Thank You for the Cages

Katie from Tomahawk and 25 of her gifted peers spent a day in January with me focusing on self-advocacy - creating their learner profiles and plotting their unique paths to graduation.  We also took time to vent some frustrations.

Thank you, Katie, for sharing your heartfelt and provocative insights.

Thank You for the Cages.

There was once a time

When there were no cages.

Society said I was too smart,

And led me down a sticky-sweet road

Into gleefully agreeing to be chained

To kids I didn’t know,

Who had already sewn together

Friendships and cliques

And I was an awkward, missing button.

Intelligence.

Thank you for the cage.

It was once wonderful

To be strong and unique,

To live in my own way.

Society injected the wicked serum

Of sameness

Into the students pulsing toward middle school

I was quarantined, and stayed different.

I didn’t want the sameness

Until it was too late.

Once again alone.

Uniqueness.

Thank you for the cage.

I was once free to frolic

To play, and enjoy all things movement.

Society snapped up the kids,

All but me, the odd one out,

And sorted them like packages

Into endless rounds of sports,

Demanding and competitive.

I was thrown into the group

Of the few kids who hadn’t chosen sports

At age seven

Because I simply hadn’t wanted to.

And now it was too late.

Individuality.

Thank you for the cage.

I once felt the joy of difference,

Tasted the nectar of being admired and different.

My un-sameness attracted attention,

Earning me friends and enjoyment.

But my weirdness became repetitive and annoying,

An old sideshow everyone’s already seen

And moved on to the next novelty,

Leaving me alone with my new identity

And no friends.

Small ways to vent my wayward thoughts

Could not replace the companions I thought were mine.

Creativity.

Thank you for the cage.

I had no choice but to be alone.

But I learned to enjoy it.

I soon learned that this was acceptable.

Isolation, any weak ties to others severed,

A lone, roaming island.

I relished my freedom, my flexibility

Which so many others seemed to crave.

I accepted my lone wolf status.

Others did not.

“People are talking behind your back”.

I scraped some adequate social behavior from the bottom

Of a box of nuts and bolts,

People who had been rejected like me,

But not for my reasons,

For I was still a misfit among the forgotten.

I was restricted, and still no happier.

Because there is no one.

Because I was the one who stepped into

The cages I was given

Society, thank you for the cages.

Now I just need the keys

Probably twirling lazily on the finger

Of someone who doesn’t exist,

And not a person in the world

Will help me find it

Because I am

My own person

And all that gets me is a lot of cages.

Gifted kids . . .

It was a beautiful fall day last week when I visited Green Bay's School for Academically Gifted Learners.  It's housed at Langlade Elementary as a new school-within-a-school.  Their principal, Tammy Van Dyke, is one of WATG's honorees this fall for her work in making this happen.

During the afternoon the students (grades 2-6) became "myth-busters" as they helped me prove that gifted kids are not all alike and that everything is not always easy for them.  At the end of the day they made statements about what they know to be true about themselves and others like them . . . things they think adults should know.  I read their thoughts to parents that evening and have selected a few to share here. 

• Gifted kids can do more than you think. Jess gr. 2
• Gifted kids want to have a chance to show their teachers their abilities. Breanna gr. 4
• Bullies are big problems for us.  Stronger rules/disciple will help us not to be afraid or worried.  Samantha gr. 4
• Gifted kids need to be recognized and not like an old rag that has been used for over 5 years.  They cannot be pushed around like they don't matter.  Kelley gr. 4
• Gifted kids are not geniuses from the start.  In order to grow, they need their individual needs to be met not based on how educated the rest of the class is. Michaela gr. 6
• Gifted kids need: more time to do reading, more gym time, more holidays! Varsitha gr. 4
• Gifted kids want fun with the challenge, not boring. 
• Gifted kids have a imaganashon!
• Gifted kids want to be treated the same as other kids.  Gavin Gr. 3
• Gifted kids aren't perfect, the same, or have the same gift.  We're all different colors on a rainbow.  No one is the same shade. Camryn Gr. 5

And finally, in true Green Bay style . . . 

• In my head, life is a big football game.  I think of the gifted kids as a full time QB. The QBs have to have the right strategy and they will succeed in the game of life. Simon gr. 5

Test Fear

My very first day as a GT coordinator I was approached by an elementary teacher.  "I've known Josh for 4 years now," she said. "He's the brightest student I know, but every year I nominate him for the gifted program and every year he gets rejected.  Will it be any different now that you're in charge?" 

I assured her I'd look into it, but jumped to the (false) conclusion that Josh was a nice kid, a teacher pleaser, but probably not gifted.  When I met him my misconception was immediately apparent.  Beyond a doubt he was creatively brilliant.  The problem was that he froze when presented with a high stakes test like the one that determined if he was "in" or "out" of the gifted program.  

