Good morning everyone!
I recently watched a YouTube video (by Tiffany Ferg, I believe, in case anyone’s curious) that outlined the many issues with GATE programs and labeling young children as gifted. I was immediately hooked and knew I had to watch it. I was in the GATE program in elementary school from 1st-4th grade, but it wasn’t anything special; we weren’t separated from other kids and there weren’t any unique activities. I transferred schools/school districts for fifth grade, and my GATE standing didn’t transfer over- there was no way to get into GATE at my new school, but it didn’t really matter since again, there weren’t any special activities for GATE students.
Now that I gave a little background on my brief and unexciting experience with gifted education, here’s why I think it’s a significant issue to discuss. As a GATE kid myself, I know I definitely had huge dreams as a child. I was an early reader, so my teachers in elementary school were very impressed with me. This inflated my ego a lot– I thought I could do anything. I told people I wanted to be the first woman president, and in first grade I walked around with my Harry Potter books acting like I was some mini-scholar. All of this was because of that label, because of people telling me I was so smart for being an early reader, because of people telling me I would do such great things.
I know it might sound like it, but I’m not bashing these teachers for complimenting me and being supportive. It’s just the labeling of children as if they’re already adults and accomplishing big things that bothers me; it sets them up for disappointment. Some of these “gifted” kids actually are complete geniuses and will go on to accomplish these great things they were told they would, but that’s pretty rare. A lot more of them will grow up, realize they’re not that special, and experience feelings of failure or loss of identity.
That definitely happened to me, once I got to middle school. I realized I was not a genius; I was just lucky enough to have an aptitude for reading as a little kid. I wasn’t the smartest in all my classes anymore, and I had to try if I wanted to succeed. This happens to a lot of “gifted” kids once they move on from elementary school, and it’s pretty crushing. I still struggle with it a lot today, since those dreams of accomplishing something amazing and being known as a genius still exist somewhere within my brain.
That’s not to say that it would be impossible for me to make my dreams come true or accomplish something significant in life; I definitely still could, and I hope to. The issue is, it’s not a given that I’ll go on to do these things as the teachers and adults in my life implied when I was young. In the YouTube video I watched, Tiffany shared her own story of being a GATE kid. As she talked about having an inflated ego similar to mine when she was younger, she said “When people keep telling you something, you start to believe it”. This could not be more true.
Hearing people tell me how smart I was and how amazing I was set me up with such a toxic mindset/idea of success when I was very young. I believed I was amazing and stood out from the rest of the world, so it was really hard to accept that even though I was smart and could do well in school when I worked hard, I wasn’t special. I wasn’t… well, gifted. I think this labeling of young children can only impact them negatively; the ones that actually are amazingly gifted will go on to use their talents no matter what, so there’s no need to make these programs and treat these kids differently.
This is an issue that affects kids all across the country (possibly the world, but I don’t know if they have these types of labels/programs in other countries), and it needs to stop. If you’ve had an experience with so-called “gifted” education, feel free to share. I truly believe there’s not enough benefits of these programs; the drawbacks far outweigh them. We need to prioritize the mental well-being of these kids, and this isn’t doing that.
-Brooke
Click HERE to watch Tiffany’s video! “The Curse of Being a ‘Gifted’ Student”
adventures of a typical high school student 