Gifted and Talented Classes and Programs, are they essential?

According to the National Society for the Gifted and Talented, the emphasis put on raising test scores has made a significant decline in programs for high performing and excelling students. It has also spurred a negative attitude in our society towards these types of programs. Their website has many resourves including how to recognize and define a gifted or talented child. Below is a quote from their website page about defining such a student;

"Children and youth with outstanding talent who perform or show the potential for performing at remarkably high levels of accomplishment when compared with others of their age, experience, or environment."

- US Department of Education, 1993.

This definition is the broadest and most comprehensive. It is used by many school districts. It speaks of talent, which includes all areas of a child's life academic, artistic, athletic, and social.

http://www.nsgt.org/articles/index.asp

Another website, http://www.giftedstudy.org/, lists areas, dates, and age levels for summer and winter day camps and programs. It also has resources for families, educators, and students. On ther other side of this arguement, many teachers and parents feel that the l abel of 'gifted and talented' can be limiting and somewhat damaging to their students. What I found in my research, was that there is little actual facts or studies to back this up, just parents and teachers personal opinions and feelings on the matter. One thing I did find however was in an article from March 9, 2011. http://ww2.gazette.net/stories/03092011/montnew184800_32540.php

"Cartland and other critics say the Gifted and Talented, or GT, label is damaging students because

it ends up dividing them along racial lines and makes those who don't get identified as Gifted and Talented — typically about 60 percent of students — feel inferior. They also argue that what constitutes Gifted and Talented curriculum in Montgomery County Public Schools, such as critical reading skills and research projects, should be taught to all students."

Stanford University Professor and acclaimed developmental psychology researcher, Carol Dweck, Ph.D

This link will show a professor, whose ideals make the arguements against the label of "gifted and talented" a little more clear. This link will take you to an article by Jonathan Fields, http://www.jonathanfields.com/blog/is-gifted-and-talented-a-life-sentence/, he takes from the ideal in a book by Prof. Dweck and comes to the conclusion that maybe there is a middle ground between the two sides. Here is an excerpt of a conversation between Fields and Dweck.

"So, I asked Professor Dweck:

From what you’ve written, it sounds like the net effect of installing a separate track for “gifted and talented” kids, then labeling them as such may be destructive to both the kids intentionally labeled and those inadvertently labeled “not gifted and talented” by default. I wonder whether you might be kind enough to share your thoughts on this topic

And, in short order, Professor Dweck shared this kind reply:

Actually, I don’t have a strong position against gifted programs per se. I believe that all children need to be challenged at school. I am concerned, however, when the “gift” is portrayed as a fixed trait and the label becomes a symbol of worth. Students may then care more about the label than about learning–they may become afraid to take on challenges or make mistakes.

I also don’t like the word “gift.” It implies that abilities are simply bestowed from on high, that some students have them and some don’t, and that students have no role to play in developing them. Yet, researchers are beginning to agree that giftedness and talent are quite dynamic and can flourish at any time under the right circumstances (or wither under the wrong ones). Research is also showing the enormous role of dedication, practice, and resilience in the development of talent.

So, any gifted program should focus on teaching students how to challenge themselves, seek learning, value and enjoy effort, and recover from setbacks. This is what they need to develop their abilities. Then again, these lessons would help all students develop their abilities."

In my own opinion, as a student who was in a gifted and talented program myself for most of elementary school, I think that the only down side I experienced was in social interaction with my peers. Being in a gifted class all day long was not beneficial to me in a social situation because I only interacted with six other children and one teacher. When my gifted program became a pull out system, where I only went to the gifted room for one subject/class a day it was better. Also, I think my being in a regular classroom helped the other students, because they could use me as a resource and learn from me as well as the teacher. The benefits from being in the gifted program were many including the fact that I was exposed to many different talents, learned at a pace and in a way that I understood better, and that I was encouraged to be inquisitive.

Human relations approach to education

9780415025324.jpg

The human relations approach is all about social harmony. But what value does this approach and its methods have in schools today?

