Don't force gifted kids into unnatural school environment
- Source: Global Times
- [21:14 March 09 2010]
- Comments
Illustration: Liu Rui
By Dan Ben-Canaan
Some hold that children with unusual talents in a particular field, such as music or mathematics, should be placed in a special educational facility that will cater only to their special abilities. They think such special treatment will foster innovative people in the future.
However, who is talented? Who should or could decide, and should children, talented or not, be isolated in an abnormal environment?
If we provide a special environment for students who have been identified as talented or gifted, our decisions will actually be quite arbitrary. "Talent" is a subjective term, and different people have very different perspectives and definitions of it.
Some define "giftedness" or "talent" as performance or inherent intelligence.
However, many students do not exhibit both at the same time. Measurement of general intelligence, such as IQ tests, has remained controversial because high IQ does not guarantee real-life intelligence or gifts. There are people with high IQs who are as clever as dead birds.
"Gifted" students are of no significance to society because their numbers are few and in general, such people's contribution to the whole is minimal if any. Gifted students will not raise the national level of knowledge, and these "freaks of nature" should not be pushed into a special position without any practical merit.
A good international image of a nation is created by its high values and not by the few inconsequential talents it has. Most Nobel Prize winners did not attend special schools for the "gifted," and many of them had only average IQs.
Without sound educational environment and an all-round education, no one will achieve much, even not those very few that are labeled as talented or gifted.
An excellent educational foundation should be provided for all children. Society should look upon all children and students as talented and thus give all of them a proper educational environment that can help each excel in the field of his or her liking and thus become innovative individuals in the future.
Home is where a proper educational environment begins.
Unfortunately, parents are the worst educators. They are the worst judges when it comes to choosing a path to life for their children. They see their own image within their children, and often want them to be someone they never were or will be. They push their children into endless line of private courses, thus creating psychological and intelligence blocks and early hatred of the subjects.
All children should have a "normal childhood," in which they play games and learn through interaction what they like or dislike, what they may be good at.
They also need to be allowed to be original and innovative, which is critical for the development of the mind.
Let children be children. Let them play and learn. Guide them to understand that there are choices and let them, not you, choose what they like.
Through this process, they will be able to develop a natural liking to a specific subject or field. They will not do so when pushed constantly into something.
Educational excellence should not be seen as if it is the Olympic Games. The fact that some win gold medals cannot be a statement for national collective ability in sports.
On the contrary, most people are bad in sports and the medals won by a few cannot make them better.
Teachers must understand that bringing the average education to a higher level would provide a better environment for overall national excellence.
Parents must learn how to lead their children, because they are not teachers and are bad educators. They should remember that a high IQ does not guarantee any intellectual achievement, that a good set of muscles does not guarantee being a sports star, that a good ear or voice does not guarantee becoming a great composer or singer, and that being good with numbers does not guarantee excellence in mathematics.
A proper educational environment, understanding and learning, as well as constant training, can increase the skills of all students, including those labeled talented.
The author is an Israeli professor and director of the Sino-Israel Research Center at Heilongjiang University. bencanaan@ gmail.com
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