Unwrapping the Gifted

I heard a fable once about a boy who caught a bee and kept it in a glass box for quite some time. The air holes in the lid allowed the little bee its necessary oxygen but not its freedom. The bee raged against the box’s glass walls, trying mightily to fly on its way, but, of course, it was unable to escape. After many, many days of flying into the walls, the bee began to give up. It had learned the limits of its new home. It now flew within the box’s contained space and ceased to angrily crash into the walls. Days more later, the boy lost interest in his little hostage and took the box’s lid off so the bee could fly away. But it didn’t. Although now having the option of roving as it was able, the bee unknowingly restricted itself to the same space that had once been its cage.

In the children’s book The Story of Ferdinand, by Munro Leaf, Ferdinand the bull chose to take it easy every day, smelling flowers beneath the cork tree instead of wrangling with the other bulls. One day he was stung by a bee and understandably reacted with a big to-do of anger and aggression toward the bee. Those witnessing his reaction assumed him to be the strongest of the bulls. Selected as a result to take on a matador in the bullring, he was woefully ill-prepared for the task. Rather than take on the challenge of the approaching matador waving the big flag, he opted to literally sit it out. Because he had eased through his days smelling flowers, he didn’t know how to do that which he was capable of doing. As one reviewer of the book wrote, “He is praised all around for his power, until the day of his bullfight.”

Our gifted children often experience the same thing! We praise them for their power, but often don’t provide them with a real bullfight. In some cases, they are able to slide through the system (ease through their days smelling flowers) without ever experiencing a real challenge; then, on the day of their bullfight, which may be in high school for some, or in college for others, when they first hit that first hard subject that requires serious study, they are ill-prepared, lacking the study skills and perseverance needed when it comes to facing challenges.

The bee and the bull are both capable of more, yet neither reaches its potential – one due to forced restriction and one due to lack of desire to put forth the effort.

How can we help our gifted children relish a challenge? How can we help them want to put forth the effort when it’s actually needed? How can we help them know that they can b r e a k o u t o f t h e b o x ?

“Appropriate academic accommodations” is the most obvious and most necessary answer, whether those accommodations are achieved via compacting, acceleration, differentiation, telescoping, or other strategies.

But beyond that?

A lot of gifted students get used to getting everything “right” the first or second, sometimes third time that they try it. Many of them, frankly, skate through school. They develop a myth in their own minds that they should always be able to do anything the first or second, sometimes third time that they try it. Yet we as adults know that Life has a different plan for them in that regard. At some point (hopefully sooner rather than later), learning will get more difficult.

When I meet with my GT students, we do HARD work together. And at first this is a big shock to many of them. After they try a problem for the third time and don’t get it, their anxiety levels begin to s k y r o c k e t. Their terror at “not knowing” is palpable.

But we talk about it. I warn them. “This is supposed to be hard. I’m not expecting you to solve these problems lickety-split. It’s okay if you have to try 20 or 30 times before you figure it out. It’s okay if it takes you 20 or 30 minutes of effort to solve just one problem. As a matter of fact, that’s what we’re aiming for here today: hard work and hard thinking. If it’s not challenging for you, then I’m not doing my job right. It’s important to learn how to handle something challenging in Life! This is one place to learn that. Keep after it. You can do it. Stay in the struggle. Relish the challenge!”

And after many, many minutes of attempts, ‘failures,’ and continued attempts, someone ecstatically exclaims: “I did it!!!”

And when they do solve that first hard problem after working so hard at it, we talk about how it feels so much more satisfying to solve a problem you’ve actually had to struggle with than it does to “solve” the problems that are a piece of cake. This is important, because it helps them begin to understand why a hard-earned B in a challenging class is a far more meaningful badge of honor than an easy A in any easy class.

In our modern-day, instant-gratification, fast-food society, kids are growing up with quick access to everything: information, resources, answers, food, and just about anything else their little hearts desire. Fed-Ex can have it there tomorrow. The Internet can show it to them right now. There is less and less anymore that we have to persist after. Which only compounds the myth these gifted little squirts believe about themselves… that they should be able to know it instantly.