The methods I found were conflict mediation, peer mediation groups, friend or buddy systems for new or struggling students (struggling referring to academically and behaviorially), and also group work activities. The value I see in these is that not only is it easier for the teacher to individually help each student, the students learn respect and appreciation towards their peers and their teachers. Also, they learn valuble life skills such as negotiating and making compromises.

In my research I found a book that covers this approaches methods in the aspects of education.

" the foundations of human relations (psychodynamic, humanistic, and cognitive-behavioral approaches), human relations attitudes(empathy, respect, and genuineness), communications (cultural, nonverbal, verbal, and written), conflict resolution, and special issues (humanization, diversity, groups, mentoring, and stress issues)."

I think this sums up what the approach can do for education purposes and why it is valuable.

http://www.pearsonhighered.com/educator/product/Human-Relations-Approach-to-the-Practice-of-Educational-Leadership-A/9780205306312.page

http://pdfcast.org/paid/9780415025324

Should schools cut art classes and programs?

This is definately a hot topic in education today. There has been debate about this topic for years. Does art actually benefit students? And if so, how? Does it harm them? Why is it that when budget cuts are made, music and art are the first to go?

In 2009 Nadia Abramson posted an article titled, "Academics should be everyone's top priority." Below is an excerpt from her article that sums up why many people are agaisnt the arts.

"School is supposed to be an academic environment. But the arts have somehow infested the hallways and taken thousands of students hostage with pretty colors and soothing sounds.Students go to school to learn the derivative of 48 x 2 and the Kreb's Cycle, not to paint abstract nothingness or to sing bad choral music." (http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2009-02-19/features/0902180109_1_art-classes-electoral-college-students)

In contrast to this view, you can take a look at many pro arts sites such as:

• http://www.afterschoolartsprogram.org/
• http://www.nea.gov/pub/ARTsAfterschool/how.html
• http://www.youngrembrandts.com/home.aspx

They all talk about what they do to help enrich kids and how the arts can help. One article I found in my research stuck out to me though, because it gave a very different and in depth reason as to why arts in schools are important. "Art for our sake" was an article featured in the Boston Globe in 2007 by Ellen Winner and Lois Hetland. They discuss an analysis and study of how art programs and classes benefit children. Most pro-arts enthusiasts say that students involved in the arts have better tests scores. These ladies disagree and say that what art improves is a set of skills learned no where else in the education system. These skills can be used later in life and applied to many different areas, not just meaningless test taking. To paraphrase or sum up the article's main points, these women believe that "eight studio habits of mind" are taught in art classes and can be applied to life. These habits are; persistence, expression,making clear connections between what is learned in a classroom and the real world applications they can have, observatio skills, envisioning skills, innovation, exploration, and self evaluation/ constructive criticism. The entire article can be found. (http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2007/09/02/art_for_our_sake/)

My view towards art is kind of in the middle. I understand that we can not always afford the art programs and that if it is a choice between academics and art, academics must come first. However, there are several non profit organizations that donate and volunteer to provide after school art programs. One such program changed my life. I started going to Girls Eye View in the 8th grade. It was an all girls, after school, dark room black and white photography class. I learned so much more about myself, my friends and peers, and life in general. My sophmore year I was a student leader of the group and we had even got our high school art teacher to start a digital photography class for freshman in the school. When we lost the space for G.E.V. we moved to the Adult Learning Center (where you get a G.E.D.) and taught digital photography there for my junior and senior year. This program is still in place. During my time with them I learned that I could be an artist in everyday life, that I had the know how and the confidence to be a leader, that I could teach others what I know. I got thousands of opportunites to share my art, my thoughts, my feelings, and my beliefs with the community, the school, and once I even got an art gallery exhibit in Amherst. I also got my work publicized in the paper and on local tv with my peers in the group.

This group and its members inspired me to be a photographer and a teacher. The Girls Eye View group is still going on today. It is a part of a larger organization called Youth Action Coalition. You can fidn out more about them at http://www.youthactioncoalition.org/index.html

Other programs by YAC include the video vanguards, a digital video arts program, through your eyes only, a youth dark room and digital photo group, and Get up Get down, teachin kids about activism. Below are some images from these groups and the YAC logo.

Why do teachers TEACH?!

