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Can you guess some of the common myths about high ability students?Do you know the truth about some characteristics of a high ability child. Here they are:
Common Myths About High Ability Students
- High ability students are a homogeneous group, all high achievers.
- High ability students do not need help. If they are really high ability, they can manage on their own.
- High ability students have fewer problems than others because their intelligence and abilities somehow exempt them from the hassles of daily life.
- The future of a high ability student is assured: a world of opportunities lies before the student.
- High ability students are self-directed; they know where they are heading.
- The social and emotional development of the high ability student is at the same level as his or her intellectual development.
- High ability students are nerds and social isolates.
- The primary value of the high ability student lies in his or her brain power.
- The high ability student's family always prizes his or her abilities.
- High ability students need to serve as examples to others, and they should always assume extra responsibility.
- High ability students make everyone else smarter.
- High ability students can accomplish anything they put their minds to. All they have to do is apply themselves.
- High ability students are naturally creative and do not need encouragement.
- High ability children are easy to raise and a welcome addition to any classroom.
TRUTHS About High Ability Students
- High ability students are often perfectionists and idealistic. They may equate achievement and
grades with self-esteem and self-worth, which sometimes leads to fear of failure and interferes
with achievement.
- High ability students may experience heightened sensitivity to their own expectations and those of others, resulting in guilt over achievements or grades perceived to be low.
- High ability students are asynchronous. Their chronological age, social, physical, emotional, and intellectual development may all be at different levels. For example, a 5-year-old may be able
to read and comprehend a third-grade book but may not be able to write legibly.
- Some high ability children are "mappers" (sequential learners), while others are "leapers" (spatial learners). Leapers may not know how they got a "right answer." Mappers may get lost in the
steps leading to the right answer.
- High ability students may be so far ahead of their chronological age mates that they know more
than half the curriculum before the school year begins! Their boredom can result in low achievement and grades.
- High ability children are problem solvers. They benefit from working on open-ended, interdisciplinary problems; for example, how to solve a shortage of community resources. High ability students often refuse to work for grades alone.
- High ability students often think abstractly and with such complexity that they may need help with concrete study- and test-taking skills. They may not be able to select one answer in a multiple choice question because they see how all the answers might be correct.
- High ability students who do well in school may define success as getting an "A" and failure as any grade less than an "A." By early adolescence they may be unwilling to try anything where
they are not certain of guaranteed success.
Adapted from College Planning for Gifted Students, 2nd edition,
by Sandra Berger.
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