FoG
E-Newsletter
DECEMBER 6, 2013
Contacts:
Shirley Farrell
[email protected]
334-868-9121
@FoG_Sfarrell
Nancy Johnson
[email protected]
334-868-9122
"It's a tough time to raise,
teach or be a highly gifted
child. Schools are to
extraordinarily intelligent
children what zoos are to
cheetahs. Every organism has
an internal drive to fulfill its
biological design. The same is
true for unusually bright
children. From time to time
the bars need be removed, the
enclosures broadened. Zoo
Chow, easy and cheap as it is,
must give way, at least some of
the time, to lively, challenging
mental prey."
~Stephanie Tolan, Author
VOLUME 6, NUMBER 5
DEADLINES & UPDATES
SECOND GRADE CHILD FIND
How is your timeline for Second Grade Child Find? How many of the six lessons have you
taught in each classroom? Three transformation activities are provided to students to
demonstrate creativity. However, you may identify other abilities such as above average
knowledge and humor. Although each transformation is scored separately, you may only use
one transformation on the matrix. You are not required to use a transformation though. You
should use the three highest scoring items that reflect the strengths of the child. Two writing
samples are collected, as well as one figural analogy. Remember that these lessons elicit gifted
behaviors and are products to use with referrals. Grades must never be used with referrals for
students in Grades K-3.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
HOW TO SCORE
THE TORRANCE TEST FOR CREATIVE THINKING, FIGURAL
January 27, 2014 from 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM
Gordon Persons Building, Auditorium on Plaza Level
One way students are identified for gifted services is through creativity. When gifted programs
are monitored the Gifted Referral Tracking Log is reviewed for different aptitude assessments.
The Torrance Test is administered to students who demonstrate creativity. Administering the
test is not difficult; however, you must be trained on how to score the test. This scoring is very
different from intellectual aptitude tests. Therefore, we invite you to join Dr. Sarah Sumners,
Assistant Director of the Torrance Center for Creativity and Talent Development, to be trained
on how to score the Figural version of the Torrance Test for Creativity Thinking, Figural. It is
strongly recommended that gifted specialists who have not been trained to score this assessment
attend this training. Register in STI-PD by the PD number-SESGift0013 or PD Title-Scoring
the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking, Figural.
FOLLOW-UP WEBINARS TO GIFTED REGIONAL TRAININGS
To register and access these webinars, go to STI-PD and search by PD Title- 2013 Gifted
Regional Training Follow-Up or PD number-SESGift0010. The following webinars are listed
as sessions under this PD Title. To know the specific session topic, look under Additional
Session Information located at the bottom of each session box.
Check out the AAGC
Web site with the latest
contests and
extracurricular
opportunities. The Web
site is updated
frequently, so check it
out!
http://www.alabamagifted.o
rg/
@alabamagifted
#gtala
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•
•
•
•
Communication Media: To be rescheduled
Scope and Sequence-Cognitive: May 6, 2014 at 2:30 PM
Scope and Sequence-Affective: May 8, 2014 at 2:30 PM
Technology Resources on the Web: March 4, 2014 at 2:30 PM
Creating & Interpreting Infographics: March 6, 2014 at 2:30 PM
Environmental Education Association of Alabama
February 13-15, 2014
http://eeaa.us/2014-conference-at-beckwith/
The annual conference will be held at Camp Beckwith Camp and Retreat Center near Fairhope,
Alabama. This year’s theme is “Beaches, Bays, and Bogs.” This conference is a mix of
keynotes, breakout sessions and field trips. Thursday evening keynote is Dean Mosher, artist,
historian and storyteller, and Friday’s keynote is Dr. George Crozier, former Executive Director
of Dauphin Island Sea Lab. Breakout sessions engage participants in content and hands-on
activities for Grades K-12. Field trips provide opportunities to experience and apply content
and skills from the College and Career ready Standards. Trips include Pontoon Boat Ride
through the Delta, Pine Beach trail hike, and Kayaking Weeks Bay. To find out more about this
excellent conference or to register, click here.
