Gifted children are often so far ahead of their peers academically that they become bored with normal classroom work, resulting in low grades and low achievements; they are in desperate need of intellectual stimulation on an appropriate level. These children adjust better socially when placed into a class with children like them, even part-time, because they may feel out-of-sync with their peers. When they’re in a regular classroom environment, they may hold themselves back academically so they aren’t ahead of their friends, or so they won’t be teased by other children. Also, gifted children need a teacher who understands them. Many regular classroom teachers have no experience with gifted education, which differs greatly from the teaching methods and students found in normal classrooms. Regular teachers may downplay the gifted child’s special needs, ignoring them so as not to make other students feel left out of something. There are a multitude of reasons why gifted children need a different kind of education; these are just a few examples.
The hidden side of gifted.
When people think “gifted children,” many misconceptions come to mind: they’re all high achievers, they’re nerds, they don’t need help or guidance, they have bright futures. While these can be true in some cases, much of the time they’re not. Gifted kids aren’t exempt from problems because they’re smart. They have their own issues to deal with, and these issues must be recognized and acknowledged by their parents and teachers. Among them …
· They may not be equally advanced in all areas. Their levels of social, intellectual, physical, and emotional development may be completely different from each other.
· They may be extremely sensitive to others’ perceptions and expectations of them, so they may spend large amounts of time feeling guilty, either for their achievements or for a perceived failure to reach a certain expectation.
· They may be idealistic perfectionists whose self-worth is directly tied to their grades or accomplishments; when these aren’t satisfactory to them, their self-esteem may take a nosedive.
· They may be reluctant – or downright unwilling – to try anything they’re not guaranteed to be good at.
· They may have learning disabilities, even though they are gifted in most areas. These disabilities can often be overlooked by people unfamiliar with this situation, because the child is “supposed to be gifted.”
· They may have difficulty with multiple-choice questions on tests because, due to their abstract and complex thinking processes, they can see how more than one of the answers could possibly be correct.