(Partners Allied for Gifted Education & Support)
"Until every gifted child can attend a school where the brightest are appropriately challenged in an environment with their intellectual peers, America can't claim that it's leaving no child behind." --Jan and Bob Davidson with Laura Vanderkam, in Genius Denied
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Dear Parents and Educators:
PAGES of Hernando (Partners Allied for Gifted Education and Support) was founded in 2006 by concerned parents and educators in a desire to help the gifted children in our community.
Our goals include, but are not limited to, providing support to parents of gifted children and their families, disseminating information about raising and educating gifted children, fostering community awareness of the needs of gifted children, and promoting the use of home, school, and community resources for their benefit. Most people believe the smartest kids in schools are the ones who earn the top grades, raise their hands often and are praised by their teachers. Experts tell us this is not the case.
By providing quick and easy access to the answers you are looking for and giving you the tools to make informed decisions, we aim to equip you and assist you in ensuring your child meets his or her full potential.
PAGES welcomes support and participation from all interested parents, community members, and educators. Membership in our support group is free and can be submitted electronically via the "Join" tab above. If you have any questions or would like more information about our organization, please contact us.
TEN MYTHS ABOUT GIFTED EDUCATION
Myth:
Gifted students don't need help; they'll do fine on their own.
Myth:
Teachers challenge all the students, so gifted kids will be fine in the regular classroom.
Myth:
Gifted students make everyone else in the class smarter by providing a role model or a challenge.
Myth:
All children are gifted.
Myth:
Acceleration options, such as early entrance, grade skipping, or early exit can be socially harmful for gifted students.
Myth:
Gifted education programs are elitist.
Myth:
That student can't be gifted; he's receiving poor grades.
Myth:
Gifted students are happy, popular, and well adjusted in school.
Myth:
This child can't be gifted; he is in special education.
NOW READ THE TRUTHS that replace the myths.
Could my child be gifted?
While it may seem that gifted kids should be able to do well in any setting, parents, researchers, and specialists who advocate for this sometimes overlooked group point out that many of our brightest child minds become bored, frustrated, and tuned out - both socially and academically - without placement in a gifted program that allows them to move through the curriculum at their own pace and connect with "mental mates" who may hold similar interests. David Palmer, Ph.D., an educational psychologist in California, and author of the newly released book, PARENTS' GUIDE TO IQ TESTING AND GIFTED EDUCATION: All You Need to Know to Make the Right Decisions for Your Child (Parent Guide Books), says that while many schools do an excellent job of finding these kids using screening methods like teacher recommendations and group IQ testing, parents shouldn't be entirely dependent on the schools when it comes to identification. Keep in mind that many teacher training programs require little, if any, course work in giftedness, so some teachers and school administrators may not have all the information they need to recognize gifted children. There are also gifted kids who are not particularly high achievers in the classroom or who don't do well on group tests. These kids may have problems with attention, have poor organizational skills, or simply not mesh with the teaching style in the classroom, and therefore may be overlooked when it comes to selection of gifted program candidates. Continued here...
Click Here for Developmental Guidelines
Click Here for a Characteristics Checklist
Research indicates that up to 20 percent of high school dropouts test in the gifted range.
Nearly half of gifted students are underachieving.
Highly intelligent children often hide their intellectual abilities in order to make friends. Girls especially will "dumb down" to fit in with their peers.
Gifted students are frequently misdiagnosed as hyperactive or as having Attention Deficit Disorder because boredom often leads to them being inattentive in class.
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Interested in serving on Hernando's
Gifted Advisory Council?
Upcoming elections will take place on June 3rd at Quest Academy's regularly scheduled Gifted Advisory Council meeting.
For more information, please visit www.questgac.org
Meetings are held the 1st Thursday of each month.
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FEATURED ARTICLE
Failing Our Geniuses
"It Doesn't Take an Einstein to See That Our Schools are Failing Our Smartest Kids"
"The lack of awareness about the benefits of grade skipping is emblematic of a larger problem: our education system has little idea how to cultivate its most promising students" (click on Baby Einstein to read the full article).
GRADE SKIPPING
America’s schools routinely avoid academic acceleration, the easiest and most effective way to help highly capable students. While the popular perception is that a child who skips a grade will be socially stunted, fifty years of research shows that moving bright students ahead often makes them happy.
For more information on acceleration, click on the book
below: A Nation Deceived: How Schools Hold Back America's Brightest Students (The Templeton National Report on Acceleration)
Did you know?
Every year, 200,000 7th & 8th grade students take the SAT or ACT college entrance exams. The majority score as well as high school seniors, who are usually 4 or 5 years older. But the academically stronger members of that pool of 200,000 young test-takers (middle-school students) -- those who score at or above the average score for high school seniors -- are especially gifted. Those students can absorb a whole year's worth of high school in 3 weeks, researchers say. In fact, a few of the very highest scorers on the SAT, as middle-school students, can actually absorb a year's worth of high school in just a week and a half.*
Visit the website of Duke University's Talent Identification Program (click on TIP below) to find out how your child can take the SAT/ACT in 7th grade. The Explore Test, also offered through Duke, is available to 5th & 6th grade students and measures high-school readiness.
* "The Templeton National Report on Acceleration"
Our Mission: PAGES strives to provide support to parents of gifted children and their families, disseminate information about raising and educating gifted children, foster awareness within the community of the needs of gifted children, and promote the use of home, school, and community resources for their benefit.