What a 10-Year Old Wants You to Know About Being Gifted

When I joined the WATG Board, I promised my ten-year-old daughter that she would have an opportunity for her voice to be heard about what it was like to be gifted, and to give her perspective on what gifted children need from their teachers and schools. To this end, I interviewed my daughter.  This is what she wants people to know about being gifted and in school:
 

• Being gifted means her brain works differently and people do not understand her.
• Being gifted makes friendships more challenging because friends do not understand her and she has difficulty connecting with them.
• “Good teachers” listen to her, and they allow her to learn at her own pace, and to proceed without unnecessary repetition. 
• “Bad teachers” make assumptions about what she knows, usually based on her age.  These teachers insist that they are right and do not listen to her.  ‘Bad teachers’ care most about getting their agenda completed, not helping her learn.
• She likes school when she is allowed to work at her own pace and when she is not forced to do something she already knows, and can show mastery in.
• She wants teachers who will teach her (or try to).  She would like to be given more choice and more challenging, less repetitive, more in-depth work.

 
As my final interview question, I asked her what she would do if she were “queen of education.”   She said she would make a new law.  If someone is identified as being potentially gifted, the school would test the student and accommodate the student’s learning needs. The school would have to help the student.  She wanted to make it so that there was no way around the law to help gifted students.