Sally Reis on Gifted Education

anitaw
Mon, 29 Sep 2008 20:26:42 +0000

I struggle with this topic. To read CC one would think that extreme giftedness is an every day phenomena. The reality is that, statistically speaking, we are talking about a very tiny segment of the population needing an extraordinarily specialised educational approach- and the fact is that for many of those the best answer is acceleration within an established school curriculum. (this is true for the population with IQ greater than 150 or so).

The statistics for those who wonder:
IQ: 125 to 132 3%
IQ: 132 to 137 1%
137 to 150 0.9%
150 to 160 0.1%
160 to 174 0.01%
174 to 200 0.0099%

In the pre-gifted era (IE, when we were all youngsters) those of us with aptitude just below the top 3 tiers- i.e., with IQ from 135-150 coped pretty darn well within a vigorous and high-expectation educational system.

WHile I agree that the top 3 tiers likely need something ‘specialized’ in nature,those in the next 2 tiers (132-149) might actually find ‘pull out’ approaches completely adequate, assuming the academic program in general is meaningful and engaging.

I think the answer is to enrich education for everyone- have higher expectations across the board- not micro define the tiers of who needs something tweaked differently.

My kids- IQ’s in that range both, have attended high quality schools where there is no gifted education. Being in a diverse learning environment, not feeling they need to be globally gifted and comfortable with what they are great at, and what they are not great at has been very, very positive for them.

For most kids, hot housing is not the answer. I think for the truly (even on CC) remarkable few something different is needed.

Read Maureen Neihart.