The Paradox Of The Slow And Gifted Learner

By Horacio Sanchez The paradox is that the slow and the gifted learner place too much emphasis on being smart. The struggling student believes he or she is not smart enough to take on challenging subject matter and tends to easily give up. The struggling student believes that he or she can never master the challenge and therefore avoids putting forth the effort required. The gifted child who has glided effortlessly through the lower grades often does not encounter his or her first academic challenge until middle school. By that time the student has come to believe that being smart means never having to struggle. Not having experienced academic challenge early enough creates a false expectation of what being smart is. This false expectation can produce a sudden bout of anxiety when the work is not easily mastered and internal fear that he or she might not be as smart as they have been told. As a result, the gifted learner might not seek help but rather faint a lack of interest in school or engage in negative behaviors to avoid letting anyone know that he or she is struggling. The natural drive that motivates both the response of the struggling and the gifted student is the need to feel successful. The amygdala, the part of the brain in charge of emotions, has three universal needs: the need to feel safe, the need to feel wanted, and the need to be successful. The need to succeed is so powerful that when it is not met it can produce strong emotional behavior. Children who are told by their parents that they cannot succeed, will rather portray the part of the unmotivated student or demonstrate behavioral problems rather cope with having tried and failed. The child told by parents and teachers alike that they are smart will often create excuses for the sudden drop in academic performance than tell anyone that he or she cannot understand the work. The surprising outcome is that both the struggling student and the gifted child often choose to play the part of the unmotivated or belligerent student rather than let the world know the emotional reasons for their behaviors – fear of failure. Extended periods of failure for both the struggling and the gifted learner can produce such chemical instability that the result is true behavioral and emotional problems. If the gifted child’s potential goes unidentified for too long, this profile student will become undistinguishable from the struggling student with behavioral or emotional issues. Since the initial struggle first begins for the gifted learner at middle school, it is easy for teachers who don’t know the student well not recognize how bright the child truly is. This is especially true for minority males who belong to underperforming subgroups. The existing bias that these profile students consistently struggle academically makes it difficult for most teachers to see the potential of these gifted learners.  Resiliency Inc. 2009

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The peculiar thing is that the solution for both the struggling student and the gifted child is exactly the same. Creating ritualized nurturing environments in which students are more able to take risks. Predictable rituals improve the brain’s chemical balance. It is the more chemically fragile struggling and gifted student that will be unable to cope with challenge appropriately. School environments that are highly structured can improve chemical functioning reducing emotional responses. Nurturing environments in this case means places where it is safe to make mistakes. From the first day in school it is important for teachers to drive home to all students that school is a safe place to make mistakes. It is by mistakes that we can all learn. If it had not been for the ability to learn from mistakes and the willingness to keep on tiring man would have never flown or walked on the moon. The greatest mathematical, scientific, and engineering discoveries are all outcomes of man’s ability to learn from his or her mistakes and never have the mistakes stop him or her from trying again. Modify the standard curriculum for the accelerated to the slow learner. The technique is exactly the same, preparing the same subject matter for an upper grade level and for a younger grade level. However, the key is not to set preconceived limitations on how far each student might be able to go in an area of interest. Once a student experience success, it is important to allow them to build on it. The drive to succeed is so powerful that once the struggling student finds areas of interest, he or she might surprise you how far they can go. Teach students the truth about the brain. That it is like a muscle that can become smarter. Each student can build a stronger brain by learning. The harder you work the faster it can grow. Many students believe that intelligence is a stagnant quotient. That is because parents and teachers unknowingly establish that perception. Parents say that you are not as smart as your bother. Supportive teachers tell students that they are not all going to be good at math, or social studies, or English. Students interpret that message to mean that when you struggle in something it means that you will never be good at it. For some students who struggle in all academic areas, the message means that that they will not be good at school. The message should be that every student can get better at any subject if they work hard enough. Teachers should remember that resent research by the International Center for the Study of Giftedness at the University of Munster in Germany determined that highly gifted individuals display surprising weaknesses that can make them look like a struggling student. Gifted students may be sensitive to logical contradictions in spelling and be very poor speller. Their motor skills may develop relatively slowly producing very poor penmanship. Teachers unwilling to struggle through the poor penmanship and misspelled word might miss the brilliance of next great mind of our generation.

 Resiliency Inc. 2009

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