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What is a gifted child?
本帖最后由 annie0002 于 2014-4-24 14:33 编辑
by Peter Walters, (BA,Dip.Tchg)
We reproduce here the first part of the article "Why Help the Gifted?" by the founder president of the NZAGC. In answering this question, discussed:
1. What is a gifted child?
2. What are the needs of the gifted child?
3. How can we help the gifted child?
This first part answers the first question. The answers to the other two questions make up the second and third parts of his article, which will be published in subsequent issues.
I do not intend to deal at length with the many studies that have been carried out in the past concerning identification of gifted children and the efforts to establish what is a gifted child. The term itself should not be understood as the child with gifts as opposed to the child without gifts. I understand by the term ìgifted childî, the child who is in some aspects of human potential and/or achievement far advanced beyond what normally would be expected of a child of his/her chronological age. Because of this, that child has particular needs and problems, which need specific attention.
Talented children are those where such advancement occurs in one specific aspect of human endeavour, say, talented in sport or art or music or mathematics.
Gifted children are those children where such advancement occurs on a range of human endeavours. The advancement could be set at about two to three years or more beyond his chronological age. In intellectual potential this means from about the 95th percentile onwards, i.e. the child who in a reputable IQ test does better than 95% or more of the children of his/her age. Many people, especially in the education profession, frown upon IQ tests. It has been said to me that they only test the ability of the child to gain high marks in IQ tests. This is of course true. However, it cannot be denied that there is a very significant correlation between such IQ scores and the potential of high achievement. We emphasise to parents that an IQ score is only a potential. It should not be read as absolute. The child could in fact have a higher potential, as achievement in a test can be affected by various indeterminate factors.
Traditionally, children in the 97 th or 98 th+ percentile were regarded as gifted children. The NZAGC has set this figure at about the 95 th+ percentile to make sure that no suitable candidate will be omitted. We may, as a result, include some children who traditionally would not be regarded as gifted. As these children will fall in the category of ìvery brightî, it is unlikely that any harm will result from their participation in the activities of the clubs set up by branches of the NZAGC.
In a paper presented to the World Conference on Gifted and Talented Children in London in 1975, Professor Parkyn pointed out that we have to look for giftedness in the three areas of human experiences which together make up ìthe wholeness of human lifeî: Truth, Beauty and Goodness.
Truth: Intellectual giftedness - scientific genius
Beauty: Aesthetical giftedness - great artist or musician
Goodness: Ethical giftedness - the person who is able to give leadership in the search for the right behaviour or the good in man's relationship to his fellow creatures in the universe.
Great emphasis has been placed in the past on intellectual achievement, especially in our education systems, which were preoccupied with the search for scientific, technological, commercial or administrative talents. There have been periods in the history of mankind which enabled the development of great artists and musicians. Our education system of the last 100 years, when it has been compulsory, has been less successful in the fostering of these talents. As far as the development of goodness, the ethical experience, is concerned, this, in the history of mankind, was left mainly to the churches and religious leaders, sometimes, unfortunately, with disastrous consequences. The drift away from religion is perhaps an expression of mankind's disillusionment with religion and religious leaders as our guide in ethical behaviour.
It is Professor Parkyn's belief that "the future of mankind depends upon our recognizing, appreciating and encouraging the development of the gifted in all three dimensions". The difficulty is to identify giftedness in these three dimensions. It is relatively easy to identity intellectual giftedness. IQ tests establish this. It is also quite easy to establish giftedness in music and representational drawing, where the evidence of potentiality is not difficult to observe. However, in other aesthetic experiences and in our ethical sensitivity, our perception of what is good in our behaviour towards the rest of creation, our criteria are still very poorly developed and we are uncertain of our ability to evaluate and encourage giftedness in these fields. One only needs to look at modern art, modern sculpture, and the divergent points on this, to realize how difficult it is to establish criteria for "beautiful".
The statement "beauty is in the eyes of the beholder" causes even greater confusion. In the field of ethical experiences, the controversy surrounding homosexual law reform, abortion, contraception, legalization of marijuana, etc is an indication of the great difficulty mankind experiences in obtaining guidelines in that field of human activity. And let us not forget that in both opposing sides in these controversial issues there are people who are sensitive to the well-being of ourselves and others, who care for other human beings and living creatures. Professor Parkyn thinks that it is true to say that some people are more gifted in intellectual ability, some in aesthetic perception, some in ethical sensitivity. Yet, in our experience with gifted children, we find aspects of all three dimensions quite highly developed, if given a chance to be expressed.
