We have all had them in our midst- all round students who seem to excel at everything they choose to do.
According to the literature review by UNESCO about gifted children, gifted children is a broad definition that includes intellectual, academic and artistic prowess. Each child is unique in talent and ability but when addressing giftedness, a holistic approach to intelligence, academia and creativity has to be taken.
The ancient Greeks believed that wisdom and intelligence were important in society in that gifted people could use their intelligence and wisdom to impact the world. A few such people dared to challenge existing systems. In Greek mythology; the story of Arachne (Greek name for a spider) which has several versions; in one version, this exceptional weaver dared to compete with Athena, the goddess of wisdom, war and handcraft and herself a weaver. Arachne won the contest, enraging and offending goddess Athena so much that she transformed Arachne into a spider to remain a weaver for all her life!
Reading around gifted children I came across three websites among them https://www. davidsongifted.org run by the Davidson Institute of University Nevada, Reno campus.
The Institute has been in existence since 1999 and its main goal is to identify, nurture, accelerate and support gifted children in USA to reach their highest potential.
Among the common traits of gifted children:
- They have the ability to comprehend material several grade levels above their age peers.
- They have surprising emotional depth and sensitivity at a young age
- A strong sense of curiosity
- Absorb information quickly and can find simple patterns in complex information; connecting seemingly unrelated aspects.
- Are enthusiastic about unique interests and topics.
- Creative problem solving and imaginative expression
- Have a mature sense of humour,
- Socially aware, aware of global issues.
Gifted children tend to be overlooked in traditional classrooms but the Davidson institute works to identify them early in life and place them in a supportive environment to develop academically, emotionally and socially to their highest potential.
The Intelligence quotient (IQ) is used to measure a person’s reasoning ability or mental aptitude compared to a group their peers. It tests one’s ability to use information and logic to answer questions or make predictions. There are about 9 reliable, standard IQ tests but the most
widely used are: the Wechesler Adult Intelligence Scale which takes 60-75 minutes to complete
and the Stanford- Binet intelligence scale designed by Alfred Binet in the 1900s,the father of IQ tests.
Only those tests administered by a trained psychologist can provide reliable results.
Most people score between 70-130
110-119- above average
120-140- Gifted
Over 140- geniuses or profoundly gifted.
80-90- below average
Under 70- definite feeble-minded.
Terence Tao, a Chinese –American mathematician, is currently said to have the highest IQ score in the world, between 225-230!
Some gifted children have high intelligence test scores, others have high levels of creativity while others have the ability to focus on a task and a few have a combination of these three.
The last time I visited my grandchild at her international school, to celebrate Grandparents day, she was withdrawn- far removed from the enthusiastic, spontaneous and talkative girl I know at home. I could not put a finger on the cause of her despondency but I alerted the mother. Time has proved my fears right. She has just been promoted to a new class and has a new class teacher. She keeps telling her mother that she misses her previous teacher. She added that they are not learning new things and she was getting bored. She is no longer enthusiastic about going to school in the mornings.
She has always learned things fast, has a strong sense of curiosity- always asking “why’’ and “is that all?’’
She has an enviable memory. She enjoys being read to and working on puzzles but still wants to help in the kitchen. Most likely the new teacher is not bringing out the best out of her and the class work may not be challenging enough to her brain.
This reminded me of the characteristics of gifted children and the need for the education system to pick them and come out with programmes that stimulate higher education achievement and accelerate their progress. Otherwise they are suffocated early in childhood.
My country, Uganda, is among the least developed countries in the world and like all African countries, its education system focuses on equity and raising achievement among low performing pupils. Learning to read and write and do simple maths is the basic requirement for any child to navigate today’s increasingly globalised and competitive world.
A few countries in the world like Singapore, India, Hong Kong and Norway have come up with targeted education programmes to offer a conducive environment that raise the performance of gifted and talented children. The children go through the curriculum faster and explore the subjects in greater depths. Such programmes group the gifted children together, maximise the potential of the highest-attaining students, target their specific needs to increase their potential. When grouped together, they learn more from each other and even compete further.
Proverb 27:17 says : People learn from one another , just as iron sharpens iron.
Surprisingly, some innovative teachers in Kings College Buddo, the most prestigious co-educational school in Uganda then, recognised that they had a number of gifted boys and girls in their school. Since Uganda had no Education policy about such students, the teachers came up with their own programme mainly to offer a challenging curriculum to these high- attaining students.
The top students in the first term of senior one were selected to participate in this Express programme as it was known by then. They were grouped together and started on a challenging curriculum that compressed the conventional secondary curriculum of four years into three years. They were also encouraged to join extracurricular activities like sports and music. True to form, these young students delivered; each passing on average five of the eight subjects taken by each student with distinctions (score of 75 and above). They went on to study for A-levels in the same school. They continued to perform brilliantly and many of them joined the then only national university, Makerere, for Medicine and agriculture and some joined the university of Nairobi for engineering, veterinary medicine, a few were awarded scholarships to study other professions like chemical engineering and dentistry that were not offered in other African universities of the time. The Express programme was started in 1965 when Ian Robinson was the headmaster of Kings College Buddo. It stopped in 1971 when Amin Dada, the then President of Uganda, expelled Asians from Uganda. Many expatriate staff in schools, vocational colleges and university left en masse between August 1971 and 1972.
By the time I joined the then only medical school in Uganda, in July 1972, I had the privilege to study with more than six of these gifted students from Buddo. They were younger than us who had gone through the conventional four years of secondary education. They were down- to – earth students, highly curious , questioning everything and had a sense of humour. They read voraciously and they brought a lot of depth to the topics of anatomy, physiology, local and global politics that we discussed at the cadaver tables and in the students common room. They always wanted to understand the big picture while holding themselves and all of us to high standards.
They pushed many of us to do more and become better students. It was a healthy competitive environment. They also learned something from us. The learning environment was tense due to the brutality and violence of Amin’s regime but we formed strong bonds and looked out for each other. Due to the civil strife, many of us left Uganda after internship in search of a conducive environment for career growth and development and both social and economic well-being.
As I write now, one of them is a clinical pharmacologist in Townsville, Australia, another is a paediatrician/neonatologist in Toronto, Canada, another recently retired after working with the giant Pfizer pharmaceutical company for some decades, another one has been working as a surgeon in the Critical Care speciality at the Lincoln hospital, New York City and another has been practicing as a gynaecologist in South Africa since the days of Apartheid. He had incredible courage and determination to repeat his postgraduate degree from Makerere which was by then not recognised in South Africa!
Only last week, we buried here in Uganda, a world renowned cardiac specialist who was based in Sydney, Australia for over three decades.
In my school, a prestigious girls school which was predominantly run by young women from the Church Missionary Society of Britain, only one student was allowed to cover four years of secondary education in three years. She was a profoundly gifted student who needed to be occupied with a challenging curriculum. The headmistress had wanted a few of us who used to finish our assignments early and ended up being idle and naughty, to be considered for the three years’ programme. She was overruled by the majority of the teachers.
The children of the digital technology- driven 21st century have a lot of stimulation around them in the form of computer tablets, smart phones and TVs. They learn faster by reading, watching and listening to audio clips. They are forced to think fast and do more for themselves as long as this global access to knowledge is not abused.
As for my fast – learning grandchild, the parents and her teachers have to work out a programme that keeps her engaged, encourages her to explore more, be creative and answers her many ‘’Why’’ questions. It may require a change of schools.
“All great men and women are gifted with intuition. They know without reasoning or analysis what they need to know.’’ – Alexis Carrel
QUESTION:
How are you daring to be “you’’ by breaking the conventional ways of doing things?
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