Have You Read…?
How to Create an
eBook the Open
Source Way
https://opensource.co
m/life/13/8/howcreate-ebook-opensource-way
Have you ever wanted
to publish a book?
This blog guide helps
you to create an
eBook using the ePub
format. ePub is the
International Digital
Publishing Forum's
open standard for
digital book
publishing, and
most major
electronic reading
devices support it
(except for the
Kindle). However,
formatting the book
as an ePub
guarantees that
many online eBook
marketplaces will
host and distribute
the work.
GRANT OPPORTUNITIES
2014 Muhammad Ali Center Peace Garden Grant
http://grants.kidsgardening.org/2014-muhammad-ali-center-peace-garden-grant-0
Deadline: January 17, 2014
The National Gardening Association is proud to announce the 4th year of the Muhammad Ali
Center Peace Garden Grant, created in partnership with the Muhammad Ali Center and
underwritten by the Yum! Brands Foundation. In an effort to help schools sow the seeds of
respect, the Muhammad Ali Center Peace Garden Grant is designed to teach lessons of peace
and hunger awareness through garden activities. As a global initiative, national and
international youth gardening programs are eligible to participate.
To be eligible for the 2014 Muhammad Ali Center Peace Garden, your school or organization
must plan to garden in 2014 with at least 15 children between the ages of 3 and 18. Preference
will be given to schools within the United States with student body eligible for 50% or more
reduced or free lunches. This is a global initiative; all International countries and territories are
eligible to apply. The selection of winners is based on the demonstrated relationship between
the garden program and peace studies, and nutrition and hunger issues.
Fifty award packages are available. 2014 award winners will receive a gardening package
valued over $500.00 including:
• $400.00 in gardening supplies
• $100.00 for soil amendments and plants
For more information or to download the application, click here.
BOOK-TEACHER OR STUDENT
Winky Studmire Book Series
Remember the book from the publisher that we gave away as a door prize? “WINKY
STUDMIRE is the first children’s fiction series ever to share its illustrations with readers before
it was published; the main character posted real photos, videos, and comments on his Facebook
page (facebook.com/WinkyStudmire) as the plot of each book unfolded in real-time from April
through November 2013. This once-in-a-lifetime book event was possible because author G.T.
Wiley spent 30 years developing the stories, the fictional town of Mystic Bay, and its quirky
characters. Only this rare and unparalleled level of dedication could sustain seven full-length
novels and over eight months of live-blogging.” The publishing company is offering a fantastic
deal for the seven books in this series. To check out this offer, click here.
RESOURCES
Computer Coding with Students
Kodu Classroom Kit
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=18229
You will find a set of lesson plans and activities to teach students how to create games for PC
and Xbox using a simple visual programming language via the Kodu program. Download the
software to your PC for free.
Codeacademy
http://www.codecademy.com/
Codecademy is an education company that is teaching the world to code. This company is
committed to building the best online learning experience of the future. Learn to create
interactive websites, fun games, and killer apps.
The Why Files: The Science Behind the News
Page 2
http://whyfiles.org /
This Web site provides a variety of opportunities for students to learn about science through
current events. The home page looks like a newspaper and contains stories from around the
world. Each story is explored from a science perspective and includes pictures, diagrams, and
charts to help students understand the topic. Search the archives for science topics you are
currently teaching, view cool images, read book reviews and see how the standards are aligned
to the stories and activities. Because of the focus on current events, these lessons are
multidisciplinary with language arts, math, and social studies integrated into the science.
Smithsonian x3D
APPS
QR Code Readers
Now that you can
make the codes, you
have to be able to
access and read the
information behind
the graphic.
