Gifted Ed for School Newspaper, Again

Gretchen says the last one was whiny. It probably was, as I am frequently whiny.

Such is life.

Gifted Education

I submitted the first draft of my research paper with that as the title. It's probably the most boring title of all time, but it does get the subject across. Gifted education is, put in the simplest way possible, the teaching of gifted kids. However, any understanding of gifted education must rest on an understanding of what makes gifted kids gifted.

And no, "smart people" doesn't count.

Giftedness manifests itself in many ways. There are kids who learn to read before starting kindergarten. Some bury their noses in college math textbooks for fun. Some sneak literary classics under their third grade desks or devote their spare time to their own stories. Others become engaged in aspects of the sciences, finding a cool looking rock and spending the next three months wholly devoted to the study of rocks, and where they come from, and how, precisely, this particular rock came to be in their backyard.

The constant acquisition of knowledge leaves these students ahead of the school curriculum; studies have found that they typically know half of the information being taught- and that's before the course has even started. They frequently are also learning at a faster rate, finishing classwork with so much spare time that the day becomes a series of tedious waits rather than a continuum of work.

It is understandable, then, that some of these children become bored as the schooldays slog slowly on. I gleaned a list of time filling activities from interviews with gifted students. They fill notebooks with doodles, and stare at the clock in such as way that six hands appear, and play snake on calculators and perform Beethoven's 5th with their fingertips on their desks. One girl even went to far as to exercise discreetly, contracting various muscles or doing calf raises, to the point that she would experience muscle soreness. Even so, they cannot find enough useless entertainments to fill the long classroom hours.

The emptiness that is left is time used by other students to acquire new information, but also to learn how to think and work. Gifted children, however, are in want of a challenge. Leaders in the educational field focus on the importance of a perfect level of difficulty. A too challenging class yields frustrated kids who come to think that they can't learn. One that is too easy yields frustrated kids who come to think that they don't have to. Gifted kids can be spotted by their yearning for complexity, but when they don't find it early on, they don't know how to cope when it eventually shows up.

To give them this complexity, they need challenging classes at a young age. However, it's a lot harder to put gifted kids into their own classes than I've made it sound. For one thing, how does one decide if a child is gifted? The OLSATs, while great for finding precociousness, don't show much in the way of passion or complex thinking. On top of this, there is the force of the parental unit. No parent wants to be told that their child is not gifted; some even go so far as to hire tutors to get their preschoolers to pass the tests for gifted kindergartens. Teacher evaluations can get around the testing issue, but they're biased, with children misbehaving due to boredom frequently overlooked, and racial prejudices showing far more than they should.

These are a few of the problems associated with finding gifted kids to put into programs in the first place. This is completely disregarding finding teachers supportive of gifted kids, training teachers to teach them, finding funds for the classes themselves and this training, working any sort of acceleration into curriculum, making groupings fluid enough that borderline students are stuck between too hard and too easy, and doing all of that while keeping insatiable students satisfied and prickly parents pleased. I couldn't do it in ten pages, and I can't do it in five hundred words here. It's absolutely evident that gifted children need some form of added difficulty; it's just as evident that getting it to them may possibly be more complex than the complexity these children crave.

Continuing Work on Research Paper Compression

I continue this essay:

...a way to provide gifted kids with their needed levels of difficulty. Every now and again we'll get students who exhaust the honors and A.P. curriculum in a given subject (typically math or science) but, for the most part, students get a sufficiently engaging education. The problem with this is that, in every subject but math, they're stuck waiting until ninth grade to get it....

Ughhhh

This isn't coming out right. I don't know if it's writers block or what, but I just can't produce anything worth reading. I'm not sure if what I wrote before is worth reading. I'm not at all certain that anyone would care enough to read the piece in the first place, and, even if they did, whether my writing would be interesting. I don't know how to make it interesting. I don't know how to take this awful, painfully dry piece of crap and turn it into something a bit more fun.

But maybe I'm not looking for fun.

Or maybe I am. I have no clue. I'm confused, and tired, and I have another application to finish tonight, and I can't do the math homework, try as I might, and I'm going to fail my test on Tuesday.

I'm resisting the urge to write FML here.

Oops.

My Research Paper in 500-600 Words

As requested by Brian, for the school newspaper.

Gifted education and why it's important in five hundred words. This should be interesting.

I'm not certain that I get an introduction, so I'll start with that:

I chose to write my junior year research program on gifted education. I wanted to do how to teach gifted kids- this turned out to be very complicated. I focused instead on what gifted programs are and why they're important.

