Developing meaningful relationships with students who are gifted can significantly enhance the teaching and learning relationship with individual students and preserve class and rehearsal time for the musical goals necessary for the development of all students.
This quote details how building trust and understanding within your student-teacher relationships helps teachers better support and motivate gifted students, along with gaining their mutual trust and respect.
The amount of time necessary for mastery of a concept is often a fraction of the time needed for students who are not gifted.
This quote discusses how music educators should vary the pacing of their lessons and complexity to keep gifted students engaged.
Students who are highly gifted may find themselves waiting after assignments are completed for as much as 50% of their school day, and students who are profoundly gifted may “waste” 75% of their school day
This quote details how standard classrooms often fail to provide adequate intellectual stimulation for gifted learners.
Hallmarks of the emotional lives of students who are gifted include asynchronous development; perfectionism, which can lead to a lack of risk-taking; imposter syndrome; extreme frustration when work is incorrect or not perfect; and extremes in emotions and reactions to events and situations. These students may also have difficulty winding down for the day and/or sleeping at night.
This quote validates a common pattern I have observed where gifted students, in their adulthood will stuggle with mental health; depression, anxiety, etc. Thus, emotional intensity is common among gifted learners and requires understanding from teachers.
In the music classroom, the behavior of some gifted students can appear to be rude, attention-seeking (or defiant), and developmentally inappropriate.
Gifted students, when lacking engagement in the classroom, can display behaviors that might appear as rude and disrespectful but ultimately are not intentional.
The concept that giftedness is an elitist value is as absurd as proposing that teaching students with intellectual disabilities is not worth serious discussion within the educational community.
This quote argues that providing specialized education for gifted learners is not about favoritism, but it is instead about fairness.
Where the gifted child drifts in the school unrecognized, held to the lockstep which is determined by the capacities of the average, he has little to do. He receives daily practice in habits of idleness and daydreaming. His abilities are never genuinely challenged, and the situation is contrived to build in him expectations of an effortless existence.
This quote emphasizes the idea that without proper challenges, gifted students may develop boredom and disengagement from academics rather than motivation, having the opposite effect as intended.
Most often, music educators adapt teaching to accommodate students who learn at a slower rate; however, it is also essential to consider adapting our teaching for those students who learn faster than their peers.
This quote distinguishes how teachers must differentiate instruction not only for students who need extra help but also for those who need more challenge.
The differences and disabilities of students who are intellectually gifted are often delayed, ignored, and denied.
This highlights how schools tend to focus on supporting students who struggle academically, sometimes neglecting the unique needs of gifted students and allowing them to fade into the background at times.
If a student is undiagnosed or misdiagnosed (e.g., attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder rather than gifted), he or she can be labeled as having behavior issues and may feel increasingly isolated and different from peers. These feelings can lead to depression and thoughts of suicide
This argument is part of a large conversation and controversy I have noticed across the idea of gifted & talented classes, where students get isolated from one another based on "intelligence" and academic success, often isolating students with disabilities