QR Code
Reader for
iPad FREE
RedLaser
FREE
(Reads QR
and Bar
Codes)
NeoReader®
FREE
(QR and Bar
Codes)
http://3d.si.edu/
“The SIx3D viewer offers students the ability to explore some of the Smithsonian’s most
treasured objects with a level of control that has never been possible until now. They hope this
revolutionary level of access to the Smithsonian collections will spark your students’ curiosity
and that the exploration of these objects will enable them to build lifelong observation and
critical thinking skills. With few exceptions, SIx3D also offers access to these data sets. Hailed
by many as the third industrial revolution, 3D technology is molding a new K-12 STEM model.
Students can use the same tools as professionals to become creators themselves. Whether
students are printing invaluable museum objects or inventions of their own design, SI hopes the
chance to bring objects to life will give students the opportunity to create imaginative and
innovative work.”
QR Code Generator
http://www.qrcode-monkey.com/
QR codes, or Quick Response Codes, is a two-dimensional barcode first
that attaches information related to an item, web page, etc. It makes
accessing information and data fast and easy with mobile devices. At the
International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), most poster,
student, and playground sessions provided QR Codes to access and
download handouts and additional information. These are used in schools and classrooms to
provide tours of building and/or nature trails, provide text, audio or video information about
specific events, locations, or projects, and links to important Web resources. This link is one of
many QR Code generators. However, this one requires no account and you can embed color or
graphics into the QR Code. Then download the QR Code as a PDF or PNG (graphic) to add to
business cards, web sites, handouts, posters, t-shirts, cups, etc. Use this code with your mobile
device to access QR Code Monkey. Oh-but how do you read, or scan, the QR Codes? See the
Apps section!
Become an Eco-Detective
http://www.mediamint.net/styled-11/index.html
Claire Datnow, a former gifted specialist, has written an eco-mystery series for grades 4-8,
entitled “The Adventures of The Sizzling Six.” She has created lessons to inspire students to
take action in their own communities, and, ultimately, become wise stewards of the earth’s
precious natural heritage. These project-based environmental education lessons are designed to
teach ecology and writing across the curriculum. Just download her printable lessons, which
can be incorporated into your environmental or science concept-based unit.
CONTESTS & REAL-WORLD CHALLENGES
Year in Rap Student Contest
http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/12/05/student-contest-write-a-rap-about-the-news-of2013/?_r=0#contestrules
Deadline: January 7, 2014
The Learning Network (Teaching and Learning with the NY Times) and Flocabulary, (creators
of the Week in Rap, the Year in Rap and other educational songs, videos and resources for K12) invite you to write an informed, engaging 12- to-16-line rap about some aspect of this year’s
news. To help, they will be publishing their usual end-of-year quiz and list of 2013
retrospectives by December 23 to help you remember the highs and the lows. Also
Flocabulary’s has posted a lesson plan and rubric below to help in guiding your students
through the rap-writing process. Click the link for the rules and how to enter this contest for 1319 year olds.
US Kids Magazine Cover Contest
Page 3
http://www.uskidsmags.com/artcontest/rules.php
Deadline: February 28, 2014
Theme: If I Had A Superpower
Students who are residents of the US between the ages of 3-12 may enter the contest.
Participants may create an entry on a contest drawing page found on the cover contest's Web
site at http://uskidsmags.com/artcontest. You may also create your entry on an 8.5 x 11-inch
sheet of unlined, white paper. All entries must be accompanied by an entry form, which can be
found on the Web site. All entry forms must be signed by the entrant's parent/guardian.
By signing, parents/guardians grant permission for their children's artwork, first name, and
photo to be put online or printed in the magazine. For more information and details of the
contest, please visit the Web site.
