Children with extraordinary gifts and talents experience drastically different needs. We parents, teachers, and advocates often get nervous calling attention to bright children, and we often fall into the trap of working under the radar or even making ourselves invisible.
When we do this, we pull smart kids into the shadows with us. Hiding hasn’t worked in the past and won’t work in the future. A new approach is required to meet the needs of gifted children. We should borrow the strategies and tactics that other movements—such as civil rights protesters, suffragettes, and environmental activists—have successfully used to inspire social change. It is imperative that we emerge from the shadows and work openly on behalf of gifted children.
As advocates, we must try new strategies and tactics to help society fully understand the nature and needs of gifted children, to create supportive environments for their learning, and to implement research-based practices that help them capitalize on their talents.
In short, we must change minds, change policies, and change practice. The National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) will drive initiatives to accomplish these important goals through our action and collaboration.
Change Minds
The first goal is to dispel common myths, to expand the public’s awareness of gifted and talented children, and to increase the urgency to serve them.
The perception of gifted and talented education is mired in mythology. People often associate gifted education with elitism—or else they go to the opposite extreme of inclusivity and claim that all children are gifted. In other cases, they say, “There are no gifted children in my school.” And of course there’s the classic barrier: “We can’t afford gifted education.” As you can see from these examples, the public is confused!
Each one of these misconceptions calls for an effective antidote. NAGC will work with its leaders to develop and test proactive messages and implement a sustained campaign to increase public understanding of the needs of gifted students. We are actively recruiting high-level spokesmen to amplify our voice and cultivating powerful organizations to act as communication channels. From leaders like Norm Augustine (former chairman and CEO of Lockheed Martin) to organizations like the American Federation of Teachers, the Council of Chief State School Officers, the Parent Teachers Association, and the Council for Exceptional Children, NAGC is building an influential coalition and taking active steps to refine and disseminate our message.
We must saturate the public consciousness with the simple truth that all children deserve to be happy, fulfilled, and successful. This will be tough, and we must be open to pioneering new methods. NAGC has been working for over sixty years to advance the movement for gifted children. We have gotten great traction and won important victories in that time (most recently, we helped change federal education law to allow public schools and districts to spend Title I funds in support of gifted kids), but we must go further! We need to continue to be bold, to push new messages, and to help bright children get the support they need to shine.
The Civil Rights Movement provides a useful model. Dr. Martin Luther King and his fellow advocates pushed hard in the face of adversity, projecting a positive message that emphasized the value of every living person. Rather than backing down, they stood up and marched. It may be a little bold to associate our cause with such a celebrated antecedent, but it can be seen in many ways as a continuation of the work of the 1960s.
Del Siegle and his research colleagues at the National Research Center on Gifted Education found recently that it is virtually impossible for a poor, minority English learner to be placed in a gifted and talented program. But we believe that education is a great equalizer. Giftedness exists in all populations, and families, teachers, and the community have a moral obligation to aid in the flourishing of children from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Change Policies
At NAGC, we believe in the power of policy to create supportive learning environments. There are many accomplishments to be proud of in this respect, especially the attention and funding opportunities created by the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
Leaders at the state and local levels are also racking up successes. As these advocates know, policy changes do not just occur in a vacuum. They take persistence, dedication, and smart strategy. To build on these successes, we can draw lessons from twentieth-century efforts to secure suffrage and women’s rights.
Much of the progress that women have made is a result of direct education, advocacy, and lobbying efforts. The strong women of the nineteenth century demanded their right to participate in democracy, visiting members of Congress with detailed proposals. They pressed the president and marched on the streets of Washington. We will need to replicate their methodical approach to help our children get the support they deserve.
The NAGC national office has set its eyes on federal policy. We helped develop the Equity in Excellence Act, the Talent Act, and improvements to Department of Education policies. These were the seeds for change in last year’s Every Student Succeeds Act. As we survey the landscape for policy and practice, we still see a need to leverage the recent opportunities created in federal law. We will support local practitioners in using the law, and we will continue to shape a supportive policy environment for gifted education.
On the horizon, there is also the promise of the Higher Education Act, which may offer a chance to enhance programs for disadvantaged students and help them succeed in higher education. We will continue to look into these opportunities as they emerge.
But a more immediate opportunity exists as well: influencing state and local policy. This is where we perceive the greatest potential area of change for gifted kids. NAGC is developing the infrastructure to support a set of states in making specific policy changes. While every jurisdiction is different, we will seek to provide materials and supports to fill common policy gaps and change the game for gifted children.
We are blessed to collaborate with the Council of State Directors of Programs for the Gifted in our “State of the States Report,” which will be instructive in creating a targeted state agenda. With the help of experts like Jonathan Plucker, we hope to spread awareness of policies that could make a difference.
These are just starting points in our discussion. We believe that policy change can increase equity, bolster programming quality, and allow parents and educators to access improved services. Stay tuned for more details.
Change Practice
We now have reached the third goal of NAGC’s advocacy—changing practice. In achieving this aim, we can learn much from the environmental movement. Environmentalists used the power of messaging to change minds, and they understood how to leverage policy to their use. But they also knew that they could inspire change immediately.
Acknowledging that behavior cements culture, environmentalists tapped into the natural human tendency to create routines. They understood that if they could help people repeatedly commit certain actions, those actions would become sticky habits. You know how hard it is to break a habit.
Take a look at the super-hot Tesla and the slick charging stations sprouting up in major cities. Without a mandate, citizens are buying these novel cars, driving them across town, and installing charging outlets. Electric and hybrid cars are now an accepted part of our culture, and not because of an edict from above. Now there is no turning back.
In a similar manner, we can tap into the power of human nature and engender positive habits for supporting the needs of gifted children. As with the policy ideas mentioned above, NAGC has created a preliminary list of practices for consideration. They were listed because of research supporting their positive impact on students; but there are more examples, and we will discover others. Our organization will work in a coordinated way to identify high-leverage practices and build a support infrastructure to foster adoption and implementation. We can make a difference now for gifted children, even while setting the stage for the future success of the movement.
Call to Action
“Change minds, change policies, change practice” is a comprehensive, three-pronged formula that will help gifted students achieve their full potential. By combining these efforts, we can help kids win happiness, fulfillment, and success.
M. René Islas is the executive director of the National Association for Gifted Children.
Editor's note: This is part of a series of blog posts that is collaboratively published every week by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and National Association for Gifted Children. Each post in the series exists both here on Flypaper and on the NAGC Blog.
