Gifted & Talented: Education of the Gifted and Talented Student: Part II
By Mimi Rothschild
Gifted and talented homeschooling students need a curriculum that will challenge their skills and abilities and will be appropriately modified to accommodate their individual and advanced "pace of learning" (Silverman, 1995). Far too many gifted and talented children become stagnated in the regular classroom with consistently no intellectual stimulation. There are many productive methods of educating the gifted and talented child, each with a platform to provide a curriculum that will cultivate the natural abilities of each child in organized, efficient and lasting ways. Some basic platforms are acceleration, enrichment and curricular compacting.
Acceleration is a plan that "provides a student with opportunities to move through the required curriculum at a faster [more appropriate] pace" (Heward, 1996, p. 564). Acceleration is implemented through a variety of methods. According to Heward, the many acceleration options include "...grade skipping, dual enrollment in high school and college, early admission to college, subject acceleration and advanced placement testing," to name a few. Each method allows both, teacher and student to find the most appropriate and comfortable level of learning. The benefits of correctly implemented acceleration have most often outweighed concerns of any potential social and emotional underdevelopment. Many homeschooling students benefit from acceleration in greater academic achievement and advances in creative development.
Curriculum compacting is another method that allows the gifted and talented student to follow a regular classroom curriculum, but provides a "compresses instructional content that allows for more time to work on more challenging materials." (Heward, 1996, p. 568) This method proves beneficial because it allows homeschooling students to cover material above and beyond that which is encountered in the regular curriculum. A major drawback to curriculum compacting is that due to lack of funds, many teachers are not adequately trained and qualified to adapt and teach a special compacted curriculum to the minority of gifted homeschooling students.
Enrichment is a method that allows the gifted and talented student to, once again go above and beyond the regular curriculum to explore a subject or subjects in greater detail and in a more specific and involved way. This method involves many techniques to enhance the student's understanding of the material and can greatly benefit his or her achievement and abilities. It is important that each method of enrichment involve the use of various teaching platforms and mediums to stimulate the child's creative and intellectual strengths, and must allow for and encourage growth and development in these and other areas. Once again, a major limitation of enrichment is that many teachers have not had the training and assistance needed to develop and correctly implement such programs.
Acceleration, curriculum compacting and enrichment are just a few of the programs created to accommodate the needs of the gifted and talented student. Yet, these programs cannot be fully implemented due to the lack of government-supplied funds. Teachers do not receive the training, instruction, assistance or resources that are needed to successfully utilize these methods.
In recent decades, there has been ground-breaking legislation passed to protect the rights of the disabled or retarded child, ensuring equality in educational opportunity for them and the availability of appropriate services. Having been excluded from the Individuals with Disabilities Educational Act of 1975, gifted and talented homeschooling students have received only minimal benefits and little recognition since. In 1993, the U. S. Department of Education stated that "Only two cents of every hundred dollars spent on elementary and secondary education supports gifted and talented education." I feel that this statistic sadly represents our nation's unjust neglect and discriminatory policies regarding the education of our gifted homeschooling students. I feel that it is profoundly disturbing that our special educational system caters to the needs of the disabled or retarded child, yet demonstrates an all but complete disregard for the needs of the child on the opposite spectrum - the gifted and talented. I feel that the government has clearly decided that the needs of the gifted child are secondary and does not consider meeting these needs to be a priority. This is sending a hurtful message to these homeschooling students, and the consistent neglect of their needs has harmful consequences.