I notice some interesting reactions when watching the kids take on these challenges. Some of them, especially at first, don’t have very healthy strategies for dealing with the frustration they feel when they can’t immediately solve a problem. In the beginning, when they still more or less lack the ability to persist on hard problems, they avoid the struggle by turning usually to one of the following:
1- Some will cheat (their eyes slyly glancing to a neighbor’s work, for example)
2- Some will goof off (using their abundant creativity to build castles and monsters with the problem’s manipulatives, or joking around with a neighbor about what they had for lunch)
3- Some will give up (they say “I can’t do this,” or they simply sit quietly and try to wait out the class period, hoping I won’t notice that they’re not actually doing anything)

Extrapolate these reactions ten years into the future. Imagine these gifted youngsters now as college students, experiencing a class that is challenging them like none has ever challenged them before. If they haven’t learned better strategies for coping with challenging work in the intervening years, they will resort to what they know… the coping ‘strategies’ that come easiest: cheating, distracting themselves with something fun (video games, for example), or quitting. Is there a disturbing trend of cheating on our college campuses today? Yes. Do you know any bright kids who turn to a fun distraction the moment what they were doing gets hard? Do any of you know a gifted person who quit college because suddenly school was hard and s/he didn’t know how to deal with the challenge level? Are any of these three options what we want for these kids‽‽ Of course not.

But until we provide them with appropriate academic accommodations and until we help them learn healthy strategies for tackling a challenge, they will continue to resort to the quick and easy escape when faced with a hard problem.

On the other hand, asking for help, being persistent, starting over, taking a break, going at it backwards, trying again, looking at it from another angle… All of these are far better options than cheating, distracting, or quitting!

One very effective (and also very fun) method that I use to help these kids relish a challenge is with the use of the Rush Hour games. Yes, at first glance they look like just some toy for little kids, but I assure you they are far from a simple game for tiny tots! The harder levels will even challenge most adults. Essentially, they consist of a series of puzzles that get incrementally more difficult. The goal in each is to get a certain piece out of the puzzle by figuring out how to move the other pieces out of its way. The original version uses cars (hence the name “Rush Hour Traffic Jam Puzzle”). There’s also a version with safari animals, a version with railroad cars, and a junior version for the very young. You can even play it online.

The stack of numbered puzzle cards (40 or 50 total cards, depending on the version) allows my students to find the right challenge level for themselves. They can move themselves ahead if the puzzles are too easy or they can move themselves back if they think they previously moved themselves ahead too far. It’s fun and it’s HARD and they love it. And I love that it has proven to be such a great way to help them realize that being persistent on hard problems is important … and finally solving those hard problems is far more exhilarating than already knowing the answers.

The following are some comments that I overheard my gifted 3rd and 4th graders saying while working on Rush Hour recently:

“My brain feels like it’s going to explode.”
“I’m getting closer!”
“This thing is a monster!”
“It’s taunting and haunting me…”
“I think I’m about to blow up.”
“It’s like my arch-enemy!”
“Whoa! That took me awhile!”
I also heard the following conversation… One student who is new this year said, “Wow, this is really hard.” Sitting next to her was a student I’ve been working with for a few years. She told the new student: “Don’t tell her it’s hard. She’ll just say something like, ‘Thank you for the compliment.’ You’ll get no sympathy!”

They all worked really hard for our entire time together – and some of them only solved one or two problems. But that doesn’t matter. What does matter is that they were persistently working on hard problems. They weren’t cheating. They weren’t distracting themselves by building towers of cars. They weren’t quitting.

Instead, they were trying again and again and again and again. They were asking for help when they felt like they’d hit a wall. They started over if they felt they’d worked themselves into a corner. They were persistent on something that was exquisitely challenging! And THAT was the success.

So what do they learn and internalize from this activity? Here are direct quotes from the kids:

“If you hear someone else say, ‘I did it,’ it makes you feel like, ‘Okay, I can do it, too.’”
“It helps you know that you can do hard stuff.”
“I realized it took a little while before you could figure out what you were doing.”
“It’s important because it stretches your understanding of persistence and how to handle your frustration and how to think positive thoughts when you’re struggling.”
“It’s important because you have to think a lot and plan alternatives.”
“It’s frustrating and very exercising for your brain. It’s also interesting to think that someone figured out how to make this so hard.” [The person who “figured out how to make it so hard” was Nobuyuki Yoshigahara.]
“It feels like it was worth it!”
“It’s definitely frustrating, but it gets fun.”
“It was interesting and frustrating, but when you solve one you’re happy because you worked hard and didn’t give up.”
“It was hard, frustrating, mean, and intolerant! It wasn’t a happy problem.”
“This is a good problem for the mind because it helps you use your head before you make moves.”
“It was challenging and frustrating and I probably could’ve gotten it if I had worked just a little longer and harder.”
“It stretches your brain. For us, school is not challenging enough. This was good because I feel like I’m learning. It’s good to come in here and do something I have to think about before I can know it.”
“It’s good when it’s hard because we can stretch our learning. And it actually is kinda fun for me when something is challenging.”
“If you only do easy things, you’ll never learn the harder stuff.”
“There might be a challenge up ahead [in the future] that you NEED to do for some reason, so you need to get harder stuff so that you can practice for that day, for that finale.”

I also asked them two questions on their way out the door that day: “On a scale of 1 to 10, how persistent were you today?” Most replied with answers of 9 or 10, a couple with answers of 8. “On a scale of 1 to 10, how frustrated did you get today?” Nearly all of them answered with 10 (or higher, like “ten and seven-fourths”). I replied, “Wonderful!” After the kids left, the other teacher in the room (I use her classroom at that school) said to me, “When you asked that first boy how frustrated he was and he said ‘10’ and you said ‘wonderful’ – I was a bit taken aback at first. I thought, ‘How could that be wonderful?’ But then I thought about it and realized that for these kids it is a good thing because it means they’re actually doing something that’s challenging them.”

Exactly :o)

For anyone interested, you can purchase the various Rush Hour games from Zanca, MindWare, and ThinkFun.

And some related food for thought:

“In the ordinary elementary school situation, children of 140 IQ waste half of their time. Those above 170 IQ waste nearly all of their time. With little to do, how can these children develop power of sustained effort, respect for the task, or habits of steady work?” ~ Children Above 180 IQ Stanford-Binet: Origin and Development, Leta S. Hollingworth, p. 299 ~

“The surest path to positive self-esteem is to succeed at something which one perceived would be difficult. Each time we steal a student's struggle, we steal the opportunity for them to build self-confidence. They must learn to do hard things to feel good about themselves.” ~ Sylvia Rimm ~

“In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins - not through strength but by perseverance.” ~ H. Jackson Brown ~

[A final FYI: The Ferdinand paragraph of today’s post originally appeared in my book, “Intelligent Life in the Classroom.”]

Posted by Tamara Fisher at 7:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)

A few of you here have requested that I write about my experiences teaching gifted Native American children. An article that I wrote on the topic is in the Fall 2007 issue of "Understanding Our Gifted." (That whole issue has a theme of cultural diversity.) Most of today's post is pulled from my article in that issue. (That's why I've waited to cover this topic… Almost everything I wanted to say I had already written, but I needed to wait for it to come out in UOG first.)

The field of gifted education has done a very admirable job in recent years of raising awareness about the under-representation and unique needs of gifted students from culturally and linguistically diverse populations. The National Association for Gifted Children’s efforts to reach out to the teachers of these students through the “Javits-Frasier Teacher Scholarship for Diverse Talent Development” is just one example. All gifted children, whatever their cultural, socioeconomic, or linguistic background, ought to have their unique learning needs acknowledged and met by their schools. Yet, even in our praiseworthy efforts to reach diverse students, our gifted Native American youth continue to be disappointingly overlooked in gifted programs, in research, and in discussions of under-represented populations. Perhaps this is easily attributable to the fact that Native Americans make up a significantly smaller portion of our overall population compared to minorities of Hispanic, African, and Asian descent. But that shouldn’t make them any less worthy of consideration. And thankfully, their “overlooked” status is beginning to change. Research on talent development among Native youth is forthcoming from the National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented, for example.

As a K-12 Gifted Education Specialist for a school district located on an Indian Reservation, understanding, identifying, and meeting the needs of gifted Native American students is of keen importance to me. For a dozen years in this position, accurate and proportional identification has been a goal achieved. My aim here is to shed light on strategies that have worked in my school district and to offer ideas that may assist readers in identifying and serving the needs of the gifted Native youth in their lives.

