 Aug 2015 14:16:35 +0000 https://ieadev.wpengine.com/blog-gifted-101/ Whether you have a child or student who has recently been identified as gifted, know a child who may be gifted, or have encountered a child who is gifted and have questions, you may need a place to start, a place that gives you the most basic information about what giftedness is and what it means. Here are some of the essentials we think you should know when embarking on this journey to learn more about the gifted child.

Defining “Gifted”: Asynchronous Development

There are many definitions of giftedness, none of which are universally agreed upon. However, IEA advocates for this definition:

“Giftedness is asynchronous development in which advanced cognitive abilities and heightened intensity combine to create inner experiences and awareness that are qualitatively different from the norm. This asynchrony increases with higher intellectual capacity. The uniqueness of the gifted renders them particularly vulnerable and requires modifications in parenting, teaching and counseling in order for them to develop optimally.” – Columbus Group, 1991

Similar to how students can experience gaps in learning (for example, a student enrolled in calculus who is unable to solve basic geometry problems), children who develop asynchronously may experience “gaps” between their intellect and other parts of self. One such occurrence is found in learners who encounter psychomotor setbacks with coordination or writing skills, despite their deep intellectual capacity. Often, gifted learners experience frustration and a widening gap between their intellect and their social and emotional behavior. Because asynchrony often creates these developmental gaps, it is crucial to provide appropriate resources and opportunities that best identify, challenge, and assist each gifted child’s specific needs.

Overexcitabilities

Intellectual and emotional intensity is an extremely common characteristic in gifted children and adults. Children who feel things with great intensity experience the world in a different way. Gifted young people are often more aware of, stimulated by, and affected by their surroundings. Emotional or physical reactions to events can last longer than expected and are often replayed in the child’s mind. Kazimierz Dabrowski coined the term “overexcitabilities” to describe intensities in five domains: intellectual, imaginational, sensual, psychomotor, and emotional.

More than Achievement

It is a common myth that gifted children automatically perform well in traditional school environments.  Gifted children are not intrinsically motivated by good grades; they are more passionate about the acquisition of knowledge than performing rote tasks. This causes a problem when the school structure and grades rely on repetition and memorization. Bored, unchallenged students may disengage from the learning process, which can lead to underachievement or academic failure.

More than a Test Score

Though testing can be a helpful source of information to assess students’ abilities, it does not give a full picture of who the students are, what they care about, and what they are capable of accomplishing. Many factors, including learning disabilities and developmental asynchronies, can profoundly affect a student’s scores. It is important to look beyond GPAs and IQ scores when assessing a child’s gifts.

Feeding their Minds

Gifted students learn differently from their age mates: they learn at an accelerated pace; delve into topics of interest with greater complexity, scope, and depth; and approach learning from a more intuitive and sensitive point of view. They thrive on discovery for learning and the flexibility for exploration to feed their ravenous hunger for knowledge. Just as the human body needs nourishment to survive, the gifted child’s mind needs to be fed. When gifted kids are not learning, they often become anxious, worked up, and tired.

Highly gifted kids will typically change educational environments several times over the course of their K-12 education in an attempt to find the right accommodations or fit between the school system and the student. When a highly gifted child is successful in a single school system, it is often thanks to acceleration.

Acceleration is an extremely viable option for students who need additional challenge in the classroom. This can take several forms, including grade-skipping, single-subject acceleration, or classwork performed in more depth or at a quicker pace. Advanced online resources are also becoming a more viable option. If your child’s school will allow use of such resources, take them up on it.

Needs beyond the Academic

Gifted children are more than their minds. While intellectual challenges are necessary to keep one engaged, gifted children need more than intellectual stimulation to thrive. Along with advanced intellectual capacity, these individuals also have social, emotional, spiritual, and physical needs. Children with unusually advanced intellectual abilities are uniquely vulnerable to social and emotional challenges stemming from their asynchronous development, which can make it difficult to navigate a world that does not readily understand them.

Gifted students not only think differently, they feel different from their age-level peers. Children who are significantly different from the norm are in need of differentiated programs designed specifically to meet their unique needs.

Gifted children need intellectual peers and gifted peers. They notice differences between themselves and their classmates; they have different vocabulary, different interests, a deep passion for learning, and endless curiosity that they don’t see often in their age mates. This can be confusing to them, especially during the early years of school. It is important, therefore, for them to be with other gifted children and understand that they are not alone.

Understanding and acceptance of giftedness – and the unique joys and challenges that accompany it – is crucial during childhood and adolescence, as these are critical stages of development.

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This post is part of Hoagies’ Gifted Education Page’s August Blog Hop. Check out all of the other great blogs participating in Hoagies’ August Blog Hop!