Unexpected Gifts: Discovering and Nurturing the Strengths in Every Child

Without a doubt, No Child Left Behind (NCLB) has received both support for its noble core goal of helping struggling students to improve and criticism for the realities of its implementation, narrow focus on basic skills testing and punitive labeling as failing for a growing number of schools across America.

While most of us in education will agree that the overall intentions of NCLB are admirable, it’s impossible to pick up the newspaper or any educational journal or publication without getting a sense of the growing frustration of teachers, administrators and parents. Time and time again I hear stories of the gradual transformation of classrooms as former environments of joyous learning into testing preparation centers with little time for creative expression, critical thinking opportunities, social studies or the integration of the arts.

Yet thanks to the Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development’s (ASCD) recent focus on the whole child, http://www.wholechildeducation.org/ , the current emphasis on high stakes testing is beginning to be put into proper perspective.

According to The Report of the Commission of the Whole Child, “Current educational practice and policy focus overwhelmingly on academic achievement. This achievement, however, is but one element of student learning and development and only a part of any complete system of educational accountability.” The report describes a whole child as:

o Intellectually active
o Physically, verbally, socially, and academically competent
o Empathetic, kind, caring and fair
o Creative and curious
o Disciplined, self-directed, and goal oriented
o Free
o A critical thinker
o Confident
o Cared for and valued

Included in the report is a call for entire communities to get involved as partners with our educational system so that schools can truly access all the resources that are available that will allow them “to become powerful agents for change in the lives of their students and families.”

If you believe that this focus on the whole child is truly a better way to ensure that we leave no child behind, I urge you to let your legislators and our presidential candidates all know what you think. Our children’s future is clearly at stake. You can make a difference if you add your voice of support to the ASCD’s whole child initiative. Please encourage other parents and educators to join in and do the same.

Welcome to 2008 and to a new name for this blog, originally named in April of 2007 as Gifted and Twice Exceptional Matters. The focus of this original blog has also broadened to include more families around the world whose children have strengths and gifts yet to be identified.

Making these changes seemed like a great way to start off 2008. Yet I know the best way to navigate 2008 is by setting some New Year’s Resolutions – so I thought I’d share my own Top Ten Resolutions for 2008 with you:

1. Focus on the whole child.
2. Create an awareness of the diversity of all students, including gifted and 2e.
3. Celebrate and accept the differences present in every learner.
4. Remove the barriers that block student learning and educational equity.
5. Help turn the strengths of every child into pathways of success.
6. Share stories of effective teaching strategies for the classroom and for the home.
7. Promote the use of technology for access and acceleration of the curriculum.
8. Encourage parents in their role as their child’s first and most important teacher.
9. Increase collaboration and networking among advocates of all children.
10. Use my voice to make a difference in the lives of children.

I will admit that this is a rather ambitious list. You might even have a few more resolutions for me to consider that might be on your Top Ten New Year’s Resolutions list. So I definitely hope you’ll share those with me, along with your suggestions, comments and feedback. Thank you and Happy New Year!

Welcome to my EduBlog, Gifted and Twice-Exceptional Matters!  My name is Cathy Risberg and I am an educational consultant and advocate for gifted and twice-exceptional children and their families and can be reached at mindsthatsoar.com. In addition, I am a member of the Illinois Association for Gifted Children (IAGC) Underserved Populations Committee.

The purpose of this blog is to help create a network of concerned parents, teachers and school administrators who are interested in protecting and strengthening gifted education programs in Chicago, across the state of Illinois, across our nation and around the world. By joining together, we can make a positive difference for all gifted learners in our public and private school systems. These gifted learners include those who are twice-exceptional (2e), students who are gifted and have learning differences, such as dyslexia, ADD and autism.

This first posting of this blog is dedicated to the gifted students in Chicago, Illinois, especially to the parents and students from Pulaski Fine Arts Academy, Orozco Community Academy and Greeley Elementary. I met these parents and students this past Wednesday, April 18, 2007, when we rode a bus together to Springfield to celebrate the second annual “Please Don’t Leave Our Gifted Child Behind Day.” 

Two other buses filled with parents and gifted students from Beasley Elementary and Lenart Regional Gifted Center in Chicago were also part of our group. Upon our arrival in Springfield, we joined over 500 other parents, students, educators and gifted advocates from all over the state who came to talk to their legislators about reinstating gifted funding in Illinois, funding totally eliminated by the Governor’s office in 2003. Since 2003, with all the focus on NCLB testing and a lack of gifted funding by the state, gifted education in Chicago and across the state has been truly compromised through local programming cuts and under-identification of our gifted students.

This has especially been a problem for our underserved populations: Latino and African-American, English language learners and our twice-exceptional students. It is vitally important that we protect and strengthen existing gifted programs to guarantee that these underserved gifted students have an equal educational opportunity. Just as NCLB focuses on the needs of our struggling learners, we cannot lose sight of the importance of focusing on the unique needs of all of our gifted and twice-exceptional students. We cannot afford to deny these students the programs and services that they need to reach their potential as learners. 

To ignore the needs of learners who are struggling or those who are gifted and twice-exceptional would only serve to undermine the goal of providing what’s best for all children.It is this desire to do what’s best for all children in Chicago that was evident in a recent comment made by Chicago Public Schools’ CEO, Arne Duncan.  He stated that he wanted Chicago to be ”the best big city school system in America.” If this is his goal, then adequately funding gifted education programs and maintaining existing gifted programs is essential for this goal is to be reached.

That is why I was so unable to understand a recent announcement to be discussed at Wednesday, April 25th Board of Education meeting. The announcement was that testing for the 2007-2008 third grade gifted program at Greeley Elementary and the first grade gifted programs at Pulaski Fine Arts Academy and Orozco Community Academy has resulted in the identification of either too few or no gifted students to permit the gifted program in those grades to continue in the fall. 

Yet, it is so important that this gifted program, which was successfully designed and implemented for 16 years, be allowed to continue to serve and meet the needs of the gifted Latino students and English learners, who certainly have not suddenly disappeared this year. Parents of students in these schools are being urged to contact their local schools for information so that they can attend the board meeting to make their voices be heard.

It is essential that the successful program of identifying gifted Latino and English learners continue to serve these students.  This can be accomplished by the use of testing and identification tools properly administered and interpreted so that gifted students from diverse populations in all grades are correctly identified. 

Given their public support of building a great school system in Chicago, both Mayor Daley and Arne Duncan, Chief Executive Officer of the Chicago Public Schools, would be interested in knowing how parents feel about this change in gifted programming and what it means to their children and to the future of education in Chicago, so please make your voices be heard by contacting Mayor Daley’s office or Chicago Public Schools CEO Arne Duncan’s office. Also, please contact your state legislator.

As educators and parents, we certainly can all agree on this:  If Chicago is to maintain its image as a world class city that embraces and celebrates its diverse community, a city “that works” and a city worthy of hosting the 2016 Olympics, it cannot afford to neglect and undermine the current successful programs that meet the needs of its gifted and twice-exceptional students, especially those programs that presently serve its Latino, African-American and English learner populations.

Thanks for joining me at my EduBlog, Gifted and Twice-Exceptional Matters. I look forward to hearing your perspective and opinions on protecting and strengthening gifted programming in Chicago and across the state. To learn more about the gifted and twice-exceptional education and resources, please visit http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/ For a wonderful newsletter with information on twice-exceptional children, visit www.2enewsletter.org/