It was a no-brainer for me.  I trusted his teacher who knew that he needed challenges beyond the regular classroom. He was "in" without taking The Test.

I took some heat from people who had created the "sift down" method of identification matrix our district used at that time.   Students needed to perform at or above the 95 percentile on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills.  Those that didn't were never considered.  The winnowed group of  kids were given the Otis-Lennon group IQ test on which they also needed to score at a certain level.  Those that didn't were rejected.   And then the remaining few students had to rate a specific score (or better) on the Renzulli Scales completed by a teacher.  In essence, we were looking for the fewest possible students and only those who were good at taking tests and pleasing teachers. 

I'm happy to say we quickly changed the old ID process to a talent pool model where even one indicator was enough to start an assessment of what a student needed to be academically challenged.

Funny thing.  Six months after he was identified, Josh agreed to try The Tests . . . "just for fun."  The pressure was off.  IQ?  152.  ITBS reading and math?  99th percentiles. 

How many kids slog on through the tedium of a school day simply because they don't fit the numerical profile.  We've got to know the kid in order to match the program to the child.

Twice Exceptional

When Allan was in 3rd grade his favorite book was Jeanne Cavelos' The Science of Star Wars: An Astrophysicist's Independent Examination of Space Travel, Aliens, Planets, and Robots as Portrayed in the Star Wars Films and Books. He was fascinated by the content but struggled to read it himself because in addition to being intellectually gifted, he had dyslexia.

Traditional identification methods often fail to reveal the talents of twice-exceptional or 2E students. Occasionally their extraordinary abilities mask their academic struggles and their disabilities go undiagnosed. One of the best sources of info on this issue is The 2E Newsletter and Blog.

The self-advocacy movement began in the world of developmental disabilities but gifted kids also need to find their voices. 2E people have twice the need to speak up for themselves.  And we, their advocates, can help.

As Linda Silverman wrote, "Gifted children with learning disabilities who are seen as defective, in constant need of remediation, come to view themselves with shame and doubt….But when those closest to them honor their strengths and believe in their ability to fulfill their dreams, they are able to mobilize their will to succeed against all odds."

 

"The Watch"

Many, many years ago in a community not so far away we started a project called The Young Authors Anthology and invited all middle school students from several districts to submit their creative writing.  The GT coordinator from each district had 8 pages in the spiral-bound book to fill with their best student work.  The selected authors also attended a day-long retreat at the school forest where they expanded their writing skills in one of several workshops and shared their work at the end of the day.  

We began the small group sessions by asking students to turn to their page of the anthology and read their poem or story aloud.  And each year it was pretty much the same . . .  The first student would shyly say, "I didn't want to submit this, but my teacher made me"  or "This isn't very good, but I'll read it anyway" or something equally dismissive.  When they finished we'd all applaud and then I'd ask the others for comments or questions.  The most confident person would speak up: "I like the way you described that" or "Where'd you get that idea?" or "That reminds me of Emily Dickinson." By the time the third student began reading it was obvious they knew they were in the company of like-minded peers and were safe sharing their personal creative efforts.

Naturally most of the poetry submitted had a typical middle school theme -  love.  And usually, "I love you; why don't you love me anymore?"  But sometimes I was startled by the asynchrony of the young gifted writer's maturity, sensitivity, and passion for the language.  Wendy Lewellen Qualls is one of those authors and she's given me permission to share something she wrote in middle school.  



The Watch


Pounding, pounding, pounding
Like a chisel in my head,
The never-ending heartbeat 
Of a deity long-dead.

Each little tick and click
Sends a shiver down my spine
From the cruel incessant tocking
Of this pocket watch of mine.

Forever it is captor
And forever we are slaves,
From those toddling from their cradles
To those crawling to their graves.

As long as we're in motion
Then time will be the master
'Cause as fast as you can do it
Someone else can do it faster.

 
 

"Gets Along Well with Peers"

That's a pretty common phrase on assessments of student behavior.  But who exactly are the peers of gifted kids?   They quite naturally have multiple peer groups.  Among others they have age peers and intellectual peers and social peers. It's just part of their asynchronous development.

When my younger son was about 10 years old he developed a passion for the game, Magic: The Gathering, and wanted to hang out at the local card shop, My Parents Basement.  It really was a basement storefront, a few steps down from street level on the main thoroughfare.  And ever-conscientious mom that I was, I told him I'd need to check it out before he could spend his after-school time there. 

