1.22.09: Theory Thursday: Giftedness

My oldest and I are on a panel this weekend, at a Gifted Homeschoolers Conference. In thinking about what might be asked of us, I began ruminating about some of my theories regarding education. I will share a few here, as I debut a new feature, “Theory Thursday.”

I think it’s interesting that we were chosen for the panel, considering I have never used the label “gifted” for any of my children. Not that I don’t think that they are, or have the potential to be, it’s just that it is a label I was stuck with, felt I had to live up to, and generally suffered miserably under, and, thus, not baggage I want to foist upon my kids.

That said, I feel my son is gifted in many ways. He’s been active in robotics since he was six years old. Building sound structures (sounds like engineering to me!), plotting angles for the robot(s) to traverse (geometry, anyone?)…all this is pretty heady stuff for a kid his age.

If I were another type of person, I might fall into the “So now I need to do more…push more!” mindset. You know it…you’ve seen it:

“How old was Katie when she first sat up? Carter was 5 months….is that bad?”

“Caleb can speak already? How old is he?”

“You got into Chi Chi Ginormously Expensive Preschool That Feeds into Ridiculously More Expensive Private School That Fees into Harvard & Stanford? We didn’t get on the waiting list as soon as the stick turned pink, so now I think we’ll end up at Mundane Generic Preschool that Feeds into “Regular” School, The One With No Bright Future, for our genius Sammy.”

Not pretty is it?

And, homeschoolers do it, too. We second guess ourselves and wonder if our children are performing at “grade level.” By whose standards? They very establishment we’ve eschewed to homeschool, hello! At Park Day we’ll huddle together in our portable lounge chairs under the trees as our children happily play elaborate and creative games, and ask each other for curriculum recommendations because we’re afraid Dani just doesn’t “get” Math. And, clearly, it must because we’re doing something “wrong.”

I don’t buy into the grade level thing. Yeah, my kids are in whatever “grade” corresponds to their traditionally schooled peers, but more because it would take me too long to explain to a non-homeschooling parent, otherwise! But, generally speaking, I do what I think works best for my kids. My daughter is an amazing reader, and probably reads at the same grade level as my oldest son and he is three years older. Yet, due to the aforementioned robotics aspect, he probably knows quite a bit about subjects that his traditionally schooled peers won’t get into for another few years (unless they are blessed enough to be in a school that offers such enrichment activities as robotics)!

From my background in Early Childhood Education, I knew that (generally speaking), boys develop manual dexterity a bit later than girls do. Thus, when a friend took me to a curriculum fair the spring before we began homeschooling, I avoided the “Teach Your Child Handwriting in Kindergarten” books (and trust me, there really are some books that preach that out there).

Rather, I taught my then five year old how to knit. It was fun, he’d seen me do it for as long as he could remember, and it built up his hand-eye coordination and his manual dexterity. The result? He has beautiful print. With this early homeschooling success story, you’d think I was chomping at the bit to teach him handwriting exactly when he reached 3rd grade, wouldn’t you? Nope. I wanted him to be well grounded and fluent with his manuscript skills before introducing another concept to master. Why did I have to teach cursive just then? Who would see it? I just followed my own gut and it’s worked out just fine. His handwriting is coming along beautifully as well!

I approach education from a far more developmental perspective, and don’t buy into the “Teach to the Test” mentality that traditionally schooled teachers are mandated to have. While the latter is tied to funding, my style is based on intimate knowledge of my own children, their learning styles, and personalities. I remember all too well, many a night of cramming in college, only to parrot the information on the test and do a huge brain dump right after….and do I remember any of what I studied?

I’d far rather my children be life-long learners with a passion for information than Jeopardy contestants (yeah, it worked for Mr. Jennings…but you get my drift)!  I remember enough bits & pieces to play Trivial Pursuit, however I was not allowed the pursuit of what I wanted to study and what I found interesting, and what, in my mind, would have made for a much higher retention rate.

So, with all that said, welcome to my first Theory Thursday….As Bette Davis said, “Fasten your seat belts, it’s going to be a bumpy ride!”

© 2009, Marie Stroughter; All rights reserved. No part of this article may be reproduced without written permission.