It is first important to note that the term “Native American” (or, if you prefer, “American Indian”) does not refer to one distinct culture or people. More than 500 different tribes are recognized in the U.S., each with its own unique culture, traditions, and language. For every characteristic or strategy that may apply to the gifted youth of one tribe, the opposite could be true for the gifted youth of another tribe. Please bear in mind, then, that the strategies and characteristics mentioned here are general ones; I strongly recommend that readers view this information through the lens of what they already know about the culture and traditions of the Indian children with whom they work. To best reach the gifted Indian youth in our schools, it is imperative that teachers and gifted specialists become aware of their tribal culture and traditions because these cultures and traditions can greatly influence how a student expresses and utilizes his or her gifts and talents.

EDUCATE YOURSELF
My first suggestion, then, is that teachers and gifted specialists find a means of educating themselves about the cultures and traditions of the Indian students they teach. This doesn’t mean one need become an expert, but simply that an increased awareness of these factors aids in understanding and identifying gifted Native youth who equally need the services of a gifted program. In my case, acquiring knowledge of my Indian students’ culture(s) and traditions has been made easier through a unique opportunity provided to the teachers on our reservation by the local Tribal Education Department. Each fall, the Tribal Ed. Dept. puts on a full day of professional development for every teacher from every school on the reservation. For the past decade, we have learned about powwow etiquette, the Hellgate Treaty that created this reservation, distinctions between the different tribes living here, and cultural traditions like beading and gathering of the bitterroot, among many other topics. We have learned directly from tribal elders, members of the Tribal Council, parents of our students, teachers from the local tribal college, and our students themselves. It is a highly unique opportunity, one that has aided my understanding of the place I live and its first inhabitants. Most importantly, it has helped me to discern how and why a gifted Indian child here may express and utilize his or her talents a bit differently than the so-called mainstream students who also live here do. While an opportunity such as this may not exist in other locations, it does remain an example of what could be created elsewhere, and of the benefits teachers can gain when they do pursue this knowledge, keeping in mind that the indirect beneficiaries are, of course, our students.

CONSIDER ALTERNATIVES
How to identify students for a gifted program is a hotly debated topic in schools and among those in the gifted education field. To IQ test or not to IQ test? If so, which one? What about a matrix or rating scale? There are no easy answers, as much as we may wish there were. A match must first exist between the identification method used (that for which you are identifying) and the services provided. Many great options for identifying gifted Native youth present themselves. A standardized non-verbal abilities test is a good place to begin. An excellent example of one is the NNAT (Naglieri Non-verbal Abilities Test). I also recommend adding to this some version of formalized observation, such as the Kingore Observation Inventory or the Renzulli Rating Scales (Scales for Rating the Behavioral Characteristics of Superior Students, or SRBCSS). It is important to keep in mind when reviewing the results that a gifted Native child may still show up somewhat differently on these measures. For example, my gifted Native students look much different on the “Leadership” section of the SRBCSS than my gifted non-Native students do because their style of leadership is not the same. This is not a problem so long as those reviewing the results know how and why differences may appear. Additionally, a lot of observation over the long-term by both the classroom teacher(s) and by the Gifted Specialist is equally beneficial in the identification of gifted Indian children. In my location, for example, the Indian children tend to be much quieter and more reserved than their non-Native peers are, so it can take more time for their gifts and talents to become apparent to the teachers. As the children become more comfortable with showing what they are capable of, it’s important that we recognize their abilities and provide them with appropriate academic services.

Inherent bias in standardized testing is often alleged but is less often explained. One question that our fourth graders encountered on a national standardized test a number of years ago is a great example. The correct answer necessitated that the child understand what an escalator was. Well, there are only two escalators in the entire state of Montana, the closest of which is a five-hour drive from here and on the other side of the Continental Divide from us (Montana is huge, a geographical diagonal of which is longer than the distance from Washington, DC, to Chicago). Most of our children (of all ethnic backgrounds) missed the question, not for lack of ability, but for lack of exposure. Had the term used been “lariat” or “stick game,” they would have done just fine, although it may then have put kids elsewhere at a disadvantage. An understanding of these types of distinctions is important when determining which children need gifted services. That their backgrounds may influence their understanding (or lack of understanding) of a question is apparent. It is up to us as professionals, then, to notice and distinguish when and why this may occur, and to be sure it doesn’t unnecessarily eliminate a child from appropriate academic services.

