It’s too bad that the first programs to go during a budget shortfall are the special education programs — especially the programs for gifted students.

At least the State Superintendent is saying the right things:

“Sometimes so much of the federal and state laws focus on lower- and underachieving students, and we should be focused on them,” State Superintendent Nancy Grasmick said. “But we cannot reduce the opportunities for our students who can achieve at very high levels.”

We’ll just wait and see if the school district changes its mind…

Many programs face extra funding woes | Washington Examiner.

Nine Research-Supported Facts About Gifted Education: “In 2008, Dr. Sally M. Reis (University of Connecticut) prepared a National Association for Gifted Children position paper listing facts that we know to be true about gifted education.

She limited this list to include only conclusive statements that can be supported with many years of research findings about gifted education. Certainly, she could have included others; however, the idea behind this list was to collect those statements that had so much solid support, they could be considered established facts.”

Head on over to the Prufrock Press site to read the nine facts. They are pretty interesting. As you read them, think about your district and how they educate gifted children. Is your child really getting the best education they should get?

In recent years, psychologists have come up with a term to describe this mental trait: grit. Although the idea itself isn’t new – “Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration,” Thomas Edison famously remarked – the researchers are quick to point out that grit isn’t simply about the willingness to work hard. Instead, it’s about setting a specific long-term goal and doing whatever it takes until the goal has been reached. It’s always much easier to give up, but people with grit can keep going.

While stories of grit have long been associated with self-help manuals and life coaches – Samuel Smiles, the author of the influential Victorian text “Self-Help” preached the virtue of perseverance – these new scientific studies rely on new techniques for reliably measuring grit in individuals. As a result, they’re able to compare the relative importance of grit, intelligence, and innate talent when it comes to determining lifetime achievement. Although this field of study is only a few years old, it’s already made important progress toward identifying the mental traits that allow some people to accomplish their goals, while others struggle and quit. Grit, it turns out, is an essential (and often overlooked) component of success.

As parents of gifted children, we tend to lose on the idea that finishing a project is often more important than receiving an A+ for that project (or assignment). We tend to determine success by the number of A’s and B’s rather than by the amount of class assignments completed, or whether or not a self-directed project was complete.

The idea that grit is more important may change the point of view of some of our educators as well.

Read more about it at the Boston Globe.

A Glimmer for Gifted

Schools and the Stimulus
I have wondered if there’s anything in the stimulus bill that offers assistance for students with gifts and talents. Unlike Title I and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, there is no federal mandate for gifted programs. Instead, the cost of gifted education is borne by the states.