By Chuck Dinatale

When our school district informed my wife that our older daughter, Christa, had been identified as gifted, she viewed the label as a mixed blessing. On the one hand, she was happy that the school recognized Christa’s special talents, but at the same time she was unsure whether those talents would receive the level of educational support to develop her full potential.

There was one child in my fifth grade who illustrated the predicament of the gifted student. Although praised as “very bright” by his teachers, he never rose above earning mediocre grades. He was difficult to teach. He would either interrupt instruction to ask question after question about the day’s lesson, or completely ignore it. To teach the rest of the class, his grade teacher moved his desk to the back of the room, which was just fine with him because he sat next to the classroom’s library. While the other students went on with their lessons, the Very Bright Kid read each volume of the encyclopedia, A to Z.
One day, when the teacher discovered the Very Bright Kid’s passion – nuclear physics – she not only allowed him to teach science to his classmates, but invited the district’s high-school physics teacher to observe. When he had finished, the physics teacher said the Very Bright Kid had done very well. Later, the kid asked his teacher if anything would come of it – perhaps advanced classes in science. But she just frowned and shook her head. The district simply couldn’t provide that level of instruction for one student, she explained. So the Very Bright Kid returned to the encyclopedia, the mediocregrades and the daily boredom of school.

Shifting Gears
Traditionally, American schools have treated gifted education with a kind of benign neglect. Today, there is a growing advocacy movement among parents, teachers and counselors trying to provide the guidance and support needed by our brightest young minds. And Rochester is taking a lead in this movement.

Over the past four years, a new private school for the gifted and talented has opened. Area public schools are working together to share costs and resources for more and better gifted and talented programs. And this past October, Rochester was the annual conference site for the statewide advocacy group for gifted and talented education.

Gifted students are defined by the state Education Department as “pupils who show evidence of high performances capability and exceptional potential in area such as general intellectual ability, special academic aptitude and outstanding ability in visual and performing arts. Such definition shall include those pupils who require educational programs or services beyond those normally provided by the regular school program in order to realize their full potential.”

At the same time, their numbers are few. In 2001-02 – the latest figures available – there were 148,894 gifted and talented students in New York, according to state Education Department figures. It is estimated by Judy Galbraith and Jim Delisle in their book The Gifted Kids’ Survival Guide that about 10 percent of the national population can be regarded as gifted.

Generally, intellectual curiosity and creative expression are considered the cornerstones of giftedness, however several other criteria can be employed to screen for gifted and talented children.
June Bond, principal of Destiny School for the Gifted and Talented in Brighton, notes several other factors that make the students of her four-year-old private school unique, including high vocabulary and always exploring and even questioning authority. Bond, who previously worked with the Fairport School District’s Gifted and Talented program, emphasizes the importance of a broad definition because students enter Destiny as early as kindergarten.

“On average, our children can be anywhere from six months to five years ahead of their peers developmentally,” said Bond, adding, “Next year, the youngest Mensa member in the nation will be joining us,” referring to the high IQ organization.

The approach to education taken by Destiny School differs from traditional ones by identifying which learning style works for an individual and then encouraging students to “immerse themselves into the experience.” Students learn mathematics, foreign languages, science and the other normal courses of study, but also receive etiquette and moral training to develop the whole person at an early age.
While currently focussed on a kindergarten to third-grade curriculum, Bond hopes to add one grade level each year until Destiny becomes a full elementary and secondary school.

For Charmian Perry, BOCES 2 gifted and talented program coordinator, the challenge is providing enrichment activities for high-ability publicly schooled students through Project Adept. Throughout the year, exceptional middle- and high-school students are given the opportunity to leave their normal routines and focus on a unique learning experience under the umbrella of Project Adept. One year, Adept students studied oceanography through an exhibit at the Rochester Museum and Science Center. Another year the students were working on a design project with engineering students at Rochester Institute of Technology.

“The quality of learning is exceedingly enhanced when a group of students is interested and involved in one activity,” said Perry.
In addition to Project Adept, Perry administers a professional development consortium for educators to provide on-demand gifted and talented educational services as requested by area school districts.
She admits that the consortium is a stop-gap measure for school districts that lack the staff or resources for a gifted and talented program of their own.

“There are very few gifted and talented coordinators in the state,” said Perry. “Many BOCES have to fold in gifted and talented education into other services they provide; it becomes one of many hats they wear.”
For many advocates, the lack of a gifted education law allows some school districts to skimp when it comes to educating these children. While the state Education Department requires districts to identify the gifted and talented, there is nothing at present to compel districts to provide services for these students.

“By law, public schools must provide for the other end,” noted June Bond, referring to regulations requiring special education for the developmentally disabled, “but there is nothing like that for the gifted end.”

Correcting this imbalance was one of the topics of discussion at the annual conference of the statewide group Advocacy for Gifted and Talented Education (AGATE). The conference — attended by parents, educators and counselors of gifted and talented children from throughout New York – focused on the New York Education Summit held last November and its meaning for gifted education.
“Today, exceptional talent is viewed as both a valuable human resource and a troublesome expression of eccentricity,” concluded a 1993 report by the U.S. Department of Education on how America fails its gifted students.

Thirteen years later, parents and educators of gifted children continue to hope that their children’s great potential will be not just recognized but also developed to its fullest.

Chuck Dinatale is a freelance writer and father of two children living in Brighton.