Even though they have high IQ’s, many times gifted children find school boring and mundane. They feel isolated and frustrated with the normal classroom setting. Efforts have been made to enhance the gifted child’s learning, however many times they fall short of what the child needs. Some schools have extension classed however they are not harder; they just require more work. It is important that a school find a good program for gifted children so that they will succeed in school.
Separating the gifted children from the rest of the children in extension classes has its advantages and disadvantages. One of the advantages of providing separate programs for gifted and talented students is that many gifted children enter school excited to learn, only to find that that the lessons are about things they already know. Also, even if they do not already know the information being taught gifted children learn at a much faster pace. The average student needs several repetitions to understand a subject. A gifted child does not need the repetition. He understands it right away and is ready to move on. Gifted children become bored and lose interest if they are not challenged. If the gifted child is lucky enough to have a teacher who will give him or her special work, that child will be a success.
Special programs are great for gifted children, they need that stimulation however there can be some down sides to that idea if there are not many gifted children in a group. Gifted children see the world differently than everyone else. They are stronger critical thinkers and see beyond the box. Many times they connect better with adults than peers because adults provide more stimulating conversation that is more interesting to them.
Gifted children tend to be loners too. If they are not in with a large group of children they can easily become isolated. They do need isolation at times so they can focus on their gifts, however too much isolation is unhealthy.
Gifted children many times are perfectionists. They are very hard on themselves if they cannot achieve perfection so being with other children who are average and mess up sometimes can be beneficial in making the gifted child see that it is okay to be less than perfect.
The ideal setting for a gifted child is for them to be in separate programs for their core subjects. They should be with other children for electives and play time though so that they do not become isolated and alone.
References
(Bainbridge C 2009 Attention and Gifted Children)http://giftedkids.about.com/od/schoolissues/qt/inattentive.htm
(Freeman J Jensen A 1999 Joy and Loss: Emotional Lives of Gifted Children)http://www.kidsource.com/kidsource/content4/joy.loss.eq.gifted.html