I’ve started using a line with school administrators in advocating for my kids that I’ve found to make my point well: “Teachers, like doctors, are taught that when they hear hoof beats, think horses, not zebras. My kids are zebras. But they are zebras sporting orange stripes.”
Gifted kids are the zebras, they make the sound of hoof beats when they run, but they are not the horses the teachers expect. Many teachers can adjust and respond given appropriate material and philosophical support from the school for differentiation.
My kids have additional exceptionalities, that is, they contend with difficulties that also qualify them as disabilities. In this case, often the teachers see the orange stripes (that is, a disability), apply their experience with such orange stripes, but fail to recognize that those stripes are on a zebra (that is, a gifted child) and not a horse. Other times, these teachers glance up, see the zebra, teach the zebra as the teacher has taught other zebras, and never notice that this zebra has the additional issues. Very often, and generally most troubling, is the teacher hears the hoof beats, and never notices the zebra or the orange stripes. All three cases lead to frustration on the part of the child, the teacher, and the parent, because the education does not fit.
Teachers deal with 20-30 kids at a time. An elementary school teacher, teaches about 600-1000 students over the course of a career. A middle- or high school teacher will see 100-150 kids in a year.
Gifted designation varies wildly across environments, but a good rule of thumb is that they occur at a rate of about 5 in 100 students. For a school with a typical population, that means that a middle or high school teacher will have 5-8 such kids a year, and an elementary school teacher will see 30-50 such kids in a career. That’s not a whole lot compared the teacher’s total experience.
If, say, a gifted child has an uncorrelated disability that also occurs at a rate of about 5% of the population, then the child sporting both that disability and giftedness will occur at a rate of approximately (0.05)x(0.05) = 0.0025, or 0.25%, or 25 in every 10,000 students. All of a sudden, you have a truly unique situation.
I have found it very instructive to take my kids’ cognitive skills frequency in the population and the frequency of their disabilities (in our case 1-10%) and multiply. The result is that they really are unique individuals, and only those teachers who have seen many, many zebra, and many, many orange-striped creatures, can recognize and teach the orange-striped zebras in front of them.
Next up: Calculating the rarity of your child's skills.
Gifted kids are the zebras, they make the sound of hoof beats when they run, but they are not the horses the teachers expect. Many teachers can adjust and respond given appropriate material and philosophical support from the school for differentiation.
My kids have additional exceptionalities, that is, they contend with difficulties that also qualify them as disabilities. In this case, often the teachers see the orange stripes (that is, a disability), apply their experience with such orange stripes, but fail to recognize that those stripes are on a zebra (that is, a gifted child) and not a horse. Other times, these teachers glance up, see the zebra, teach the zebra as the teacher has taught other zebras, and never notice that this zebra has the additional issues. Very often, and generally most troubling, is the teacher hears the hoof beats, and never notices the zebra or the orange stripes. All three cases lead to frustration on the part of the child, the teacher, and the parent, because the education does not fit.
Teachers deal with 20-30 kids at a time. An elementary school teacher, teaches about 600-1000 students over the course of a career. A middle- or high school teacher will see 100-150 kids in a year.
Gifted designation varies wildly across environments, but a good rule of thumb is that they occur at a rate of about 5 in 100 students. For a school with a typical population, that means that a middle or high school teacher will have 5-8 such kids a year, and an elementary school teacher will see 30-50 such kids in a career. That’s not a whole lot compared the teacher’s total experience.
If, say, a gifted child has an uncorrelated disability that also occurs at a rate of about 5% of the population, then the child sporting both that disability and giftedness will occur at a rate of approximately (0.05)x(0.05) = 0.0025, or 0.25%, or 25 in every 10,000 students. All of a sudden, you have a truly unique situation.
I have found it very instructive to take my kids’ cognitive skills frequency in the population and the frequency of their disabilities (in our case 1-10%) and multiply. The result is that they really are unique individuals, and only those teachers who have seen many, many zebra, and many, many orange-striped creatures, can recognize and teach the orange-striped zebras in front of them.
Next up: Calculating the rarity of your child's skills.