What are my personal reasons for teaching?
In this EDU class, we are reading an article by a man named Kohl in our Educational Foundations book on pages 21-31. He goes through several reason why people choose to teach. I am only going to discuss the ones relative to me.
REASON #1: It is a family tradition. My mother, uncle, great aunt, father, and step mother are all educators. I grew up around it and you might say it is in my blood.
REASON#2: I love working with children. They are enthusiastic, energetic, and for the most part want to learn. There is a quote form pg.31 in the Kohl article that describes what I want my classroom to be like, an environment that is about "knowledge, curiosity, and a sense of community." I might not be able to have children of my own due to medical problems so being around them helps brighten my day.
REASON #3: This is probably one of the most important reasons I want to be a teacher. I am a GLBT activist and a big supporter of protecting the youth of today. As a child I was bullied for my sexual orientation. In college I had to hide my ftm transgendered boyfriend from family and friends for fear of shame or violence. I want to make sure that time of hate and bullying stays out of schools. I want to prevent what happened to me and my friends from happening to others. With the really young children, I would do this in a subtle way. Teach them early on not to judge, and to accept everyone differences and all.

There are many organizations that help prevent bullying in schools. A hot topic in the media was a recent rash of children committing suicide because of their sexual orientations. One such organization is GLSEN. below is an excerpt taken from their anti bullying page.
"OVERVIEW: This lesson helps students begin to think about what a school without name-calling and
bullying might look and sound like. Students will engage in a guided fantasy activity on this topic, and
will then extend their ideas into a group-created plan for what their ideal “bully-free” school would look
like and sound like.
OBJECTIVES:
• To create an opportunity for students to fully visualize what it would be like to attend a school
entirely free of name-calling and bullying.
• To help students move from their visualizations of a school free of name-calling into ideas of
what a bully-free school would actually look like and sound like.
• To help students identify places in and around the school where they know that bullying and
name-calling can and do take place.
• To allow students the opportunity to creatively and cooperatively re-envision and build (be
it with words, pictures, themselves and peers, or other constructive materials) a bully-free
school."http://www.glsen.org/cgi-bin/iowa/all/antibullying/index.html
This is a basic lesson plan for 30 minute class discussions one or two times a week to help prevent bullying before it starts.

Another organization that started with viral videos on youtube is the It gets better project. This is the quote on the opening home page of their website, "

Many LGBT youth can't picture what their lives might be like as openly gay adults. They can't imagine a future for themselves. So let's show them what our lives are like, let's show them what the future may hold in store for them."

http://www.itgetsbetter.org/
Many celebrities, politicians, and other people all around the world have posted videos of their stories. Straight, gay, and any other orientation have come forward to tell the next generation to hang in there and that it gets better. I believe in the positive message behind this but I want to tell educators and students that we can start making it better now.
There are many other websites and organizations dedicated to helping raise awareness about GLBT issues including FCKH8.com. This image is from one of the FCKH8.com's many videos about the variety of issues that affect the adult and youth GLBT communities today.One such issue affecting what teachers can do to educate their students on gay rights and making anti bullying efforts difficult is a law in Tennessee. This excerpt is from an article about how FCKH8.com protested that law.

"Angered at the progress that the proposed “Teachers Can’t Talk About Gays” law has made in the Tennessee state senate, gay activists with the website FCKH8.com passed out hundreds of pro-gay T-shirts, wristbands, pins and stickers in front of TV cameras to school children on Tuesday morning in the state capital to protest the law which would make it a crime for teachers to discuss homosexuality.

The website distributed gear from its line of “Don’t B H8N on the Homos” products to crowds of cheering kids at Hume-Fogg high school which is just blocks from the senate building where the anti-gay law is scheduled to be voted on this Wednesday. The website is also donating $25,000 to the Tennessee Equality Project to fight the anti-gay agenda of the bill’s sponsor Senator Stacy Campfield (R-TN)."

( Image, video, and article Found on the website http://queermeup.com/activism-2/fckh8-com-t-shirt-give-away-to-school-kids/)
Another video can be found on the FCKH8 website. Be warned there is vulgar language.
As you can see, I am very passionate about this subject and for the well being of our youth today. Is this a good reason to teach though? Maybe not if it were my only motivation.