I came across a post by Perry Marshall yesterday entitled, “The gigantic horrible lie about education” (catchy, no?) and I thought I’d pass it along. It touches on some issues very close to my heart, as I come from a “gifted” educational background and recall very well the stigma attached to those who were and were not a part of this hand-selected group of elite learners. Perry touches on this concept of things we should just know by a certain age, and he insightfully addresses the net effect of these expectations on people who are negatively impacted by them:
If you apply ANY test to ANY group of people, it’s gonna shake down to 80/20. Doesn’t matter if it’s history or math or Pokemon or soccer or belly dancing or model trains, 20% of the people have 80% of the capability.
He goes on to share his thoughts on the conundrum:
There are 6 billion people in the world and every single one is a diamond in some stage of being polished. Life is either going to polish you up or grind you down. And the difference between the two lies in how much hope you have, how much faith you have in the fact that you do carry something special on the inside, that’s waiting to get out. Many give up, not knowing they were only 10 minutes from triumph.
Your job, should you choose to accept it, is to discover your uniqueness.
Bingo. Read the full article here. Hat tip to @nickreese for the tweet about it.
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I was tested in the first or second grade and was a few points shy of being labeled as “gifted”. I spent the rest of my education being bored and doubting my intelligence!
It took a long time to overcome, but now I’m figuring out my uniqueness and how I want to contribute to this world! :)
I was just having a discussion with someone yesterday about Howard Gardener’s Theory of Multiple intelligences and how these scoring systems by which we label developing students actually causes problems—both for the seemingly “intelligent” and for those who feel like they aren’t.
My gifted classification (I have no idea when or how I was tested for it) certainly isn’t something that came in handy as I was struggling with math in college. I actually took Precal twice before passing the third time. I have colleagues whose degrees don’t say the right thing (according to corporate standards) and who would be MUCH better consultants than me…but none of that matters.
The system is broken.
I was going to post the same thing, Corey. Missed being gifted by a few points in second grade, spent the next 10 grades bored, unchallenged, lacking confidence, and sure that my sister was way smarter than I.
As far as the article goes, I’m not sure I believe him. I think there are some people who will rise to the top of whatever field they’re in, and there are some people who will sink to the bottom, regardless. Of course, it’s not politically or socially expedient to say such things, because as J.D. Salinger said, “All morons hate it when you call them a moron.”
I was watching ski jumping or luge recently and one of the commentators made an excellent point. He and his cohort were talking about how the judges try to make it fair by making sure the course conditions are as similar as possible. Things like making sure the ice stays the same thickness and hardness, that the wind and lighting conditions are favorable, that sort of thing. And the commentator, “ya know, even when those conditions are grossly unfair to everyone, it’s still the same four or five guys in the top spot every time.” People who are bound to be great are going to be great regardless, whether by talent, hard work, or some combination of both.
Dude, I don’t know that gifted classes challenged any of us more than students in the regular classes. I can think of most of the people in my gifted class in Elementary…and there’s no difference between their level of academic and professional achievement at this point than anyone else’s. In some cases, frankly, it’s below average.
This video is one of my favorites on the topic.
#wordtoyourmother
And yours. Pow.
Yeah, I’m one of those gifted weirdos.. I remember taking the test at age 7, having to relate those shapes together and stuff. I took a ‘gifted class’ in middle school, and we didn’t do anything. ANYTHING. I played Tetris and tried to solve jigsaw puzzles for an hour. Waste of time. It took place of the geography period, of course- and you know what? I’ve never taken a geography class. Ever in my life.
If being “gifted” did anything for me however, it was being called just that- being told I was smarter than my peers, was more capable of more challenging work, and was going to be more than my small town statistic. It instilled a confidence in me that was easily seen/shown in my academic abilities. I did better because I was told I could… because I was expected to.
I wonder what kind of student I would have been if I weren’t gifted. Hm.
Therein lies the question.