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OUR FUTURE
AND GIFTED EDUCATION
What You Sow, You Shall Also Reap

  • "They can't be serious!" I thought as I read the memo from the TAG office. "The Portland Public Schools is considering cutting their programs for TAG students? That's as ridiculous as cutting programs for the handicapped, the homeless, or the elderly." But then stranger things have happened! Since the memo also asked TAG supporters to attend the April 13th board meeting, I decided to prepare a short testimonial on behalf of services and programs for Talented and Gifted youngsters. Assuming it would be quite a simple task, I plunged right in.

  • EVERY CHILD HAS A RIGHT TO A FREE AND APPROPRIATE PUBLIC EDUCATION. Appropriateness is based on ability and achievement. If a youngster has a fifth grade reading level, he needs to be taught at a fifth grade level and helped to progress to a sixth grade level. Whether that youngster is chronologically 6 or 16 is irrelevant. It's inappropriate to have a child with a sixth grade reading level reading "See Dick Run" just because she happens to be six years old. This child needs to be reading the newspaper. It's inappropriate to have a child who is capable of doing Calculus still doing division. An extraordinarily high number of gifted students do poorly in school and even drop out because schools don't meet their intellectual needs. According to an article entitled, "Kids who Know Too Much" in the January 22, 1989, issue of Northwest Magazine, it is estimated that 24% of high school drop-outs are gifted.

  • "Not bad for a beginning," I thought, "but this is harder than I anticipated. Now, what else?"

  • ALL YOUNGSTERS NEED APPROPRIATE PEERS AND FRIENDS. A 10 year old with a mental age of 16 doesn't fit in with other 10 year olds, nor with other 16 year olds. He needs another 10 year old with a mental age of 16. A 15 year old girl who is more interested in lasers than in chasing boys or being "popular" needs another student who's interested in lasers and who doesn't think she's a "nerd". Gifted students' lack of real peers (individuals with common interests, abilities, values, and lifestyle) is one of the main contributers to their extremely high rate of drug/alcohol abuse, mental illness and suicide. In a Connecticut study, 19% of age 12-28 suicides were intellectually and artistically gifted. How would you feel if you had no one to share your ideas, interests, hopes, fears, and frustrations? Isolated, alone, misunderstood? Wouldn't you get depressed and feel life wasn't worth living? Gifted kids do.

  • "That oughta make 'em squirm a little," I smiled to myself, "but it's not enough. I need to get really tough!"

  • IF IMPROPERLY NURTURED AND EDUCATED, GIFTED YOUNGSTERS CAN BECOME A POWERFUL NEGATIVE FORCE IN SOCIETY. Like the little girl who had a little curl right in the middle of her forehead, "when they're good, they're very, very good and when they're bad, they are horrid." According to "Kids who Know Too Much", 50% of the prisoners on death row in Oregon and Washington have IQ's over 130. Another study showed that 17% of the federal penitentary population has a measured IQ of over 130, and that the average IQ of kidnapper is 142. Think of the havoc wrecked up our society by Ted Bundy, Charles Manson, and Al Capone? What if their talents could have been used in a positive way? What if one of the world's most gifted leaders, Adolf Hitler, would have used his extraordinary abilities for the betterment instead of the destruction of society? Think what he could have accomplished had he been appropriately nurtured and educated? Imagine what could have come from his convincing his followers to, in his name, lovingly help, serve and comfort instead of savagely torture and murder millions of people!

  • Because the Gifted usually rise to positions of great responsibility, even the most well-intentioned can create severe problems for our society if they are not emotionally healthy. Joseph Hazlewood, the captain of the Exxon Valdez, is an extraordinarily intelligent person and, when sober, a fine ship captain. Yet because of his alcohol problem, the ocean, shores, and wildlife around Prince William Sound in Alaska suffered irreparable damage in the worst ecological disaster of the century. If only he could have had help with (or better yet, prevention of) his problem while still a youngster.

  • As I reviewed what I had written, I realized this task was much more diffifult than I had ever imagined. Trying to come up with a rationale for services and programs for Gifted youngsters was like trying to come up with a rationale for cleaning up the oil spill, for preserving our wildlife, rainforests and ozone layer, for recycling, proper disposal of toxic waste, finding cures for cancer and AIDS, or avoiding nuclear war. It seemed so blatantly obvious, so logical and simple. "What other choice do we have?" I asked myself, "The very survival of our planet and our species depends on dealing with these issues. How can we not nurture and educate the very people who will have to solve most of these problems?" To be required to justify it seemed ludicrous! I felt angry!

