The trials and tribulations of raising and educating a profoundly gifted girl.
12 Jun
Well I’m back! My hard disk decided to teach me to back up my data on Saturday morning – the hard way…by dying.
So hubby and I have spent the past 5 days recovering the data and then rebuilding my laptop with a new hard drive. It’s been a fairly stressful time as I’d been stupid and not kept regular backups.
Anyway, that’s all over.
I was thinking the other day about a question that a teacher friend of mine asked me. The question was:
“What one word sums up what you think teachers should do with kids like Archie?”
One word??? That’s a tall ask.
But the other day as we were driving along it struck me. The word is:
LISTEN
That’s it. Why you ask? Simple. It’s when these kids speak that you really ‘get’ how different they are.
Example from Archie that helped me to find the answer. Their substitute teacher is reading them George’s Marvellous Medicine. Archie recalls reading it ‘a long time ago’ (Kindergarten – just 3 short years!)…but she’s enjoying it as she doesn’t remember much of the detail. She’s listing the ingredients that are in the medicine and she gets to the end, takes a breath, and says “you know what mum, it should be called George’s LETHAL medicine!”
That was the moment. She’s 8. Most kids that age wouldn’t know the word lethal existed let alone use it in such a precise way. She then went on to tell me “Or murderous, or…or….or…” She came up with about half a dozen equally fitting words.
That’s when it hit me. Teacher’s new to the journey of working with PG kids need to learn to LISTEN. Shut your mouth. Shut your eyes. Park your prejudices at the door. And listen. Get these kids to talk about something they’re passionate about. And then listen with an open heart and an open mind.
That’s what these kids need from teachers. They need to be heard.
Hope that you’re all doing well.
Archie’s Mum
3 Responses for "Back from the wilderness"
What a great post! I am teacher so read with interest this blog. It is a challenge ‘teaching’ gifted students. Your advice is very releveant. Kate
Kate,
Thank you! I’m ashamed to say that I never thought that teachers would read this blog…I was originally writing thinking only of parents of kids like this. So thanks for your comment! I’ve got a million things I’d like to tell teachers about these kids as they’re not your run of the mill moderately gifted kids that most teachers come across…you’ve made me realise that perhaps I should actually put them down on here as they might help someone somewhere!
Thanks again.
Archie’s Mum
You hit it with the last sentence….. not only do they have to listen, they have to HEAR!! Our boy is lucky this year in that his teacher gives him time, and hears what he says. An example of this was during goal setting - the teacher recorded what he wrote, but exchanged a couple of words. The boy got upset “that’s not what I said, I said…..”. In years past, teachers would have said “it’s close enough”, but this teacher said “you’re absolutely right, I’ll change it”. Justice was done, and more importantly, she ‘heard’ that getting it 100% accurate was important to him.
Great post Archie’s Mum!
Natalie
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