Engineer Girl
http://www.engineergirl.org/17382.aspx
Deadline: March 1, 2014
From the Web site: “The year 2014 marks 50 years since the creation of the National Academy
of Engineering (NAE). Much has changed in that half century! At the 1964 World’s Fair in
New York, visitors were amazed by color televisions, a prototype of a picture phone, new
materials like Mylar®, displays of a space program that promised to put an astronaut on the
moon, and demonstrations of huge computers that could draw up a list of events that happened
on a given date in history. We now have computers on every desk and some that can fit in our
pockets. We have explored the moon and Mars and launched the Hubble space telescope. Our
phones can take pictures, connect to the internet, and play music and movies.
All these innovations relied on engineering. Think about how engineering has affected your
life. How has it improved people’s quality of life? What further needs of society could be
addressed by engineering?
In honor of the NAE’s 50th anniversary, we invite you to imagine how engineering might
change our lives over the next 50 years, in one of the following areas:
• Nutrition
• Health
• Communication
• Education
• Transportation
It is challenging to imagine what the future will bring, and we think that you are up to the task.
In 1500 words or less describe how engineering has addressed one of these five areas of societal
need (e.g. Transportation) in the past 50 years and suggest ways that engineering could address
this area of need in the next 50 years. Guidelines for length are indicated below.
• Grades 3–5: about 400 to 500 words
• Grades 6–8: about 600 to 800 words
• Grades 9–12: about 1100 to 1500 words
Make sure to review the contest requirements and awards, and submit your essay by March 1,
2014 at 6:00 pm EST.”
FIELD EXPERIENCES
The purpose of the field study experience is to enhance and enrich the content and skills from
units of study. The trip becomes an embedded activity within the concept-based curriculum
unit.
This
month’s
featured
trip
is
a
Mars
panorama
view
at
http://www.360cities.net/image/mars-gigapixel-panorama-curiosity-solar-days-136149#23.40,1.10,75.7. Explore Mars courtesy of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission and
its rover, Curiosity, which is analyzing soil and rock samples from the Gale Crater.
As with any field trip experience, what before, during, and after experiences have you planned
for students to further the studies of the concept-based curriculum? What Essential
Understandings will students discover through Essential Questions and/or Scaffolded Questions
as they experience the field study?
CONCEPT-BASED CURRICULUM
EUs, EQs, SQs
This month’s featured EUs are related to Etiquette in all aspects of life: social, technological,
cultural, etc. You would not teach all EUs within one unit but select the EUs that focus on your
content. Remember that all SQs may not be used because your students may have the prior
knowledge. One EU could take months to teach. Remember that the SQs are listed but the
activities to help students answer the questions are not included. What additional scaffolded
questions can you add to these EUs? What activities would you include with the questions?
Page 4
If this was your unit, what would you create as the Culminating Performance Task for students
to demonstrate mastery and understanding of one or more of the EUs? Submit your
Culminating Performance Task to [email protected].
Essential Understandings, Essential Questions, and Scaffolded Questions:
EU: Appropriate etiquette communicates respect for human dignity in diverse situations.
EQ: How does appropriate etiquette communicate respect for human dignity in diverse
situations?
SQ: What is etiquette? (Frayer, role play, discussion, analyze situations from real life that
illustrate both appropriate and inappropriate etiquette)
SQ: What are five examples of etiquette you have used?
SQ: What is communication? How many ways might you communicate an idea?
SQ: Whom do you respect? Why?
SQ: How would you show respect to that person?
SQ: What are ways to show respect to people in different situations?
SQ: What does dignity mean?
SQ: Do you have dignity? How do you know?
SQ: How can you treat someone in your family with dignity?
SQ: How can you treat someone you do not know with dignity by showing him or her
respect?
SQ: What is diverse?
SQ: List many, varied, unusual situations that are diverse. (Show video with different
types of diversity and have kids list.)
SQ: In what ways can etiquette be communicated?
SQ: Have you ever seen someone or something not treated with dignity? Explain. How
did it make you feel?
SQ: How do you feel when someone treats you with dignity?
SQ: How do you feel when you are not treated with dignity? (Journal writing-give
examples)
EQ: How does appropriate etiquette communicate respect for human dignity in diverse
situations? Debrief the EQ after teaching the SQs.
