What Defines "Gifted?"

Last Friday morning I was supposed to meet with Ethan’s school to discuss possible placement in the gifted and talented (GT) program next year. Now, while every parent wants their child to be “gifted and talented,” I honestly am not messed up over the label. I just want him to excel.

Ethan is a smart, smart little boy. By 2o months, before he could speak, he knew his letters. I mean KNEW them. A TV commercial would come on with text and I’d say, “Ethan, do you see the letter Q?” He’d point to it. On a street sign, “Ethan, where’s the letter M?” He’d point to it.

His first real words came around 22 months – the numbers one to 10. I should have known I was in for a ride because he was so excited about those numbers. He would stay up for hours in the middle of the night counting from one to 10 (and I had to lay right there next to him listening.) Again, he KNEWthem, and he was adding more numbers to his vocabulary just as quick as his little language development allowed.

These things just came naturally to him. He taught himself to read by age 3. To add triple digit numbers together by age 4. This past year, it was the world map. He literally taught himself the countries of the world and their capitals. All with very little help on my part. His reading is well beyond that of his peers. (They’ve got him reading chapter books.) He can recognize numbers to infinity and beyond. His mind is just amazing.

OK, so back to my meeting. I made plans to have someone watch Abby so I could attend. When I arrived, the school administrative assistant said, “Oh. (Teacher’s Name) isn’t here today. Didn’t she call you?”

Then today, I got a note in Ethan’s folder saying the school decided to just go ahead and meet without me, and they decided to just observe him for the next year. Turns out his IQ test came out at 103, which is around the 57th percentile.

Flashback: When I was a child at this very same school, I was given what was probably the very same IQ test. Mine came back around average as well. I was not allowed to enter GT. A few years later, I was again tested, given a creativity test. They in turn told my parents that I had one of the most creative tests they had ever seen. Guess what? I qualified.

I'm not telling this to brag. I'm saying that the first test did not fit my skills or "giftedness." The second one did.

Again, I’m not as upset about the fact that he did not get in as I am the reason he did not get in. There is something wrong with a system that focuses on standardized testing and avoids common sense. (Not to mention the fact that they decided to exclude me from the meeting!) Autistic children often don’t do well on standardized tests. He was also given a creativity test. I don’t’ know what it consisted of, but I’m sure it was based off of “typical” children. Ethan may hate playing with dolls or playing cops and robbers, but you can’t tell me he’s not creative.

I thought, “Yeah, but did you ask him to design golf courses for you? Or create a new font? Or see letters and numbers in everyday objects?”
One final point. A friend told me that in her school district, they don’t like to test disabled children for GT because then they don’t qualify for special education. Since when does being disabled mean that you can’t be gifted or talented? I believe Beethoven would disagree. Or Helen Keller. Or Franklin Roosevelt. Or Temple Grandin. Or Albert Einstein, Leonardo Da Vinci, Steven Spielberg, or Bill Gates, all of whom were diagnosed with, or suspected of having autism.

So what’s the answer? I honestly don’t know. I don’t even know what to do about my own situation. I do know that this cookie-cutter system of one-size fits all is failing, especially in a nation where now one in every 110 children is diagnosed with autism.

I’d love to hear suggestions. And more than that, I’d love for us all to create solutions.