Monday, June 30, 2014

Why don't we teach every child like they are gifted?

The curriculum in any quality gifted program emphasizes creativity, critical thinking, and social/emotional skills. These skills are believed to be very important in helping gifted students reach their potential.

Our youngest son is gifted. Actually, all of our kids are gifted in a variety of ways, but he met the criteria established to qualify for the gifted program at school. As a result of his designation in this program, he has had opportunities to do amazing projects, perform plays, attend space camp, and get extra support with social and emotional aspects of life. In his gifted classes, it always seemed content knowledge was secondary to creativity, critical thinking, and problem solving. Learning was designed to be an experience and not just a standard or objective to check off the list.

So why don't we teach every child like they are gifted? The question is especially relevant if you believe that every student is gifted, even if they are not identified as a gifted student by a test. All students have unique needs, but all have in common the need to develop creativity, critical thinking, and social/emotional skills.


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