The Report to the Congress of the United States on the Education of the Gifted and Talented by the US Commissioner of Education, Senator Marland (1972), explores the research on relationships between intellectual giftedness and creativity.
"Studies of the creativity measures and their relationship to intelligence measures have produced a preponderance of evidence that the common term 'creativity' is misleading, since the measures bear no more relationship to one another than they do to measures of intelligence. A number of studies have found a high relationship between general intelligence and the individual tests of creativity, than among the individual measures (of creativity) themselves. Although a few studies have supported the creativity intelligence distinction, the majority have established substantial relationship between creativity and intellectual aptitude. Wallach, after an extensive analysis of creativity-intelligence research, concluded that a reliable index of general intelligence predicts virtually all practical abilities."
The image of an intellectually precocious youngster with a large brain but clumsy with his hands or incapable of creative work is false. Real worthwhile creative activity is only possible if it is backed by high intellectual talent. The great musician does not compose his beautiful music by scribbling notes at random on a music manuscript. It is preceded by and accompanied by a tremendous amount of logical and abstract thinking which only an intellectually gifted person is capable of. The great artist, painter or sculptor, needs to use all his powers of logical and abstract thinking, i.e. intellectual activity, to develop the gem of his creative idea into the completed work. He often goes through many frustrations when his intellectual and motor powers do not enable him immediately to bring to fruition that which his creative mind sees so clearly as the end result.
And in the field of ethical experience? Ethical values are determined by our empathy with other beings, by our ability to feel a oneness with them. Without empathy man would not be able to develop ethical criteria and standards of moral behaviour. Perhaps one gifted person, who felt great empathy with mankind, expressed it most succinctly when he said: "Judge not, for you shall be judged by the same criteria you judge others. Do unto others as you wish them to do to you". His name was Jesus. Another great philosopher, Confucius, expressed the same thing: “Don't do to others what you would not like them to do to youî. These two, one positively, the other negatively expressed; I believe are man's highest moral laws.
In the newsletter of the NZAGC, May 1977, Dr Mary Waddington writes about able children from ancient times till now. She states that as far as can be discovered, Confucius was the first philosopher to believe that gifted children should be sought out and their ability nurtured. These ìdivineî children were searched for by government officials, because the gifted were regarded as portents of national prosperity to be found and encouraged for the good of all. They were cared for by the emperor at court. Special sensitive powers of sight and hearing were regarded as the fountain of exceptional talent. Etymologically, two Chinese characters Ts'ung and Ming, which mean ìkeenness of visionî and ìacuity of hearing”, form the word which means intelligence. They also look for infallible memories and exceptional reasoning powers. On occasion, comparisons were made between those children who were selected for and received special education and those, equally gifted, whose parents were not willing for them to leave home. The abilities of those who did not receive encouragement and the stimulus of meeting other gifted children atrophied and without opportunity to expand their exceptional powers did not develop further. This was ancient China.
Greece, 2000 years ago, also paid much attention to gifted children. Plato called them "children of gold". He wrote, "All of you in this land are brothers, but the god who fashioned you mixed gold in the composition of those among you who are first to rule. So the first duty which the gods have placed upon the rulers is to scrutinize every child from birth and to select all children of gold, whether they come from parents of gold or parents of silver or bronze". This was the care of gifted children in the Greek civilization, which has contributed so much to literary form today and whose philosophers, mathematicians and astronomers are still quoted.
The Romans made some effort to help their able children along Greek lines, but eventually, like the modern world which worships footballers, boxers, film stars and pop-group leaders, they followed the cult of celebrities in their chariot racers, animal baiters and gladiators. Although the Romans conquered the Greeks, it is not Roman might, but Greek thought, that is still valued today.
In the 16th to 18th centuries what turned England and Holland into great nations? These two countries opened their gates to all able and gifted people who were ruthlessly persecuted and murdered by the Inquisition of the established church because they dared to think for themselves and express opinions contrary to the teachings of the established church. Commerce, art, architecture, music, learning, all flourished in the northern part of Europe, while they languished in the southern part. The only exception was art and architecture, which was allowed to express itself but only within a very restricted range of religious experiences, so-called to the glory of God, but more often than not, to the glory of a particular religious leader. This resulted in great cathedrals while the people lived in poor hovels. What made America a great nation? Because it opened its boundaries to all people who were persecuted in Europe after the French Revolution and after the Industrial Revolution, when, again, vested interests tried to stifle the minds of those who had independent and creative thoughts and wished to express these.
