THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 2, 1995 TAG: 9503310241
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Opinion
SOURCE: BY NANCY S. JACOBS
LENGTH: Medium: 90 lines
I have a child in a Virginia Beach middle school who is at risk. He has had to repeat sixth-grade science this year. Is this because he is an underachiever? No. It is because he is gifted.
I have had gifted children in this school system for the past 19 years. I am writing to address some of the concerns that have been brought up about the gifted education proposal that was presented to the School Board (``Faucette floats plan for magnet schools,'' Beacon, March 26).
First, I want to point out that the proposal was presented to the School Board in January. It was on the agenda to be acted upon on March 21. This was ample time for board member Ulysses Van Spiva to gather any details he felt he should have and for board members to discuss this proposal at length. However, as board Chairperson June Kernutt pointed out, they had not done so because their meetings had run long, etc.
Are not board members responsible for doing their homework?
While some teachers have stated that ``the needs of all students can be met in the regular classroom if teachers have been given the training,'' this has not been the case. It has not happened in the past 19 years, and it's not happening now. My child has been taught in a regular classroom by teachers who happened to have a background in gifted education. Though these were excellent teachers, the needs of the gifted students were still not met. The content was still too thin and the pace too slow.
The notions, attributed to one middle-school teacher, that taking gifted children out of regular classrooms will leave ``children without role models and teachers without as much incentive to keep standards high'' are questionable. I personally do not send my child to school to be a role model for other students or as an incentive for teachers. I send him to learn.
At this time in middle schools, gifted children are probably learning the least of any children in their classrooms. They are being taught so much material they have already learned.
My son has benefited from the encouraging steps forward at the elementary level. The accelerated math/science courses in fourth and fifth grade were excellent. These students, in two years, learned fourth-, fifth-, sixth- and part of seventh- and eighth- grade science. However, when these students entered middle school, this program came to an abrupt end. These children had to repeat sixth-grade science.
This sends the message to those middle-school students that hard work and high achievement are not rewarded. Instead, they are penalized for their accomplishments because their middle school lacks the academic rigor and challenge they need and deserve.
My son has the ability to take Algebra I in seventh grade. There is some question as to whether he will be allowed to, because this is normally an eighth-grade course; and if he takes this course in seventh grade, his middle school has no math course to offer him in eighth grade. Again, he may be penalized for his ability, and held back because the middle school cannot meet his needs.
We cannot continue to place these gifted and high-ability students at risk. Without sufficient challenge these children will develop patterns of underachievement that will be hard to break.
If this proposal is not implemented in the middle schools next year, the teachers will still be losing many of these students. Some will not continue to excel. Instead they will lower their standards and achievements in order to fit in with their classmates. Others will leave for private schools or for home schooling, where they can be sufficiently challenged.
The implementation of this gifted proposal does not just benefit those identified as academically gifted. It opens the doors and takes the lid off learning for all students who desire to reach their full potential. It provides for the ``average student'' who has a high ability in math, as well as the ``good'' student who is talented in creative writing. Whatever children's abilities are, they will then have the opportunity to reach their full potential in middle school. Similar programs have been provided in other school systems and have proved to be beneficial for the entire student population.
It is time we provided a quality, optimum education for this most neglected and potentially most productive group of students.
There is an enormous individual and social cost when talent among our children goes undiscovered and undeveloped. Who of us would hazard the cost of the symphony not written, the energy source not developed or the cancer cure not discovered?
I encourage parents to let the School Board know that we expect its members to become knowledgeable about the needs of gifted children and the plan that has been proposed. They must act in a timely manner with the welfare of these children a first priority. MEMO: Related editorial on page 6
KEYWORDS: VIRGINIA BEACH SCHOOL BOARD by CNB