EU: Societal norms may guide the essence of appropriate etiquette.
EQ: How might societal norms guide the essence of appropriate etiquette?
SQ: Define society.
SQ: Do you exist within one or more societies? Name some of these.
SQ: What makes them “societies?”
SQ: What are norms?
SQ: What are societal norms?
SQ: Do you practice societal norms? What are some of these?
SQ: How do you think societal norms come about?
SQ: What are the origins of some of these societal norms? (Research to find out the
origin and history of some of these.)
SQ: Why do you think societies develop norms?
SQ: What might society be like if there were no norms? (Thinker Keys)
SQ: What is essence?
SQ: What is your essence?
SQ: How might a person’s essence influence others?
SQ: Can things have an essence? Give examples.
SQ: How might a general essence be a guide for developing ways of doing something?
SQ: Give many, varied, and unusual examples of people using appropriate etiquette.
(Can view film clips or find examples in print/Internet of people using appropriate
etiquette in given situations.)
SQ: Choose an example from the list created from the previous question. How might this
example of appropriate etiquette change in a different situation? (Draw or create a
set of comic strips of the chosen situation in diverse situations/cultures)
SQ: Did you find any examples of appropriate etiquette in the list from SQ14 that would
not change, regardless of the situation?
EQ: How might societal norms guide the essence of appropriate etiquette? Debrief the EQ
after teaching the SQs.
Page 5
EU: Perception of appropriate etiquette varies in diverse cultures and/or societies and can
change over time.
EQ: Why might the perception of appropriate etiquette vary in diverse cultures and/or societies
and can change over time?
EU: Practicing proper situational etiquette may be essential in accomplishing one’s goals.
EQ: Why might practicing proper situational etiquette be essential in accomplishing one’s
goals?
Gifted Professional Development Tool
Is It a Cheetah?
© 1996 Stephanie S. Tolan
Author Stephanie Tolan created this gifted metaphor story. She grants permission to share the
story as long as appropriate credit is given. Have you read this story? It is a great way to help
administrators and teachers view gifted from a different perspective and realize that when a
gifted child is not in an appropriate environment, they may not “appear” gifted. Enjoy this
story! How can you use this to help others understand what gifted is?
Is It a Cheetah?
It's a tough time to raise, teach or be a highly gifted child. As the term "gifted" and the unusual
intellectual capacity to which that term refers become more and more politically incorrect, the
educational establishment changes terminology and focus.
Giftedness, a global, integrative mental capacity, may be dismissed, replaced by fragmented
"talents" which seem less threatening and theoretically easier for schools to deal with. Instead
of an internal developmental reality that affects every aspect of a child's life, "intellectual talent"
is more and more perceived as synonymous with (and limited to) academic achievement.
The child who does well in school, gets good grades, wins awards, and "performs" beyond the
norms for his or her age, is considered talented. The child who does not, no matter what his
innate intellectual capacities or developmental level, is less and less likely to be identified, less
and less likely to be served.
A cheetah metaphor can help us see the problem with achievement-oriented thinking. The
cheetah is the fastest animal on earth. When we think of cheetahs we are likely to think first of
their speed. It's flashy. It is impressive. It's unique. And it makes identification incredibly
easy. Since cheetahs are the only animals that can run 70 mph, if you clock an animal running
70 mph, IT'S A CHEETAH!
But cheetahs are not always running. In fact, they are able to maintain top speed only for a
limited time, after which they need a considerable period of rest.
It's not difficult to identify a cheetah when it isn't running, provided we know its other
characteristics. It is gold with black spots, like a leopard, but it also has unique black "tear
marks" beneath its eyes. Its head is small, its body lean, its legs unusually long -- all bodily
characteristics critical to a runner. And the cheetah is the only member of the cat family that
has non-retractable claws. Other cats retract their claws to keep them sharp, like carving knives
kept in a sheath --the cheetah's claws are designed not for cutting but for traction. This is an
animal biologically designed to run.