It is characteristic of a gifted person that he will not start a revolution or fight a war. He or she will quietly look around for a country or place where the mind can pursue its interests without interference from anybody. If that place is found, it is a simple matter to transfer loyalty from one to the other. Loyalty does not depend on the place of birth, but on the place where the mind and body is free to explore all facets of human experiences, not to serve the interest of some industrialist or the state or the people or religion; but simply to satisfy one's innate curiosity. If the by-product is of benefit to mankind, it is welcome to it. If it is not to the benefit of mankind, the gifted person will try to hide its harmful effects from those who would be inclined to abuse it for their own selfish ends.
This brings me to the question: What are the characteristics of a gifted child? Again there is a large amount of literature on these aspects. Merry Brewster, Director of the Gifted Children's Resource Centre in California, wrote in her article "Early Childhood Developmental Factors in Gifted Children",
"Charlotte Malone and her research group in San Diego learned in their studies that gifted children are so unique from others and from each other that in designing a measure to use to locate preschool children, it was useful to create a measure that would fit non-gifted children; the ones left over were the gifted ones. In other words, non-gifted children are very similar as a group in comparison to gifted children who are different both from non-gifted children and from each other. They are so unique that it is hard to find a single testing tool that would apply."
Some of the signs in young children that may indicate giftedness are:- Early interest in surroundings
- Less need for sleep
- Ability to talk early and fluently
- Ability to read early, often self-taught
- A questioning attitude: How do you know? How does it work? Why?
- A thirst for knowledge about the most unlikely subjects
- Unusual powers of concentration
- Insatiable curiosity
- A critical attitude, especially self-criticism
A mother was once advised to take her four year old away from his kindergarten and seek the advice of a psychologist, for his teachers believed him to be retarded. That belief had arisen due to the fact that during his half days at kindergarten he had spent his time sitting on the floor staring at the floor in an almost autistic fashion. During his sessions with the psychologist he explained that he had been following a colony of ants that resided in the floor of the kindergarten and carried large crumbs of food back to their home. He had found this far more stimulating and interesting than placing coloured blocks in towers or mutilating lumps of dough. He was tested and found to be a severely gifted child.
Another characteristic, which can be quite baffling to parents, is the gifted child's capacity for clear, logical thinking. This can result in some traumatic experiences if matters are drawn to their logical conclusion, but the experiences the child has had do not permit it to see divergent points of view. Dr M.L. Kellmer Pringle in her book Able Misfits quotes the case of a three-year-old child who went through a period of refusing to go to sleep, insisting that one of his parents remained in the room. When his father's patience gave way, he slapped the child saying, "You must go to sleep!" to which the child replied tearfully, "If only you would tell me where to go to when I have to go to sleep, then I would try harder." I find it interesting that Dr Pringle gives this as an example of a child requiring little sleep or objecting to the waste of time this entails, when in fact it is an example of, for a three-year-old child, superior logical reasoning.
This child was familiar with the term "go to": "go to school", "go to the shop". "Go to" meant a movement towards a particular location, so logically "go to sleep" meant "going to a place called 'sleep'". Having drawn this conclusion, the three-year-old was now worrying how he could find this place "sleep". First of all, where is it? A most baffling question which virtually caused him to become neurotic. As many parents of gifted children have experienced, logic or reason is the gifted child's only authority. It is no good to tell him: "Do this because I say so". Parental or any authority will only be accepted if they are backed by sound logical reasoning with which he agrees. He will state his logic with conviction. However, he is quite prepared to accept a logical argument which defeats his logic and will then adopt the opposite point of view with equal conviction.
They live very intensely. In everything they do, it is "all or nothing". They throw themselves into any new venture with intense enthusiasm, such enthusiasm that it frightens other people and may result in derision and ridicule from their peers who are more lethargic and apathetic and cannot see why he should bother.
What really goes on in the mind of a gifted child, a child with high intellectual potential?
Can you imagine what it is like for the child of two or three years old whose intellectual capabilities enable him to picture exactly what he wants to make with his blocks but his motor co-ordination does not allow him to reach that perfection? So he throws a temper tantrum out of sheer frustration with himself.
