Give Them a Good Experience: Even If Just During Their Time With You

Several years ago, I taught a highly gifted child, who simply didn’t fit the current educational system. He had unusual ideas about a variety of topics. He questioned, well, just about everything. He found much of the curriculum, for lack of a better word, boring. And he was a little rebellious (depending on the day).

He struggled with grades and often found himself at odds with teachers. In the mornings, before class, he would share his ideas with me and ask my opinion. He called it our “debates.” I managed to arrange for him to research his current interest (genetically modified foods) as part of his gifted program and share his findings with classmates. He seemed happy and was thriving in his own way.

Then, he graduated to middle school (on the same campus) the next year and “failed” miserably. He argued with teachers (even more) and did not have the supports in place that helped him make it through elementary school. Eventually, he transferred schools, and I lost touch with him.

I considered his story a failure—as an example of my inability to help this child. Then, I met Dr. Jim Delisle at a gifted education conference, and my whole outlook changed. I shared the story with Delisle during a workshop he conducted on underachieving gifted students. He shared a similar story of his own and told me that I, at least, made this child’s year better during his time with me. Rather than see it as a failure, he said view it as giving the student “a good year or two.”

Thus, my challenge to you is to find an underachieving gifted child (research shows about half of gifted learners experience underachievement-or the gap between potential and performance at some point in their school career) and give them a good year. Think of that student who doesn’t fit the school mold, who questions things, who gets bored easily, who has trouble making friends, and enrich their experience.

Now, I can’t issue such a challenge without advice how to address it. Here’s a few suggestions based on my own experience, research with underachieving gifted learners, and advice from Delisle.

Give Them a Voice

These students need to be heard and need to regain dignity. Put yourself in their position. They struggle with academics, and therefore, they often feel like failures. They constantly hear from adults about their shortcomings and very seldom have a chance to feel positive emotion and express themselves.  Provide them a chance to speak and then listen. It could be a quick chat before school, maybe have lunch together, or sit with them during recess—whenever you find a few minutes. Ask them some questions about their life—outside of school. Become interested in their interests. Tell them to share their ideas and promise you won’t judge them.

Tie the Curriculum to their Interests

Delisle told a story about his former underachieving gifted student, who refused to do his work, calling it “irrelevant.” Once Delisle learned the boy’s interests, he revised his curriculum and the boy began to thrive. Get creative about finding ways to weave the student’s interests in lessons—and make learning relevant.

Understand the Difference between Underachievers and Selective Consumers

In his book, When Gifted Kids Don’t Have All the Answers, Delisle and co-author, Judy Galbraith, distinguish between underachievers and what they call “selective consumers.” Underachievers tend to withdraw, are dependent, respect or fear authority figures, and require structure and imposed limits while selective consumers are independent, tend to rebel, see teachers are adversaries, and require little structure. Understanding this key difference helps you determine the proper strategies to employ (I wrote a blog about the strategies at http://www.educationworld.com/content/selective-consumer but suggest studying the topic in more depth by reading Delisie’s book).

Despite following the above strategies, you may never “win.” When students leave your classroom, they may fail or make poor choices. They may never reach their potential—but their time with you could be the best years of their school career. Following Delisle’s story of his turn-around student, he commented that the story did not end happily-apparently the student did not find success as an adult.  I questioned whether then his efforts failed, to which Delisle replied “at least, he had a few good years with me.”