Living With Live Wires

Our society thinks it is wonderful to reward athletes, musicians, actors, and artists.  Entire industiries spend billions of dollars on these fields.  But what about the intellectually gifted?  They get mixed messages.

It’s good to be smart . . . as long as you’re not too smart.  Too smart makes you a nerd, an egghead, and a teacher-pleaser.  It can even make you a target for suspicion, resentment, and open hostility.  

It’s good to get high grades . . as long as you don’t talk about them.  That’s bragging, and besides, you might injure someone else’s self-esteem.  

It’s good to score high on tests . . as long as you keep this fact to yourself, or within your small circle of similarly brainy friends. When Gifted Kids Don’t Have All the Answers, Jim Delisle, Ph.D., & Judy Galbraith, M.A. (2002).

It seems the only time it is “cool” to look smart is when you are applying for college.  So many services help students score higher on tests and write superior essays to get admitted to desireable colleges.  Everyone seems to brag when they get into a prestigious school, but what about the rest of the time?  Is being smart only desireable when it can get you what you want?

It’s the mixed messages and skewed perceptions of giftedness that make the label more of a burden than a blessing.  It’s the insensitive, uninformed comments from teachers, peers, and/or parents that make gifted kids want to downplay, deny, or hide their giftedness. When Gifted Kids Don’t Have All the Answers, Jim Delisle, Ph.D., & Judy Galbraith, M.A. (2002).

Some educators believe that “bright children don’t need any special help; after all, they already have so many things going for them.  The reality is that gifted children’s educational needs arise directly from their strengths; it is precisely because these children are rapid and advanced learners that they need specialized learning opportunities.  They are exceptional children, and they need exceptional services in the same way that children with learning difficulties are exceptional children and need special services and attention.  A Parent’s Guide to Gifted Children, James T. Webb, et.al. (2007).

It is most often up to the parent to educate themselves and advocate for the best educational alternatives for their gifted children.  Each school has different options, from differentiated classrooms, acceleration, grade-skipping, cluster grouping, enrichment in the classroom and in resource rooms, and self-contained full-time gifted programs.  Some states allow children to go to school part-time and to homeschool part-time.  Some families choose to homeschool full-time.

The research that goes into deciding how to educate your gifted child can be overwhelming.  And, you may need to evaluate your choice on an ongoing basis to determine whether your current plan is still working.  

It is important to see that YOU are already your own coach and you can enhance your own personal creativity each day.

The positive experience of the educator can be modeled by YOU as you provide for your students  a mentor and coach to inspire creativity in gifted children’s lives.

Creativity is a decision, a commitment and it requires continued attention, study and practice. But, I guarantee that the results will be invaluable in your own life and in the lives of your students.

After all the study and practice, our goal is balance.

Robert Sternberg has a great statement to that effect:

• Successful individuals are those who have creative skills, to produce a vision for how they intend to make the world a better place for everyone; analytical intellectual skills, to assess their vision and those of others; practical intellectual skills, to carry out their vision and persuade people of its value; and wisdom, to ensure that their vision is not a selfish one.  

In the midst of personal, economic and global turmoil, we are all feeling more limitation and constraints, more challenges, stresses and pressures.

But, we do not have to contract our energies and give up, we can make the DECISION to forge our way into a life of greater creativity and create a culture of mastery, creativity and adventure in our world of influence.

We all have the spark inside that guides us to greater things.

And, together, I am confident, we will rise to the challenge of greater creativity.

The aspect of adventure is something that really deserves a session of it’s own. I include it here because it is a context that can be used to teach most, if not all, of the creative strategies I have presented, and several I haven’t. Adventure can be a learning and practice tool that you use in many contexts of learning. Adventure allows us to develop and hone the skills we learn on a path of mastery and creativity.

Adventures do not have to be rock-climbing or hang-gliding or mountain climbing. It can be adventures in the classroom, as part of a lesson, a project, or through the imagination.

Adventures are exciting to children.

Adventure stories provide a useful framework. I use them as a device to frame stories that I want to tell children in the context of teaching other skills. You can use adventure stories and experiences to teach creative problem-solving. Especially: overcoming obstacles, but also, allowing mistakes, redefining problems, encouraging sensible risk-taking, idea generating,

Adventure stories are always a hit with kids, they can relate to them, they create energy and enthusiasm and kids are almost always up for engagement with you when you begin to tell adventure stories. And, discussions based on the adventures of others can also serve this purpose. The discussions can lead to writing assignments, the creation of games, creating a storytelling culture, making videos, doing plays. The projects possibilities are endless and can be interdisciplinary.

When I use adventures, real or imagined, I like to keep these aspects in mind:When you are on an adventure you must do a few things:

• Going in to an adventure, You must prepare, plan, research, talk to others, predict what your experience will be and what you will need to insure your success.   And, you must practice if this adventure requires skills

• While you experiencing your adventure, you must realize that the very nature of an adventure is exploring and experiencing the unknown..  And, wrapped within that unknown package are varying degrees of risk, uncertainty, and dealing with chaos at times. You have a challenge to overcome. You struggle and keep trying because you want to succeed. And you must, at all times, OBSERVE yourself, others and the environment closely.

• Coming out of a successful adventure, you have hopefully dealt with overcoming fear, anxiety, nervousness. You can see how important it is to continue trying and not give up in the face of challenges. You realize that sometimes you fail, but the most important thing is to keep trying.

In terms of social and emotional issues, going on small adventures help gifted children to experience those kinds of feelings in a safer environment, so they can practice their responses, discuss them and normalize them. Then, the bigger unexpected events in life will not be quite so overwhelming.

Besides, life is an adventure, developing our own creativity is an adventure and teaching gifted children is an adventure.

Buying low and selling high means defying the crowd. And people who defy the crowd – people who think creatively – almost inevitably encounter resistance. The question is not whether one will encounter obstacles; one will. The question is whether the creative thinker has the fortitude to persevere.

Sternberg states that, parents and teachers can prepare gifted children for these types of experiences by describing obstacles that they, their friends, and well-known figures in society have faced while trying to be creative; otherwise, children may think they are the only ones confronted by obstacles.

To help children deal with obstacles, parents and teachers can remind them of the many creative people whose ideas were initially shunned and help them to develop an inner sense of awe of the creative act. Suggesting that children reduce their concern over what others think is also valuable.

When children attempt to surmount an obstacle, they should be praised for the effort, whether or not they were entirely successful. Teachers and parents can point out aspects of the effort that were successful and why, and suggest other ways to confront the obstacles.  (Sternberg)

Having the class brainstorm about ways to confront a given obstacle can get the class thinking about the many strategies people can use to confront problems. Some obstacles are within oneself, such as performance anxiety. Other obstacles are external, such as the bad opinions of others.

Gifted children will need a great deal of fortitude throughout their lives to persevere in the face of obstacles. This skill is absolutely crucial and needs to be reinforced at all grade levels as children enter different stages of development.