Don't Miss the Ability Because You Only See the Disability

Day 17 of the giftEDnz Blog Challenge!

Why So Many Gifted Yet Struggling Students Are Hidden in Plain Sight

This prompt, which is all about how our gifted students can be hidden in plain sight made me wonder about the times over the years when I've encountered these students.  As a teacher, you're always observing and reflecting on your practice.  You start to become attuned to individual behaviours and characteristics of your students.  You know - or you suspect - when a child is possibly gifted or operating at a different level to their peers.  I use the term 'operating' as 'achieving' has connotations of always being about an assessment and can really limit the possibilities of diverse giftedness in our students. It can also then limit your own thinking and narrow your focus which we can't do if we want to meet the needs of these students.

The difficulties arise when you have a student who you know without question is possibly gifted but they also have a learning disability.  The parents have talked to you about their special talents, you also recognise and celebrate these but then you come up against the bureaucracy or other teachers who perhaps only see the disability rather than the ability.  This is deficit thinking and it's not helpful for the students, their families or the teacher who believes in them and knows without question that they are gifted.  In fact, this type of thinking can be dangerous as it limits the possibilities of what we can offer a student in their learning and also of what they can achieve.  We also run the risk that these students become our disengaged students who may exhibit behaviour problems and also risk being our underachievers.

We have to challenge our understandings and sometimes also our beliefs. So many of our gifted students will remain hidden unless we do so.  That becomes a question of ethics for me. We have to expand our thinking about who gifted students are. There are many underrepresented groups in this country along with the twice-exceptional.  Our Māori and Pasifika students, students from lower socioeconomic groups, underachievers and those who don't have English as their first language. Until we acknowledge this and push back against the assumptions, then many will remain hidden. They often become statistics in mental health and in our justice system. I've often wondered how many of the inmates in our prisons are gifted.  I think we have an ever-widening gap in excellence or giftedness in this country.