Every child is unique; gifted kids just seem exceptionally so. They'll read Jane Eyre or The Origin of Species under their desks in elementary school, or absorb higher-level mathematics textbooks and learn computer programming before starting high school. They'll spot an interesting rock and spend the next three months reading geology textbooks with a flashlight after their parents have gone to bed.

A standard school curriculum, such as the middle school classes we all took together, is not enough to sate this curiosity. We've all been bored in class at one point or another- imagine if this boredom was every day. I interviewed former gifted kids (I suppose you'd call them gifted teens at this point) about how they cope with boring classes. Each offered a list of activities, including staring at the clock in such a way that six hands seem to appear, playing snake on calculators, filling notebooks with doodles, and-this is the one that shocked me, the classic physical activity-phobic nerd-discreetly exercising by contracting various muscles or doing calf raises, to the point that this particular student would experience muscle soreness the next day.

This boredom is more than just boring. It keeps students from learning new material. It also keeps them from learning good study habits, how to learn effectively, and how to face and defeat an academic challenge. Some students interviewed spoke of severe difficulty keeping up at all when they finally found a challenging class. Others looked at me blankly when asked how they dealt with a difficult course; they apparently hadn't found one yet. Challenge, however, is an important part of learning, and gifted students need to experience that challenge in order to have any intellectual growth.

There are many conflicting views about how best to provide that intellectual stimulation. The method most familiar to Paperclip students is likely the Workshop program at the town's elementary and middle schools. This is what is known as a pullout program. Kids miss class to attend it, and it meets once a week, a tiny percentage of time when compared to the hours spent staring a walls. That's the biggest issue with these programs- they simply aren't enough.

Another form of gifted education, and one that provides something much closer to enough, is so omnipresent at Paperclip that most students don't give it a second thought. However, academic classes separated by ability are...

I'll finish this later. I'm tired, and at this point, I really don't care.

Slangy Research Paper Outline, formatted properly

as ordered by Cammie

-Gifted children

------IQ points

------quick learners

------need more than can be offered by the typical classroom

-The used to have programs

------but now they don't

-----------NCLB is a bitch. And it's not my bitch.

------It's helping slower learners

-----------and this means teachers and schools have less time/funds for the gifted

----------------they're not getting attention

-Everyone thinks they don't need it!

------They'll make it anyways! They have it made! Everything is sunny in smart kid land!!!!

-----------it's unpopular! Teachers hate them! OH NOES!!!

-But seriously, dude, they totally need it.

------school sucks for geeks

-----------remember those nerdy high school guys on TV, like Brian in the Breakfast Club, who never got a date?

------yeah, it's like that, very nightmarish, to quote a study

------Can't be too smart. And nerdy is evern worse. Pop culture says we can't have one without the other. It's a stigma!!!11! WOO!

-Consider also, the need for intellectual stimulation

------Kids learn best in a middlingly challenging environment

-----------Boredom, like too much challenge, is an issue

----------------Yeah, gifted kids- totes bored

---------------------They already know the material

---------------------This makes them suffer (McClure)

------They don't want to try

-----------Mario

-----------That mother with the kid who's acting out

-----------Prevents them from learning how to learn/work

----------------Big paragraph quote about stumbling

---------------------Nyxiepie!

-Chronic underachievement sucks balls

------Dropouts

-----------Conflicting numbers (all the hell over the place)

-----------------But, clearly, there are gifted children dropping out

----------------------And this is an issue

---------------------------Want to "attain extreme levels of capability"

-Why should you want this? They'll save the world!

------They're your doctors

------They help us compete with China

-----------Down with China

----------------Our principal's faculty meetings (no, I won't actually mention them)

-For the betterment of the nation, gifted children should not be made to languish

------Easier said than done.

-----------Fears of damaging other children

-----------Expenses

-----------Years of accepted educational dogma

----------------All at stake. A stake through the heart. Of a VAMPIRE!

---------------------Equity verses excellence

--------------------------Who wins

-------------------------------Can we have fairness while pursuing excellence?

------------------------------------Maybe if it's eggcellent?

-----------------------------------------Snack break!

-Equality debate --> leading view is that students stay in the classroom

------"integrated learning"

-----------language win

----------------but, yeah, doesn't really end up happening

---------------------?

The Pain of Grammatical Errors

How does anyone expect to be taken seriously in life if they can't even bother to properly punctuate an important class assignment? I attend one of the best high schools in the country, but these kids seem to be barely literate. I'm reading briefs for cases, and I have to stop myself from cringing.

Examples are below, my comments in italics:

• Is The Washington State mitigating factors law a violation of the Eight Amendment's Ban on "Cruel and Unusual Punishment"?