I had my doubts . . . classic visions of pool halls and other teen hang-outs in my mind. But the next day when we entered the store together I was greeted with a chorus of "Hey, Mrs. D!"  Almost every face in the room I recognized from my years and years as GT educator and Destination Imagination coach.  Clearly my son's hobby peer group ranged in age from 8 to 38. And on reflection I realized that his community theatre peer group ranged from 8 to 80; running club, 8 to 58. And of course he still loved hanging with his age peers, the kids he'd gone to school with forever.

Around that same time an elementary teacher suggested to me that one of his students not be pulled out for academic enrichment activities until she interacted better with the other pupils in her class.  Her principal agreed that she seemed "anti-social."  Yet I advocated for her inclusion.  I'd seen first hand that she "got along well with her peers."  She had no trouble fitting in perfectly with the other Magic players . . . the huge group of multi-age peers at My Parents Basement.

Can you imagine how we adults would feel if told our peer group could only be those who shared our birth year?

An Emily Update

If you recall, my March 9 post on chance told the story of almost-daughter, actress Emily Trask.  This week her mom Susanne and I traveled to beautiful Rhode Island for opening night of "The Scottish Play" with Emily in the role of Lady Macbeth. Her route to Westerly RI was another circuitous tale of being in the right place at the right time, knowing the right people who knew the right people, and a willingness to take risks . . . to follow her heart.

Congrats, Emily.  You're making the world a more beautiful place in so many ways.

The Colonial Theatre: Shakespeare in the Park.

NZ Gifted Blog Tour: What Angie Taught Me

Today I'm honored to be part of the 

New Zealand Gifted Awareness Week Blog Tour.

Please check out all the blogs and help us celebrate and advocate for gifted children around the world.

Angie loves words.   
Always has; always will. 

The works of C.S. Lewis, Tolkien, Bradbury and L’Engle enchanted her in grade school.   For birthday gifts, she and her older sister exchanged volumes of poetry and Shakespeare’s plays.  By the time she was 10, there was little that could be differentiated for her in a regular reading class.  And when asked what she’d like to do instead, her immediate response was, “Learn Latin.” 

Those younger than 30 will find this hard to believe, but it wasn’t so long ago that there were no online classes!  And classical languages aren’t typically offered in small town Wisconsin.  Fortunately, we found a Latin correspondence course through Northwestern University’s Center for Talent Development.  But after hungrily devouring the four-term program in record time, Angie wanted more.  She wanted and needed to commune with someone who shared her passion.  Finding a mentor seemed impossible and I would have given up but for her persistence. 

The answer came from a surprising source.  A small Catholic convent outside of town was home to several elderly nuns. And as luck would have it, one was a Latin scholar. 

So twice a week this little girl knocked on the convent door.  Then she and Sister Mary Agnes (75 years her senior), bent their heads close together to joyfully read and discuss Tacitus and Pliny the Younger and Pliny the Elder and both of the Senecas, too.

I’m reminded again of the Maureen Neihart quote I posted last February:

"The single most powerful predictor of positive outcomes for 
vulnerable children is a relationship with a caring adult."

Happy New Zealand Gifted Awareness Week!

 

What Jenny Taught Me

Late one night I received a phone call from a frantic dad. 

  

“Mrs. Douglas, would you please talk to Jenny?  She’s been working for hours on her English paper and won’t go to bed until it’s done.”  

 

I couldn’t imagine what the massive assignment could be for this was just the first day of the school year! So when she came to the phone I asked for details.

“Well,” Jenny said, “my teacher said she was going to base our writers’ workshop goals on this first assignment and to write the best essay we could.” 

Ahhhhh!  Perfectionism.  How do we help our gifted kids learn to match their efforts to teachers’ expectations?

As Judy Galbraith wrote in her 8 Great Rights of Gifted Kids:

#4 - You have a right to make mistakes and not do your best all the time.

Lessons I Learned from Gifted Kids

What Lucy Taught Me

Many of my first lessons about teaching gifted kids came through my work with Lucy, a brilliant child with talents in many areas, but a true passion for math. For instance, as a 5th grader she answered all the ACT geometry questions correctly because, as she said, "It just makes sense."

We worked hard together over her public school years to make sure she had appropriate challenges, enrichment, and socio-emotional support.  Subject accelerated many times, she took courses at the local college while still in high school and finished her degree at a very prestigious university in record time.  But instead of accepting one of the fellowships or great job offers, she married her college sweetheart and chose to be a stay-at-home mom.

Some might find that disappointing.  I find it refreshing.  She followed her heart, not others' expectations.  She continues to learn, to grapple with ideas, to make the world a better place and to share her brilliance in many ways with those around her.  

I'm reminded of this quote from Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle by Chris Hedges.

“We’ve bought into the idea that education is about training and 'success', defined monetarily, rather than learning to think critically and to challenge. We should not forget that the true purpose of education is to make minds, not careers.”