Promotion of the highly talented relies on special courses and special classes.
But then, who of those who have a little talent wants to be highly gifted? As a general rule, what you get out of it is a negative social labelling from outside. Unpleasant expectations from well-meaning grown-ups – even worse: parents – goes together with a demanding society. Neither can you rule out subjective misunderstandings: “I am talented, there is no need for me to work hard and learn anything … “.
It really is a shame how organizational mishaps spring from poorly executed promotion of the highly talented.
So what did we learn from long years of special tutoring: the highly talented feel very comfortable among their normal classmates. Through their intelligence, which in general is also a high social intelligence, they are capable of supporting their learning groups in a subtle and unobtrusive way. These adolescents usually make excellent use of their leisure time: they get into extra activities at an unbelievable range, from social and artificial to scientific and technological.
If you want to discover these adolescents or even do them a good turn in the humanistic sense, you should not see a psychologist and let their intelligence be measured with a common IQ test. It is a lot better to just give the dynamics of development of the child/adolescent space to grow, observe them closely and then offer them interesting material for learning and life. Before the “G8” with its overflow of teaching hours – figuratively spoken – flattened the scenery, there were workshops available for mixed age groups on all themes any Grammar school teacher could find in his special creative box. These workshops – theatre, orchestra, research for adolescents, robotics, school garden … endless – were the flower soil on which the highly gifted could thrive. After all, they are the ones who often still have time left for other interests after having delivered what is their responsibility.
First and foremost, I made this text to represent the view of children and adolescents. You could consider it a starting point towards making the Grammar School a humane school which, besides obligatory courses, also organises classes an adolescent might identify and feel at home with.
The central piece of such an organization would certainly be mixed-aged classes defined by interest. In it, all talents could be equally valued in an environment where the social connotation of interest is essentially positive.
wl
Loading ...