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Traditional School and the Gifted Student

The gifted student in the traditional classroom.  Simple, right?  Maybe... or maybe not.  The classroom teacher may be expected to teach this child along with the others, even though this child learned the material she plans to offer last year, or years before.  The student may not understand why the other students are not upset by the endless repetition, when she needed only to hear the subject once.  Or the student may be frustrated by the slow, piece by piece, step by step, method of traditional education, when he learns best in large chunks instead of individual steps or pieces.

And what is a teacher expected to do when she is faced with a student who is one, two, three or more grades ahead in one, two, three or more subject areas?  Teaching such a student may be outside the realm of possibility, combined with all the other teaching challenges presented in a single classroom today.

Parent Advocacy is the first line of defense for the gifted student in the traditional classroom.  Often Acceleration, which comes in more than 13 styles from subject acceleration, to grade acceleration, to Early Kindergarten or Early Entrance College Programs may be the easiest solution for the student, the teacher, and the school.

Sometimes, hearsay Arguments from the educators appear, on the surface, to argue against allowing the gifted child to learn in school at all!  Deeper exploration of the research or educational theories often dispels these myths.

At any level, Bullies often threaten the gifted child, as something different to pick on.

All children should be allowed to learn in school.  Gifted children are no exception.  And Success Stories describe different ways that this can happen successfully.

And in the Educators section of Hoagies' Page, you can find more useful information for parents as well as educators.  If the gifted student isn't too far outside the normal curriculum level, Curriculum modifications and / or Grouping may be solutions available to the teacher.  Educational Theories abound.  Counseling is part of the equation throughout.  And Middle School presents additional challenges.