WHAT, THEN, TO LOOK FOR?
I've created a document attached to this post that lists a compilation of some characteristics to look for when aiming to identify the gifted Native students in your school. As mentioned before, keep in mind that some of these traits may be different for gifted Indian youth from other tribal cultures. Any variances from this list will be easier to spot the more educated readers are about the tribal culture(s) of their own students. It is not intended to be a “one size fits all” list.

I’d like to comment on a few specific items from the document, the first being academic excellence. I’ve noticed over the years that many of my gifted Native students seem to excel more academically after being identified for the gifted program than they did before. This is not to say that they didn’t stand out academically to begin with, because they did, but rather to point out that the intellectual and academic support that a gifted program offers students can aid in the continued academic development of our gifted Indian youth (just as it ought to and does for all gifted youth).

Additionally, it is important to note that some gifted Indian children feel a conflict between their intellectual aspirations and their cultural expectations. Over the years, I’ve found that many of my gifted Indian students ease this conflict by pursuing intellectually stimulating careers that directly benefit their tribe and reservation community, a level of adaptability I continue to marvel in. The beginnings of this adaptability are apparent in their school years, when they pursue culturally relevant topics for their independent projects in my gifted class, an example of how a gifted program can help these students early on to bridge what is often a gap between their culture and their schooling.

ON-GOING SUPPORT
After being identified, on-going support for gifted Native American children, both in the regular classroom and in the gifted program, is an important piece of the puzzle. Three specific strategies I’ve found useful are 1) continued services, 2) an older role model, and 3) an understanding of “giftedness.” Across the country, gifted programming often stops in middle or high school. Advanced courses may be offered in lieu of a gifted program, but they don’t necessarily offer the same kind of social/emotional and academic support that a gifted specialist can provide. In our district, where gifted services (in addition to advanced courses) are offered clear through the 12th grade, identified students have continuous opportunities to take advantage of gifted programming. This is important for my Native GT students because many of them take longer to develop relationships and they appreciate long-term connections. With a continuation of services into middle and high school, the program can accommodate this style difference.

Native American students typically do not desire to stand out from the crowd, a factor that contributes to the challenges schools often have in identifying them. This factor can also mean an identified student may not want to take advantage of the opportunities provided when he or she is entered into a gifted program. However, matching a newly-identified gifted Indian student with an older gifted Indian student provides a great opportunity for mentoring, as well as a means to help the student understand the benefits of gifted programming and that others like him have been through the same process.

Furthermore, I believe it is imperative to let gifted children know that being gifted and being part of a gifted program isn’t about being “better.” It’s simply a matter of a learning difference – and appropriately accommodating that learning difference. While all gifted children can benefit from this point of view, for my gifted Indian students, whose humility and respectfulness pervade their thoughts and actions, it is a point of view that offers them a sigh of relief. They love being challenged, but they shy away from being “better.” When they understand that being in GT is about reaching their learning needs and not about bestowing golden status on certain students, they embrace the services offered and thrive.

FINAL THOUGHTS
A few years ago, I surveyed the parents of my gifted Indian students to gather some feedback and input from them regarding their perspectives about their child’s learning needs and participation in the gifted program. Two responses in particular underscore the importance of making sure these children are no longer overlooked. When asked, “How has being a part of the gifted program in school helped your gifted Native American child?” they replied:
“She seems more confident of her place in the world and in her tribe.”
“He is less likely to underachieve in school now because he knows that others see his abilities, too.”
These precious children are as much in need of gifted services as any other gifted child. It is high time we make the necessary efforts to change their status from “overlooked” to “identified.”

FOR MORE INFORMATION
Anyone wanting to learn more about this topic might consider visiting the following links:

Philosophical Perspectives of Gifted and Talented American Indian Education

American Indian Students' Values Spring from a Rich Heritage

A Personal Perspective on Tribal-Alaska Native Gifted and Talented Education

Identifying Gifted and Talented American Indian Students: An Overview

American Indian Gifted and Talented Students: Problems and Proposed Solutions

Nurturing Creative/Artistic Giftedness in American Indian Students

Through Navajo Eyes: Examining Differences in Giftedness

Journal of American Indian Education

Posted by Tamara Fisher at 6:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)