Gifted Students - Myth or Fact

Do gifted students need support in the classroom?

• No, gifted students do fine on their own.

• Gifted students need guidance from well-trained teachers who challenge and support them in order to fully develop their abilities.

• No, they can help other students.

Are gifted kids fine in a regular classroom because teachers challenge all the students?

• Although teachers try to challenge all students they are frequently unfamiliar with the needs of gifted children and do not know how to best serve them in the classroom.

• Regular classroom activities are good for all students.

• All teachers are trained to challenge gifted kids in the regular classroom.

Do gifted students make everyone else in the class smarter by providing a role model?

• Yes, the gifted kids are role models for the other students.

• Yes, gifted students finish their work quickly and can help other students.

• No, average or below-average students do not look to the gifted students in the class as role models.Watching or relying on someone who is expected to succeed does little to increase a struggling student’s sense of self-confidence.

Are all children gifted?

• Yes, all children are gifted, but in different ways.

• No, not all children are gifted. Gifted in a school setting means that when compared to others his or her age, a child has an advanced capacity to learn and apply what is learned in one or more subject areas.

• Yes, all children have strengths and positive attributes.

Are acceleration options socially harmful to gifted children?

• Yes, gifted kids feel isolated when they are not with their same age peers.

• Yes, when a gifted child skips a grade they have difficulties making friends.

• No, Studies have shown that many students are happier with older students who share their interest than they are with children the same age.

Is providing a gifted education program elitist?

• No, gifted learners are found in all cultures, ethnic backgrounds, and socioeconomic groups.

• Yes, only kids with higher social/economic backgrounds are gifted.

• Yes, providing special programs for gifted children provides unequal education to all students.

Do all gifted students earn high grades?

• Yes, gifted kids are so smart that high grades come easily.

• Yes, teachers automatically give high grades to gifted learners.

• No, gifted students may become bored or frustrated in an unchallenging classroom situation causing them to lose interest. Other students may mask their abilities to try to fit in socially with their same-age peers.

Are all gifted Students happy, popular, and well adjusted In school?

• Yes, gifted children are happy and popular. They are so smart and everything comes so easily to them.

• Yes, all other students look up to the gifted kids because they always get the right answer.

• No, some gifted children differ in terms of their emotional and moral intensity, sensitivity to expectations and feelings, perfectionism, and deep concerns. Others do not share interests with their classmates, resulting in isolation.

Does gifted education require an abundance of resources?

• Yes, all teachers need additional resources in every classroom to implement a successful gifted education program.

• No, a gifted education starts with acknowledgement by administration that gifted students need something different, a commitment to provide appropriate curriculum and instruction, and teacher training in gifted education strategies.

• Yes, gifted children and teachers require an abundance of resources.

Do the students who display the following qualities probably have ADHD?

1. Poor attention, boredom, daydreaming.

2. Low tolerance for persistence on tasks that seem irrelevant.

3. High activity level.

• Not necessarily.These behaviors can be found in gifted children.

• Yes, these behaviors describe children with ADHD.

• Yes, lack of attention, boredom, and high activity describe a child with ADHD perfectly. It must be ADHD.