Or the four-year-old child who is fascinated by weather forecasting, cloud formations, maps of the world, has taught himself the time and is starting to read, now enters kindergarten and is shocked by the banal activities that go on there, finds no point of communication with the other children, so plays quietly on his own, living in his own dream world; subsequently is regarded "backward" by the teacher who treats him as such and speaks to him in one-syllable words. Imagine his frustration when even the adult does not understand him. Or the six-year-old girl whose family shifts from one end of the country to the other and for weeks cannot sleep, not because she is so excited but because her intellectual capabilities enable her to see clearly all the many problems that are involved in such a shift but her immediate experiences have no answers to all the questions that tumble through her mind. And the doctor prescribed Valium!
Or the child in Standard Two, whose teacher discusses the Olympic Games, stating that these games are held every four years and have never been interrupted. When the child disputes this and offers to bring the encyclopaedia which states that there were some occasions when the games had not been held, she is on the receiving end of the teacher's anger, and the principal of the school rings the mother asking her to stop the child reading encyclopaedias.
Or the children who go through our education system and desperately look for challenge, for something to learn, to know, new facts, new experiences, and are dished up day after day experiences which to them are so painfully obvious and boringly repetitive, leading to such frustrations that they refuse to go to school, start bed-wetting or show other kinds of neurotic behaviour.
There was a highly intelligent eight year old at a Catholic school and the nun was discussing God as the Trinity. The child raised his hand and said: "I know a good example of this concept. Steam, water and snow: three manifestations of the same thing", only to be told not to be so silly, "We are talking about God, not water". When the mother at a later interview stated that this was really quite a brilliant suggestion, the teacher's retort was, "I wish he did not try to be so clever". Not try to be so clever: he cannot help but be so clever.
So the gifted child moves through the system, no challenge, everything comes easy. He sees other children working for hours on problems he can solve in minutes, learning material that he has exhausted in a quarter of that time. Yet there is only one conclusion he can draw. "These other children must know more than l do, because they spend much more time on it." The difference between him or her and the other children becomes more and more pronounced until he doubts his own self-image and comes to the inevitable conclusion that something is peculiar in him, something is wrong. It cannot be his body because that looks the same as the other bodies, so it must be his mind. Nobody understands him. He is the only one in the world who is so peculiar, and loneliness invades his life. He feels an intense desire to share his ideas with a friend who would understand him, but no such friend can be found. Ayn Rand, herself a highly intelligent woman writes, "Loneliness is specifically the experience of a thinking child or adult; it is the experience of those who have something to offer. The emotion that drives conformists to belong is not loneliness, but fear—the fear of intellectual independence and responsibility. The thinking child seeks equals; the conformist seeks protectors."
So the child reaches the age when he is confronted with the drug culture. It is not without reason that so many drug addicts are highly intelligent. Drug addiction is the confession of an unbearable inner state; it is an escape from oneself. It hunts, it hurts, and the cause of it is the mind. Drugs affect the mind. They do not solve the problems, but they do remove the pain.
Marijuana causes one to see the world in a state of euphoria, even makes one discover that everybody is lovely and everybody loves you, even if it is a phoney love. One is too stoned to understand that. Harder drugs such as heroin will kill one, but then death is quite a pleasurable experience and will remove the pain forever.
However, perhaps this did not happen. You struggle through the system, even succeed in obtaining suitable qualifications and now enter into the wide world. Enthusiastically the gifted person throws himself into the work that is offered to him, only to be met with apathy and ridicule at his enthusiasm. Take it easy, have a break, donít work too hard, stop a moment, if you do too much it would be a bad show for me, slow down. The message that is transmitted to him is "phoney"; the world is a phoney place.
Or he may be in a conference and a problem is posed that demands solution. His intellectual capabilities enable him to state a logical solution to the problem within the next ten minutes. Oh no, this cannot be accepted. First each person has to have some say about it and for the next hour or so there is discussion, often riddled with trivia and irrelevant matter, which only confuses the issue. Until after a long time somebody produces the solution which had been hanging in the air all the time, your solution, but by now everybody has forgotten that it was your solution, but you don't mind, you heave a sigh of relief that the session is over, the solution is found. If the other person wants to receive the glory, good luck to him. Your aim is to find solutions to problems, not glorification.
Now, you call these gifted children? At times they regard it as a curse. You ask of these children that they should learn to adjust? They do nothing else but adjust and adjust, a frustrating repetition of adjustment. Is it not time that some adjustment is made towards them?
I may be accused now of emotionalism. To the nine-year-old child who has the mental capabilities of an adult but the emotions of a nine-year-old child, it is an emotional issue, and do some parents know how emotional the issue can be. |
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发表于 2014-4-24 14:23:49
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