Because Everything must Sometimes be Capitalized, and punctuation goes Outside the Parentheses.

• He went into the School Library and opened fire on the students, causing 4 students to dies and 5 to be brutally injured.

Spell out integers under ten. Since when is a school library a proper noun? Has your English teacher taught you nothing?

• The Court found that he had bipolar disease but was sentenced to death due to the brutality of the crime under Washington State Law.

Murder is only brutal under Washington State Law- it is soft and fluffy in North Dakota. Bipolar disorder is no longer a disorder; it is now a disease. Don't get to close- you might catch it!

• The ruling of the Washington State Supreme Court was incorrect because the

Yes, let's all not finish our own damn thesis statements, what a phenomenal idea!

• In Ten similar Case of Eddings vs. Oklahoma, Eddings was convicted of murder, he was then interviewed by a team of psychiatrists and was proven to have an unstable behavior, he was exempt from the Death penalty due to prior cases like Lockett v. Ohio through individualized consideration of mitigating factors required by the Constitution.

This is a boy who will not pass is SATs, he will never write a word after high school, his college professors will bang their heads against their desks due to the absurd grammar of his general writings.

• Although People who are 18 years old aren't considered to be a minor, this could've also been a factor within this case because the Teen's mind hasn't fully developed.

I want to stop skewering Stanley here, but it just keeps getting worse and worse. In fact, I'm just not going to read the rest. Moving along...

• No 09-_______

Is it really that difficult to fill out the form?

• Is the Washington State mitigating factors law a violation of the Eighth Amendment's ban on "cruel and unusual punishment."

Weirdly, Word auto-corrects this to a question mark outside of the parentheses. Has my grammatical education steered me down the wrong path?

A Summary

I'm really enjoying these Christmas UPS deliveries. Yesterday: Staples the Office Supply Superstore. Today: a maple store in Vermont, and something totally unidentifiable for Shelby from Virginia (probably from Kat or May).

As far as my research paper goes, I've written a lot, but I can't figure out how to open it. Anecdotes are always recommended, but how can I utilize one? And besides, they just feel so endlessly cliched. There just doesn't seem to be any other opening conducive to a ridiculously long paper on the education of gifted children.

Speaking of English, a spider has taken up residence in the corner of my bathroom. I wonder how long it will live, and what its web will look like. As long as I remember that it's there, it shouldn't be an issue. Hopefully. After writing an entire paper on the spider in the bathroom in Annie Dillard's essay on Transfiguration, I can't bear to kill it. It seems like a good omen for my writing abilities. Either that or it's a precursor of workaholism (spellcheck approved word). Or a massive amount of religious symbolism is about to be dumped into my life. One of the three.

In Search of Interview Subjects

First, I tried that kid at church who's home-schooled. His belief statement was that he believe in knowledge, so I had high hopes.

"So Alec-"

"It's Jake."

"Right, sorry. So, Jake, do you mind if I ask why you're home-schooled? Did you perhaps find school easy and boring?"

"No. Let me put it simply. The schools I went to sucked."

"Oh."

That was the end of that.

Today, I was walking to science with Julie and Gretchen when we passed Reese, who skipped a grade a while ago and who my English teacher had suggested that I interview.

"Reese!"

He turned, looking confused. "What?"

"You're Reese, right? You know Vicky, we were introduced..."

He nodded, giving me the impression that he remembered, but he might have been just assenting to his acquaintance with the vunderful Vicky.

"Well, this is going to sound kind of weird."

"Okay..."

"Look, you skipped a grade, right?"

"Yes."

"Well, I was wondering- that is, I'm writing my research paper- the big junior year research paper- on gifted education, and why it's important, and whatnot, and I've been doing interviews, and I was wondering if I could maybe ask you a few questions, just be email, if that'd be alright."

"Yeah, sure."

"Great. Um, can I just roundcube you or something?"

He shrugged, and I started to walk away.

"Wait, Reese, what's you're last name?"

I got it, I roundcubed him, and now I just need to hear back.

Vicky, if you find the time to mention that I sent the roundcube and can actually email it instead if he gives me an address, assuming you still see him with any sort of regularity, I'd be much appreciative.

Guidance from Above

Or, more aptly, those wonderful people installed in our school whose sole purpose in life is to help us navigate the many pitfalls of the modern educational system. I refer, of course, to guidance counselors.

