Aren’t all children gifted?

Hozan Hasan
EAP1/C
April 06, 2011

Reference:
Myers, D.G. & Ridl, J. (1981, February-March). Aren’t all children gifted? Today’s education published from davidmyers.org Retrieved April 08, 2011 from http://www.davidmyers.org/davidmyers/assets/Arent.Child.Gifted.pdf

Summary:
In the article, “Aren’t children all gifted?,” It explains that there is nothing named gifted for separating children into two classifications, and the writer gives to us so much evidence to prove that in the whole world and in nature all children are equal, and there is no existence for the word “gifted”, and he opposes that system of gifted education. He also explained the current educational system in some countries and especially in the USA, although he showed us that all educational systems now do not help children to grow in the best way. Both gifted and non gifted children are harmfully controlled and affected by gifted educational system.

Reaction:
According to the article, I completely agree with the writer that classifying child between gifted and not gifted classes is the wrong idea and wrong system for children; he encourages the parents not to push their children to make them obtain a high score to become gifted, He also encourages non gifted children’s parents to not neglect their kids because he is not smart. He explains that all children naturally equal in ability and equal in their innate selves, so he said that “giftedness is just a concept” and he showed to us that every country and every generation has a different definition for the word “gift”. The writer agrees with the idea of equality in schools. As I understood, putting children in classes without separating them is better than stigmatizing them; in place of stigmatizing, making all children study the same program and the same education system, and teachers encourage children equally to study without separating them to different classes. The article showed us both gifted and not gifted children suffered from that separation and it psychologically affected them. Parents of gifted children push their child to study more and teachers give them more information and more stuff to study; as a result, the gifted child feels stress and feels controlled by others. In the other hand, the not gifted child is assaulted by his parents and neglected at school by teachers, and they did not include him in anything, so the child feels angry and bad. Mr. Myers said that “children who are exceptional in reading, after all, are not always exceptional in math, and those who are exceptional today may not be so exceptional tomorrow.” It is really important for parents and teachers to realize that no one is perfect and no one is born perfect, so every individual is gifted in a particular thing. Everyone is talented without separation to gifted or remedial schools.
Finally, it is important for parents to know that their children are gifted. We must encourage our children to succeed in life and do well, until now there is no studies that define “gifted” well or completely, also there are no tests to measure the different skills. All studies and IQ tests can’t measure all kinds of intelligence; they just measure specific people and they describe them in different ways. The best education for children is not to separate them, put them with each other, teach them equally, and encourage them equally without differences.