  • Suddenly, the answer hit me; WE NEED GIFTED PEOPLE TO DEAL WITH OUR WORLD'S PROBLEMS, AND THEY NEED TO BE APPROPRIATELY EDUCATED AND EMOTIONALLY HEALTHY TO DO SO! OUR FUTURE DEPENDS ON THEM! "WHAT YOU SOW, YOU SHALL ALSO REAP".
  • The average person won't be able to discover a cure for cancer, AIDS, Alzheimer's disease or the common cold. We need gifted, well-educated, emotionally healthy physicians, biochemists, biophysicists, microbiologists, and immunologists.

  • Who will create ways to clean up our environment and preserve our rain forests, ozone layer, and wildlife? Who will study the long term effects of the oil spill, toxic waste dumps and other environmental pollution? These tasks are beyond the ability of the majority of the population. We need gifted, well-educated, emotionally healthy researchers, environmentalists, wildlife biologists, meteorologists, oceanographers, and physicists.

  • Who will preserve our culture and help us understand ourselves? Who will bring truth, beauty, joy and laughter to our all-too-often unhappy lives? We need gifted, well-educated, emotionally healthy artists, musicians, dancers, actors, film-makers, photographers, writers, and comedians.

  • Who will design and construct safe planes, ships, cars, dams, bridges, buildings and homes? Who will determine the causes of tragedies such as the explosion of the Challenger and the recent explosion on the U.S.S. Iowa and discover ways to prevent future catastrophes? Most people don't have the capacity for these complex undertakings. We need gifted, well-educated, emotionally healthy astrophysicists, architects, and civil, mechanical and aeronautical engineers. We certainly need ship captains and pilots without drug or alcohol problems!

  • Who will find ways to solve our growing social problems of homelessness, illiteracy, violent crime, child and wife abuse, drug/alcohol abuse and other addictive behaviors, and mental illness? Who will teach, monitor, and maintain ethics and moral values in business, politics, and law? We need gifted, well-educated, emotionally healthy social scientists, psychiatrists, psychologists, sociologists, clergy, judges, attorneys, educators, historians, social workers, and philosophers.

  • Who will discover a way to pay our national debt, balance the budget, and prevent unemployment, inflation, and depression? Who will figure out how to support us when we get old and the Social Security System is broke? We will need gifted, well-educated, emotionally healthy economists and financial analysts.

  • Who will negotiate treaties with other countries and prevent World War III and the total destruction of our world? It won't be you or me. We need gifted, well-educated, and extremely emotionally healthy leaders, diplomats, and politicians.

  • Apparently, a lot of folks felt the same way I did. So many showed up at the school board meeting in support of TAG that the possibility of dropping the program was dismissed. I didn't have to give my testimony. But if I had, it would have ended like this:

  • When deciding on services and programs for Talented and Gifted youngsters, you don't have to think of what's best for THEM. Just think of what's best for YOU. Think of what's best for all people, and for the future of our society and our planet. We need these gifted youngsters as much as we need nutritious food, unpolluted water, and clean air. Today they depend on us for their intellectual and emotional growth like the seed depends on the farmer. But farmers do not question whether or not to water, fertilize and care for their little plants. They know that what they sow, they will also reap, and that the tiny seed, if properly planted and nurtured, will give back to them tenfold. Gifted youngsters, properly nurtured and educated, will grow strong and give back to us tenfold. The Three Wise Men gave Baby Jesus gifts, knowing He would give back to them a thousandfold. Let us be wise and know that providing these youngsters appropriate services and programs is "giving a gift that keeps on giving; sowing seeds that will reap an abundant harvest." They need us. We need them. Their future depends on us. OUR FUTURE DEPENDS ON THEM!!!

    This article was written for and printed in “A Different Drummer”, the Journal of the Oregon Association for the Talented And Gifted . Thank you for taking the time to read it. If you are interested in obtaining copies of any of the numerous articles I have written, please contact me.

    Email: DrVickie@att.net

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