Teachers, is it true that most of the parents you deal with think their children are 'gifted'?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't believe that the current tests/criteria for determining if one is "gifted" are accurate, though. Very few children are truly gifted.

I agree. There seems to be a misuse of the word "gifted"

The current definition of "gifted" that schools use is "high-IQ", whereas in common parlance, it refers to genius-level ability, or profoundly gifted. People are arguing that the school definition is wrong, when it's really just an issue of semantics.

I didn't think public schools were giving IQ tests though.....

[Anonymous]

At my affluent school, I would say that 80% believe their child is gifted and the other 20% believe their child is gifted but has learning disabilities or ADHD or anxiety that is impacting school performance. It's ok. The kids themselves typically know if they are gifted or average.

[Anonymous]

i am a teacher and have taught PK-6. In that schools that most posters here use, yes, basically every child--if going by the parents alone--is off the charts gifted and any behavioral issues are clearly boredom. sometimes, both because I think it is useful but also because I enjoy messing with the parents, I do some lessons on how to be a good follower and also averages, the takeaway being NOT EVERYONE IN THIS ROOM A GODDAMN GENIUS.
(and we all have other strengths etc. I;m not totally heartless!)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In MoCo schools, about 95% of parents believe that their kids are gifted. It's worse than Lake Woebegone.

But kids take a gazillion standardized tests. Inview, MAP every year, maybe HGC, and more. The test results are pretty clear, right? Don't parents pay attention and modify their expectations, one way or another, based on them?

I'm in FFX county (parent) and IMO nope. My child scored super high (99+%) at all the "gifted" tests, I graduated from Ivy and top grad school. We're both normal, maybe brighter than average, but nothing exceptional. I worked hard in school. If DC wins the Nobel price or cures cancer, that's another story. But he's in elementary school, it's comical to discuss how brilliant they are at this age. My brother barely finished a tier 3 college, hated school but he's very creative, a risk taker, and great at networking and selling. Guess who's the multimillionaire in the family.

So you're judging your DC against adult standards when s/he consistently tests in the top 99 percentile nationally? Weird. You don't think s/he merits enrichment/acceleration based on these scores? That's quite separate from determining whether she's as creative as your brother, who apparently scored less well on such tests. The tests predict academic success, not necessarily professional.

He's in an accelerated program because he gets it faster than the other kids his age. This doesn't mean he's gifted. Predicting academic success from a handful of tests in the first or second grade is ridiculous because these tests at best predict potential for success. A kid from the International Mathematical Olympiad team or a child music prodigy will probably laugh at our special snowflakes' 99% US WISC. I'm refusing to let my child develop these feelings of entitlement based on some random labeling and don't feel better about my parenting because of some testing score. Motivation, hard work, ability to persuade people will take him further in his professional and academic life. And yes, professional success is important. I don't want him to graduate from Yale and live in my basement in his 30s.

+1 totally agree.

[Anonymous]

PP here.
re actual gifted kids--I have been teaching for 35 years in this area, where everyone in a certain type pf school (you know the ones: privates, but also higher SES publics. I haven't done much in charters but hear from friends there that it's even worse) thinks that their children are the smartest snowflakes in the world and are clearly Highly Gifted. I get at least three, but usually more like eight or ten or twelve, parents at the beginning of each year when I am teaching at those schools who tell me that their child is Highly Gifted. Those are just the ones that use that term. Others say "gifted" in a whisper as if they are ashamed of it, which they are not.
I've taught thousands of students. Less than half a dozen have been really, truly, honestly highly gifted, in the sense that their brains are really wired in a way that I cannot even explain and in the ways that they retain and understand information. Doesn't mean that the other kids aren't smart, or even gifted in some areas, but there is a difference, and parents around here are fairly delusional about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Sorry, "American education is NOT good compared to..."

American education is superior to most countries. The only reason international students compete is they pay full freight.

[Anonymous]

OP I love your post! I am school director at an affluent pre-K in NOVA and yes, we get parents who are certain their children are gifted constantly. And these are 2-4 year olds. Like your child's teacher, we get it so often, it is amusing and annoying. Every once in a while we have a child who actually is gifted, but those kids are almost always at a significant disadvantage because often their social development is so far behind their peers that it is difficult of them to function well in a classroom. Gifted kids in pre-K often have asynchronous development so there is still lost of work to do with them, even if they are reading chapter books in pre-K.

You sound like a great parent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP I love your post! I am school director at an affluent pre-K in NOVA and yes, we get parents who are certain their children are gifted constantly. And these are 2-4 year olds. Like your child's teacher, we get it so often, it is amusing and annoying. Every once in a while we have a child who actually is gifted, but those kids are almost always at a significant disadvantage because often their social development is so far behind their peers that it is difficult of them to function well in a classroom. Gifted kids in pre-K often have asynchronous development so there is still lost of work to do with them, even if they are reading chapter books in pre-K.

