What Determines Giftedness?

Finding My Lane

In ninth grade I chose to focus on my art rather than take physical science. It was a good decision. Entering 1974-75 I played trumpet well, my rendering skills were growing, and I was a good student. I remained small in stature but continued to play pick-up games in numerous team sports. Coming into junior high school I thought I would be playing basketball and football. I did not grow as I expected.

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I learned aspects of leadership through observing those in high school and

working with friends my own age.

I balanced two social environments throughout my teens, school and church. I was the son of the Rector at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. I was very sure of myself in the youth group and as an acolyte. There were numerous young people in my church, and I learned aspects of leadership through observing those in high school and working with friends my own age.

Developing Me

School was more difficult for me socially. I had numerous friends but, due to my size, was not as sure of myself at Northside. However, 9th grade would end up being perhaps my best year academically. I never focused on grades, but that year was a great start for my high school transcripts. My peer group was college bound. I wasn’t among the popular crowd, but I had numerous friends.

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My development of talents in the arts would convince me that I could achieve.

The social struggle at school and the personal confidence at St. Paul’s played a significant role in developing a sense of empathy that I would apply in my professional life. My development of talents in the arts would convince me that I could achieve. My interest in sports and the outdoors along with a healthy curiosity would impact later choices I would make concerning career and family.

Was I Gifted?

It was in 9th grade that I encountered the school definition of giftedness. I was a good student with creative talent who was also in the Honor Society. However, when Northside began their gifted program, I was not included. Most of my good friends were. Only a few of them had better marks than I did, but their diagnostic test scores were better. I was an average test taker. I didn’t understand what they were being allowed to participate in because it was very new.

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I became a strong student because I was in advanced classes with other

students who challenged me to keep up.

As a student I was among the most talented in my class in art and music. Was I gifted? Probably not, but my curiosity and creativity helped me learn from others as my exposure to their intellect helped my creative process. I became a strong student because I was in advanced classes with other students who challenged me to keep up. I was, and am, an auditory learner so conversation and questioning allowed my intellectual acuity to grow. I don’t believe that I have been “the best” in anything. I doubt the enriched gifted program would have provided more.

Parents and the Gifted

It wasn’t until I encountered the gifted classification as an educator and parent that I saw the potential damage this could do. As an elementary school principal, I worked with parents who saw the gifted designation as some sort of status symbol for both their children and their self-image as parents. Parents with a particular view of their child would question the process for selecting gifted students when their child did not qualify. We had to convince parents that their children remained eligible for all advanced programs offered at secondary schools.

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Participation data in gifted programs also reveals a tremendous racial bias

that impedes social equality.

Gifted programs in the public schools have represented a slippery slope that on one hand segregates student capacity and on the other promotes an intellectual caste that becomes a possible roadblock in opportunity for non-gifted achievers, particularly in high poverty schools. Participation data in gifted programs also reveals a tremendous racial bias that impedes social equality. (Why Decades of Trying to End Racial Segregation in Gifted Education Hasn’t Worked: The hechingerreport.org, Danielle Dreilinger, October 14, 2020) Isolating giftedness denies its benefits to gifted students and an entire school.

The Best Teams Use All Gifts

We often generalize gifted behaviors as awkward or “quirky” at the expense of what gifted students can bring to the general population. This has the potential to make normal social adjustment difficult engendering a sense of superiority that makes normal peer relationships challenging. This can cause deficits in traits such as leadership and intellectual empathy which can have a negative impact on success with others in the workplace.

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Integrating ability provides models that demonstrate determination, humility,

and patience necessary to solve problems or think critically.

Competition can be a great motivator in achievement in any field. I often credit the competitiveness I learned playing sports for my determination to succeed in school. However, intellectual and athletic attributes are most effective when used in concert with other traits exhibited by those not deemed gifted, such as social acuity, empathy, and leadership. Integrating ability provides models that demonstrate determination, humility, and patience necessary to solve problems or think critically. These so-called soft skills are learned traits that require social interaction with different intellectual traits.

The Best Learn to Value the Determined

In the sports analogy, soft skills allow superior athletes to work with average athletes to achieve team goals and accolades. Coaches know that not all members of the team are gifted athletes and winning depends on how variations in ability mesh as a unit. Gifted students, like athletes, need to be integrated with their peers to build relationships that can benefit an understanding of community that can build success.

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Attempts to predetermine a child’s level of giftedness ignores the unique

aspects of personality and intellect that promote achievement.

All children learn. Through biology, environment, experience, and choice, children encounter their path. Attempts to predetermine a child’s level of giftedness ignores the unique aspects of personality and intellect that promote achievement. Determining giftedness through a series of tests or models can miss other characteristics that bring success. A classroom community devised with the knowledge that every individual student is unique would benefit children with intellectual gifts, the social child, the critical thinker, and the hesitant participant. This would promote the strengths of individuals while enhancing the value of diverse passions or skill sets.

©Paul A Bonner