Its chief food is the antelope, itself a prodigious runner. The antelope is not large or heavy, so
the cheetah does not need strength and bulk to overpower it. Only speed. On the open plains of
its natural habitat the cheetah is capable of catching an antelope simply by running it down.
While body design in nature is utilitarian, it also creates a powerful internal drive. The cheetah
needs to run!
Despite design and need however, certain conditions are necessary if it is to attain its famous 70
mph top speed. It must be fully grown. It must be healthy, fit and rested. It must have plenty of
room to run. Besides that, it is best motivated to run all out when it is hungry and there are
antelope to chase.
Page 6
If a cheetah is confined to a 10 X 12 foot cage, though it may pace or fling itself against the bars
in restless frustration, it won't run 70 mph.
IS IT STILL A CHEETAH?
If a cheetah has only 20 mph rabbits to chase for food, it won't run 70 mph while hunting. If it
did, it would flash past its prey and go hungry! Though it might well run on its own for
exercise, recreation, fulfillment of its internal drive, when given only rabbits to eat the hunting
cheetah will run only fast enough to catch a rabbit.
IS IT STILL A CHEETAH?
If a cheetah is fed Zoo Chow it may not run at all.
IS IT STILL A CHEETAH?
If a cheetah is sick or if its legs have been broken, it won't even walk.
IS IT STILL A CHEETAH?
And finally, if the cheetah is only six weeks old, it can't yet run 70 mph.
IS IT, THEN, ONLY A *POTENTIAL* CHEETAH?
A school system that defines giftedness (or talent) as behavior, achievement and performance is
as compromised in its ability to recognize its highly gifted students and to give them what they
need as a zoo would be to recognize and provide for its cheetahs if it looked only for speed.
When a cheetah does run 70 mph it isn't a particularly "achieving" cheetah. Though it is doing
what no other cat can do, it is behaving normally for a cheetah.
To lions, tigers, leopards-to any of the other big cats-the cheetah's biological attributes would
seem to be deformities. Far from the "best cat," the cheetah would seem to be barely a cat at all.
It is not heavy enough to bring down a wildebeest; its non-retractable claws cannot be kept
sharp enough to tear the wildebeest's thick hide. Given the cheetah's tendency to activity, cats
who spend most of their time sleeping in the sun might well label the cheetah hyperactive.
Like cheetahs, highly gifted children can be easy to identify. If a child teaches herself Greek at
age five, reads at the eighth grade level at age six or does algebra in second grade we can safely
assume that child is a highly gifted child. Though the world may see these activities as
"achievements," she is not an "achieving" child so much as a child who is operating normally
according to her own biological design, her innate mental capacity. Such a child has clearly
been given room to "run" and something to run for. She is healthy and fit and has not had her
capacities crippled. It doesn't take great knowledge about the characteristics of highly gifted
children to recognize this child.
However, schools are to extraordinarily intelligent children what zoos are to cheetahs. Many
schools provide a 10 x 12 foot cage, giving the unusual mind no room to get up to speed. Many
highly gifted children sit in the classroom the way big cats sit in their cages, dull-eyed and
silent. Some, unable to resist the urge from inside even though they can't exercise it, pace the
bars, snarl and lash out at their keepers, or throw themselves against the bars until they do
themselves damage.
Even open and enlightened schools are likely to create an environment that, like the cheetah
enclosures in enlightened zoos, allow some moderate running, but no room for the growing
cheetah to develop the necessary muscles and stamina to become a 70 mph runner. Children in
cages or enclosures, no matter how bright, are unlikely to appear highly gifted; kept from
exercising their minds for too long, these children may never be able to reach the level of
mental functioning they were designed for.