You sound like a great parent.

PP, can I ask what you do to help those kids who are academically gifted but struggling with social development? I ask because that's my son to a tee, and we're really having a hard time helping him through a very rough spot in preschool.

[Anonymous]

Playdates with lots of different boys...just ask and you'd be surprised at how many parents are willing to set something up when you put yourself out there.

Pretend play with mom and dad is critical too. Read Stanley Greenspan's books about floortime.

[Anonymous]

PP here who has been teaching for 35 year in private as well as lower and higher SES schools in the area. As a teacher, we love seeing highly gifted kids--the truly highly gifted, the ones that are genuine geniuses in both the statistical and colloquial terms of that word. The kids that we remember for years and decades later tend to be those kids that are so smart that at 4 and 5 and 6 and 7 and 8 they are way smarter than way we are, the ones whose brains work in such a way that the researcher that lives inside every good teacher just wants to take them to a room somewhere and see if we can find the ceiling. at least fifty percent of the parents I have encountered think their child meets this descriptions. In reality it's less than 1 percent. True, true off the charts giftedness is rare. Nor frankly is it something you SHOULD wish on your children.Being that smart is HARD. Certainly just as hard as its opposite. Harder, in some ways.

[Anonymous]

PP just above--I do tend to remember the incredibly gifted ones, but I also remember the funny ones, the really kind ones, the ones who always wore mismatched socks, etc--certainly I love every child that walks into my classroom. Some of them just stick around in my head for longer

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP here who has been teaching for 35 year in private as well as lower and higher SES schools in the area. As a teacher, we love seeing highly gifted kids--the truly highly gifted, the ones that are genuine geniuses in both the statistical and colloquial terms of that word. The kids that we remember for years and decades later tend to be those kids that are so smart that at 4 and 5 and 6 and 7 and 8 they are way smarter than way we are, the ones whose brains work in such a way that the researcher that lives inside every good teacher just wants to take them to a room somewhere and see if we can find the ceiling. at least fifty percent of the parents I have encountered think their child meets this descriptions. In reality it's less than 1 percent. True, true off the charts giftedness is rare. Nor frankly is it something you SHOULD wish on your children.Being that smart is HARD. Certainly just as hard as its opposite. Harder, in some ways.

This post shows you don't understand IQ test or maybe percentage. You are changing definition from gifted to perhaps profoundly gifted. 99%on wisc is gifted. By definition it is one of one hundred. Now the DC area may have more than 1 out of 100 because of the parent population. If you are talking about someone with a score in the 99.99% range, of course that is one in 10,000. Doesn't mean those who are one in a hundred shouldn't be given some special attention as well.

[Anonymous]

The word "gifted' is often misused to mean "prodigy" But gifted in the way the locals schools use it really means IQ above 120. Most white collar professions in Dc have that IQ and pass it along to the children. Thus there are many who qualify, as can be seen by the high number of children in the AAP program. It does not mean that they are genius of prodigies who play the piano like Mozart.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The word "gifted' is often misused to mean "prodigy" But gifted in the way the locals schools use it really means IQ above 120. Most white collar professions in Dc have that IQ and pass it along to the children. Thus there are many who qualify, as can be seen by the high number of children in the AAP program. It does not mean that they are genius of prodigies who play the piano like Mozart.

This. Although I think it is more like they are aiming an IQ of 130.
I don't know why people cannot just accept the common usage of this term. We all know we are unlikely to be in the presence of future Nobel winners here but that doesn't mean some of these kids don't need special attention to keep them engaged. It is for the benefit of society that we pay attention to the smart kids so that they can reach their potential.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP here.
re actual gifted kids--I have been teaching for 35 years in this area, where everyone in a certain type pf school (you know the ones: privates, but also higher SES publics. I haven't done much in charters but hear from friends there that it's even worse) thinks that their children are the smartest snowflakes in the world and are clearly Highly Gifted. I get at least three, but usually more like eight or ten or twelve, parents at the beginning of each year when I am teaching at those schools who tell me that their child is Highly Gifted. Those are just the ones that use that term. Others say "gifted" in a whisper as if they are ashamed of it, which they are not.
I've taught thousands of students. Less than half a dozen have been really, truly, honestly highly gifted, in the sense that their brains are really wired in a way that I cannot even explain and in the ways that they retain and understand information. Doesn't mean that the other kids aren't smart, or even gifted in some areas, but there is a difference, and parents around here are fairly delusional about it.

We had teachers like you. So glad we changed schools.