Today, during my period four drawing class, I went to the guidance office. When I got there, the secretary with a slightly chipmunk-like appearance and a grating New York accent informed me that my counselor was still in the freshman parent breakfast, so I settled in for a good long wait. While I was there, an extremely loquacious freshman shared with me her entire long, drawn-out story of trying to go down a level in Spanish. Apparently her teacher refused to sign a form, the department chair is on vacation, and the whole thing is a giant puddle of mess.

So, after my counselor made it back from the breakfast, escaping past the hoards of garrulous parents, he had to run off with the unnamed freshman in search of her spanish teacher. When he finally got back, the period was half over, so I only received a limited amount of my requested college guidance.

However, I did learn the following.

- "Just between you an me, you should really take four APs next year."

- "I don't think a tech would be the right approach for you"

- "You really shouldn't rule out Yale."

Right, because I could get into Yale. Honestly, Mr. Counselor, I think we're raising the bar a tad too high here.

Old People Doing Stuff

Grim Reaper Day was today, and I didn't feel that the assembly did particularly much. It felt impersonal and didn't really move me. I think part of the reason was that they never really said anything about the people who died aside from "it was my best friend," and the guy (who's probably only in it for the community service hours) was even worse. Listening to Opmin talk about what her brother was like during class had me staring at the desk thinking "don't cry" as I teared up, but the movie at the assembly just made me dizzy.

In English today, we discussed our weekends.

"My mom is graduating this weekend," Caroline informed the class. "She's getting her masters in education."

"Oh, that's so nice! What's her degree for?" Mrs. Leon asked.

"Oh, um, I dunno...she teaches third graders?"

The class laughed at her confusion.

"So elementary education. That's wonderful," said the teacher.

"Oh!" responded Caroline, "I was going to say that, but I didn't want to sound stupid."

"That went well," someone mumbled sarcastically, and the class laughed again. I then raised my hand.

"Speaking of people getting degrees later in life, my great-grandmother went to college when she was about 60," I said.

"What did she major in?"

"I dunno. It was before I was born, my Mom was just randomly talking about it last weekend, and it seemed relevant."

Another chuckle.

Then, Emily raised her hand. "My nana used to work as a secretary for a company that sold things to the army, but she found out that the younger, hotter secretary was getting paid more than she was, so she confronted the boss, who refused to pay her more, so she quit, started a competing company, and drove her old boss out of business, and now she sells stuff to the army from her attic as the only employee of her business. Go granny!"

Then, Dino spoke. "So," he said, making his usual unsuccessful attempt at a dramatic pause. "Speaking of old people doing stuff-"

"Old people doing stuff! What?" Mrs. Leon squawked.

"Well, they're old people, and they're doing stuff, so" *undramatic dramatic pause* "old people doing stuff. Anyways-" he paused, again "-my great-aunt- she's Caroline's great aunt too-"

"Wait," interrupted Rachel. "You and Caroline are related?"

"Yes," he said, and proceeded to explain their relationship in intimate detail before actually telling his story, which was boring enough that I can't remember it. He finished with, "So, see, old people doing stuff. I think I should trademark that. Old People Doing Stuff."

"My grandpa ate breakfast this morning," muttered Peter.

Caroline and I turned to Gemma and simultaneously said "What did he say?"

Gemma shrugged, and we all turned to look expectantly at Peter.

"My Grandpa ate breakfast this morning."

So old people CAN do stuff other than go to college!

Dialogo

A Literal Translation of my latest spanish dialogue:

Narrator (N): For many years, the Marquis had the wish to kill the servant who had torn the fan of his wife.

Marquis (M): Today, I am happy that I can finally complete my goal.

N: The servant didn't know that his life was soon going to end.

Servant (S): You're blocking where I need to walk in order to obtain my serving platter.

M: You tore the fan of my wife many years ago.

S: I only tripped. I don't thing that I have culpability.

N: Like a lightning-bolt, the Marquis took the serving platter and began to fight with the servant

*the boy playing the waiter grabbed the platter and began hitting the boy playing the waiter over the head with it. Needless to say, I, the narrator, was laughing*

S: I hope that I win this important fight and that you lose.

M: You are an arrogant man and I recommend that you surrender.

N: The fight continued for some minutes, but at the end, the Marquis didn't vacillate and killed the servant.

M: Finally, I am capable of avenging myself of the servant!

N: Then, the Marquis left from the scene of the murder and went to his house.

Condesita (C) *played by Avon*: Hello, my good looking spouse. How are you? My god! You have blood on your hands! You have tripped?

M: I spoke to a man that I abhor. Now, he is not in the life.

C: I hope that you did not kill a man when you were at the embassy today.

Son (S): Dad, you killed the servant? I have wishes to see the body!

C: I hope nobody finds the body of the dead.