Page 7
A zoo, however much room it provides for its cheetahs, does not feed them antelope,
challenging them either to run full out or go hungry. Schools similarly provide too little
challenge for the development of extraordinary minds. Even a gifted program may provide only
the intellectual equivalent of 20 mph rabbits (while sometimes labeling children suspected of
extreme intelligence "underachievers" for NOT putting on top speed to catch those rabbits!)
Without special programming, schools provide the academic equivalent of Zoo Chow, food that
requires no effort whatsoever. Some children refuse to take in such uninteresting, dead
nourishment at all.
To develop not just the physical ability but also the strategy to catch antelope in the wild, a
cheetah must have antelopes to chase, room to chase them and a cheetah role model to show
them how to do it. Without instruction and practice they are unlikely to be able to learn
essential survival skills.
A recent nature documentary about cheetahs in lion country showed a curious fact of life in the
wild. Lions kill cheetah cubs. They don't eat them; they just kill them. In fact, they appear to
work rather hard to find them in order to kill them (though cheetahs can't possibly threaten the
continued survival of lions). Is this maliciousness? Recreation? No one knows. We only
know that lions do it. Cheetah mothers must hide their dens and go to great efforts to protect
their cubs, coming and going from the den under deep cover or only in the dead of night or
when lions are far away. Highly gifted children and their families often feel like cheetahs in
lion country.
In some schools brilliant children are asked to do what they were never designed to do (like
cheetahs asked to tear open a wildebeest hide with their claws-after all, the lions can do it!)
while the attributes that are a natural aspect of unusual mental capacity- intensity, passion, high
energy, independence, moral reasoning, curiosity, humor, unusual interests and insistence on
truth and accuracy-are considered problems that need fixing.
Brilliant children may feel surrounded by lions who make fun of or shun them for their
differences, who may even break their legs or drug them to keep them moving more slowly, in
time with the lions' pace. Is it any wonder they would try to escape; would put on a lion suit to
keep from being noticed; would fight back?
This metaphor, like any metaphor, eventually breaks down. Highly gifted children don't have
body markings and non-retractable claws by which to be identified when not performing.
Furthermore, the cheetah's ability to run 70 mph is a single trait readily measured. Highly gifted
children are very different from each other so there is no single ability to look for even when
they are performing; besides that, a child's greatest gifts could be outside the academic world's
definition of achievement and so go unrecognized altogether. While this truth can save some
children from being wantonly killed by marauding lions, it also keeps them from being
recognized for what they are-children with deep and powerful innate differences as allencompassing as the differences between cheetahs and other big cats.
That they may not be instantly recognizable does not mean that there is no means of identifying
them. It means that more time and effort are required to do it. Educators can learn the attributes
of unusual intelligence and observe closely enough to see those attributes in individual children.
They can recognize not only that highly gifted children can do many things other children
cannot, but that there are tasks other children can do that the highly gifted cannot.
Every organism has an internal drive to fulfill its biological design. The same is true for
unusually bright children. From time to time the bars need be removed, the enclosures
broadened. Zoo Chow, easy and cheap as it is, must give way, at least some of the time, to
lively, challenging mental prey.
More than this, schools need to believe that it is important to make the effort, that these children
not only have the needs of all other children to be protected and properly cared for, but that they
have as much RIGHT as others to have their needs met.
Biodiversity is a fundamental principle of life on our planet. It allows life to adapt to change.
In our culture highly gifted children, like cheetahs, are endangered. Like cheetahs, they are here
for a reason; they fill a particular niche in the design of life. Zoos, whatever their limitations,
may be critical to the continued survival of cheetahs; many are doing their best to offer their
captives what they will need eventually to survive in the wild. Schools can do the same for their
highly gifted children.
Unless we make a commitment to saving these children, we will continue to lose them and
whatever unique benefit their existence might provide for the human species of which they are
an essential part.
Page 8
Note: please disseminate this article widely if you find it useful. Proper attribution would be
appreciated, however -- Stephanie S. Tolan