Gifted Education
Gifted Education is Special Education
Learning Challenges need not be Life Challenges.
Some students are steady turtles, whose short legs bear heavy shells; others are hares who could run swift -- but drift. Yet the most disruptive scholars can also be the most productive adults: scientists (Darwin, Einstein), entrepreneurs (Hearst, Rockefeller), inventors (Edison, Wright), statesmen (Winston Churchill), and artists (Earnest Hemingway, Louis Armstrong, Helen Keller). Our school assists gifted students with learning challenges.
Frequently creative, often gifted, these students may acquire talented educators to help become the "Spark plugs of our society, the shakers and movers, the people who bring about revolution and change." (--Thom Hartmann, ADD: A Different Perception) Students with mental or physical learning challenges may obtain mentors to help them race alongside competitors in professional society.
Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), frequently accompanied by hyperactivity (ADHD), can be seen as a set of behavioral traits which makes students unavailable to learn: students may be distractible, disorganized, bored or intense, present-minded, self-centered, reckless, or angry. Roughly three to ten percent of people, mostly males, display ADD traits. Thirty percent of these people, regrettably, will become disturbed adults who trouble authorities.
Learning Disabled (LD) students frequently have average or above average intelligence, but suffer processing or thinking problems-visual, auditory, or tactile perception disabilities--which inhibit reading, writing, or calculating. Without sufficient professional assistance or a better learning environment, fifty percent of children diagnosed with learning disabilities drop out before graduation. We refer clients to qualified Educational Therapists or Educatonal Psychologists when expert testing is needed.
What is ADD and LD?
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| Debra Ullmann, a Certified Educational Therapist, tests students for learning disabilities, ADHD, etc. She also serves as their advocate before school administrators. |
By contrast, Dr. Thomas Armstrong argues that ADD is not a medical disorder with a yet-to-be-discovered genetic basis. Children revolt against "rule governed behavior": factory-style teaching causes "attention to ditto deficit disorder" (The Myth of the ADD Child, p. 31). Roughly half of ADHD students appear "normal" in adulthood, when they work voluntarily for pay. These rebels need specialized assistance from mentors who sympathize with their special challenges.
Thom Hartmann simply argues that ADD children display "Hunter" traits which adapt them poorly to a "Farmer's world." Distractible children are lookouts who monitor their environment; they sacrifice social graces for fast results, for the kill. These risk-takers' independence prepares them well for the chase-or entrepreneurship. Dr. Armstrong believes that these students perform worst "in environments that are boring and repetitive, externally controlled, lack immediate feedback...This sounds like a typical American classroom." These authorities argue that ADD students should turn "disorders" into skills with hands-on learning, self-paced environments, a colorful, musical, environment; superior communicators should respect, celebrate, and question students-like adults--as they set sensible routines. These students don't need alphabet-soup labels: concerned educators should honor their "wonderful uniqueness."
Catastrophic Reading Programs.
Dr. Dianne McGuinness reverses common diagnosis of ADHD, LD, and dyslexia: she believes
Learning failure causes an inability to attend" (Why Our Children
Can't Read, p. 164). Dr. McGuinness argues that California's
1987 state-mandated "whole language/literature" methods of reading
instruction caused fifty-seven per cent of fourth graders to test
below basic reading
levels for their grade (p. 11); California's children trailed
the nation!
In 1996, California reintroduced phonics instruction which, according to Dr. McGuinness, still fails roughly thirty per cent of readers. School of Choice tutors enjoy the academic freedom to teach proven reading methods which may also cure alleged processing problems (dyslexia) and behavioral disorders like ADD which erupt amongst bored students who have not been taught properly to decode English readings. Reading failure does not account for all ADHD symptoms, but these students certainly would pay more attention when their mentors teach them to read and write with ease. Assembly-line instruction can not give unique children special reading techniques.
Assembly-Line Instruction
LD/ADD kids may frustrate teachers of large classes with outbursts that stop everyone's instruction; they need knowledgeable, supportive instructors, who can give them individualized attention. The Federal Government's Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (1988) guarantees these children education in the "least restrictive" environment possible, but funding problems may keep children with learning or behavioral differences in unsupportive mainstreamed classes. "Special ed" classes may be free; but they may also place the child on a loser's track amidst disruptive commotion. Does the special ed teacher know how, in a busy classroom, to develop the personal learning style of students who may excel in any of eight intelligences? In a group setting, can they help these kids to make mistakes without losing self-confidence? Can they stick with a child until that child has learned properly, or will bells determine their failure? "One-on-one teaching is often very effective with a hyperactive child," writes Dr. Taylor, "but unfortunately it usually has to be severely rationed in most school systems" (p. 296).
In the film, Stand and Deliver, Jaime Escalante maintained that "Students will rise to their level of expectations." His students needed only "ganas" or "desire," and he was expert enough to teach desire to those considered dumb', 'bad', or 'crazy'. We believe that ADD/LD kids will succeed, and that they will succeed better in the thousands of careers which do not require sitting in seats and obeying authority figures. These people may become brilliant software engineers, park rangers, musicians, surgeons, pilots, or even absent-minded professors.
Schools for the Gifted help students with learning challenges.
Only tutors or schools with very small classes can know our students and their families well enough to tailor education both to a students' giftedness in certain intelligences and, simultaneously, to their learning challenges. These children are doubly special for their strengths and their weaknesses. We can help students organize themselves for class, visualize instructions, or break down assignments; we can teach them to love themselves. As mentors, we can give students swift praise and consistent discipline more easily than factory-school teachers. Expert instructors can understand diagnostic testing. We can employ games or flashcards which train children without academic stress that exacerbates hyperactivity. We can take them on trips or help them build projects to give them the self-directed, hands-on, experience they demand. We teach slow tortoises and halting hares best because we enjoy the freedom and flexibility which best matches these student's needs and desires.