N: All the people of the family had a lot of fear. The Marquis recommended that the family flee the country.

C: We should change our names and flee the country.

S: Let's form a group of the freestyle rap music!

C: What a good idea, son.

N: Then, the family moved to Detroit and participated in many rap competitions.

M: My family, we have won many competitions and tomorrow is the big championship. How would you like to celebrate?

S: I want to go to the zoo in order to see the elephants.

N: While they were at the zoo, an elephant ate the family *(at this point, I was laughing so hard I had to stop and attempt to gather myself before spitting out comió)

C: We are in the stomach of the elephant and the championship is tomorrow. What are we going to do?

N: The family hoped that they could go to the competition, but they didn't leave from the stomach for ten years, and finally, they went out.

M: How good that now we are not in the stomach of an elephant.

S: Yes, I have much hunger because I have not eaten for ten years. I want sweets.

C: Good, son. Let's go to the store in order to obtain sweets that you can eat.

S: The sweets are very pleasing to me and I abhor the elephants.

M: Yes, never are we going to go to the zoo another time.

C: It is evident that the rap doesn't function for our family. We need to form a team of badminton!

THE END

The other presentations included one in which the Condesita is sitting with her husband (the Marquis) and her daughter, when the man she is having an affair with appears (handily gripping a rose between his teeth to denote his status as a Don Juan). The Condesita decides she likes the other man better, so the Dad kills himself dramatically and the daughter cries unconvincingly.

In another, the narrator came armed with a guitar. Archie wore a blonde wig to play the Condesita, and he and his hubby started a basketball team with ten of their eleven children. the eleventh wants to be a singer, so delivers most of his lines in song while the narrator plays guitar (yo amoooo tiiii, etc.). Unable to cope with his athletic parents' disapproval, the boy steals their money and runs. His parents don't hesitate to buy firearms and follow him, and the boy booby traps the path behind him. His father falls in a booby trap and dies (dramatically, of course), so Archie takes it upon himself to shoot the son, who also dies (dramatically, of course).

In another, Dino (short for dinosaur) plays the Marquis and must choose between John (he has a female twin) and Sonny (also a guy). Sonny spends the entire time devising devious tricks to get Dino to leave John, but in the end, Dino announces that he really just loves John, and hugs him.

It was all very silly.

bloggone public

Today, one of my friends, the fabulous Vicky, said to me, "Oh! I saw you had a blog," and I went "How'd you know that?" I was rather freaked out, until she explained where I had lost my anonymity (this is a process similar to the losing of virginity, but (or so I've heard), less painful) 

Basically, I've been making some very non-anonymous comments for my U.S. History (Oh, Howard Zinn, your words are the breath of God! and whatnot), and when my name was clicked on above this thing, it directed you to my profile, which in turn directed you to my blog.

Oh. My. Blog.

I'm trying to decide whether I should be upset or happy if anyone's read this. I think I'll go with upset, unless it's Vicky (that's not actually her name, but I'm sure she'll figure it out), in which case.... whazzup?

Doing School

Gah! reading Doing School (by Denise Clark Pope) for US History and its got me really stressed out. Basically, the author follows around these kids with high gpas at Faircrest high, which is an insanely overachieving school. Basically, they spend a ton of time doing homework and extracurriculars and have no lives.

The problem with it is that it is wayyy to similar to my life. My school sounds a lot like Faircrest, and I'm too much like the kids in it. I don't mean to be- it's just the way I am.

I was born with the ability to read quickly, test well, and remember easily. I'm not sure how much help it'll be in the real world, but its a blessing in high school.

I didn't originally set out to get good grades, but just by doing my homework and some minimal studying, I do. And unfortunately, I love to learn and can't stand a boring class, so I'm taking four honors courses and one that's kind of an independent study, plus art, music theory, and gym. I love my classes when I'm in them; I just hate the homework.

The culture in all the tough courses is so inhibitive. A lot of kids are constantly stressing over grades and college and whatnot, and most of my friends think that a good school is necessary for a good life. I know that its not, and I know I want to be independent and happy, but I don't know how to pull myself away. Everything will just keep chugging along until I'm sitting at a lab bench all day and going home to an empty, too small apartment. It's terrifying. I'd love to be in that lab someday, but I'm young; I need happiness, passions, love, friends.

Maybe I'll take a gap year and pull myself away from it all; I could do some volunteer work, play piano, paint, learn some grammatical links other than semicolons.

It'll be good.

I'll work on that. I'll keep at it through high school, but remember that there's more long-term value in the world outside the classroom.

I refuse to be sucked in.