Schools and Teachers for the Gifted

Gifted students want to question, to create, to analyze, or to synthesize, but the slow-paced teacher requires them to repeat simplistic facts and follow uniform rules. Have your children somehow realized that the system wasn't designed for them?

California's 30,000 gifted and talented students tend to fare less than optimally in public schools. "Gifted and Talented Children are, in fact, deprived," states the U.S. Department of Education; they "can suffer psychological damage and permanent impairment." We know that your gifted child needs help from teachers and staff who truly appreciate the students who want to go further faster and benefit from an environment where intellectual drive is celebrated and supported. We understand that Students' intellectual drive is an emotional need; we actively seek gifted teachers whose own experiences of nurturing their inner intellectual life in schools that were not optimally suited to their learning trajectory creates understanding and empathy between VIA students and their learning guides.

Is Your Child Gifted?

You can often sense giftedness by a child's emotional intensity and sense of humor. Gifted students will ask questions adults can't answer easily and train themselves quickly in any subject of interest. They may seem overly sensitive at times because their moral consciences are more developed or because they question authority or display perfectionism. They may fail to answer concrete problems because they are interested in broader, more open-ended, problems. Dr. Linda Silverman and the Columbus Group define giftedness authoritatively as: "...asynchronous development in which advanced cognitive abilities and heightened intensity combine to create inner experiences and (modes of) awareness that are qualitatively different from the norm. This asynchrony increases with higher intellectual capacity. The uniqueness of the gifted renders them particularly vulnerable and requires modifications in parenting, teaching and counseling in order for them to develop optimally."

We understand that gifted students may not score in the top two per cent on a test that measures only linguistic and mathematical talent. The following is adapted from Howard Gardner's Frames of Mind:

Words: Many gifted students read great novels at early ages, listen with exceptional memory and understanding, write amazing articles, essays and stories, speak words in public that awe adults, and debate great principles. These children, who will readily pass verbal tests, should be encouraged to read, write, speak, discuss and debate great books and ideas. Our school believes this talent is fundamental to most careers and that most students can develop it readily.

Numbers: Some students like to count everything and to understand the rules of numbers. They may learn higher-level math and may apply this skill to the natural and social sciences. These students like to analyze patterns.

Lines and Curves: Visual/special learners can draw or paint anything, on paper, on computer, or in their minds.

Movement: Bodily/kinesthetic learners show their intelligence through movement, whether it be the large muscle movement of the skilled baseball player or dancer, or the precise movement of the electronics hobbyist or surgeon.

Music: Musical learners express themselves with notes, or understand things in terms of notes. They might thrill parents and teachers with singing, dancing, or playing a wide variety of instruments.

Socializing: Interpersonal leaders are learners who can gather business cards from twenty people in an hour, who can make speeches that touch others' hearts, who can get people to do things that might otherwise be ignored. They know how to make friends in work and play. They are democracy's salesmen and presidents. Many gifted students are introverts, but they can be trained to socialize well when needed.

Reflection: Intrapersonal learners know themselves as well as interpersonal learners know others. They are the poets who sing the "Song of Myself" the people who can grasp feelings and set their own goals based upon principles they themselves devised.

Adaptation: Naturalist learners can grasp the whole of a situation and adapt themselves to its needs. Whether they observe the animal world or a primitive society, their synthetic intelligence lets them survive all challenges.

Valley International Academy hires enlightened and often non-traditional teachers to move children ahead towards their true potential in each subject. We accelerate education to teach it at faster pace, with less busy work. We enrich learning by asking gifted students higher-level questions and adapt and differentiate our curriculum and approach to serve gifted students more appropriately.