Nurturing the Life of the Mind:

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• Nurturing the Life of the Mind
• If Schools Dont Value Intellect. Who Will?
• By Kathleen Vail
• American School Board Journal

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What Does Gifted Mean?

• 1. Having great special talent or ability.
• 2. Having exceptionally high intelligence.

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Gifted Students Have Been Overlooked for Years
Why?

• As a nation, the United States does not place a
  high value on intellectualism.
• Public heroes are singers, actors, athletes,
  socialites, etc.
• We value looks, money, youth, and popularity.
• Intellect is resented as a form of power or
  privilege. Professor Richard Hofstadter, from
  his book Anti-Intellectualism in American Life

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Gifted Students Have Been Overlooked for Years
Why?

• Hofstadter states that since the founding of the
  US, we have been trained to reject anything that
  smacks of elitism because of our Democratic
  and populist urges.
• Basically, we have been taught that everyone is
  created equal, and intellectualism goes against
  that.

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Why Is America So Afraid Of Intellectualism?

• 1995 Public Agenda Survey
• Polled Americans to find out how they view
  intellectualism.
• 7 out of 10 people polled said that, people who
  are highly educated often turn out to be book
  smart but lack the common sense and understanding
  of regular folk.

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Why Is America So Afraid Of Intellectualism?

• 1995 Public Agenda Survey continued
• Cincinnati woman polled said, If everyone were a
  genius, it would be a dull world.
• 7 out of 10 people said that they would be very
  or somewhat concerned if their child earned
  excellent grades but had only a few close friends
  and seldom participated in social activities.

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How And Why Are Gifted Students Being Overlooked?

• Homework is being discouraged and/or limited
  because parents complained that homework was
  interfering with their childrens extracurricular
  activities.
• Staff members dont want other students to
  ..feel bad about not being selected.

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Why Have We Been Teaching This Way?

• We have been too concerned with making sure
  children feel like they are equal with their
  peers intellectually
• We feel like we need to entertain children,
  instead of engaging them in challenging,
  meaningful activities which develop critical
  thinking skills.
• In the interests of being more inclusive, weve
  backed away from making demands on students.
  Carol Jago, Director, California Reading and
  Literature Project, UCLA.

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Why Have We Been Teaching This Way?

• Because information is changing so quickly.it
  makes more sense to teach students how to find
  information than to impart it to them.
• We cannot just give the students the answers, we
  have to make sure they can also understand and
  apply the information they are finding.
• We rely too heavily on memorizing and reciting
  facts.

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How Can We Change This?

• Teachers MUST serve as role models to students!
• Teachers should continue to learn as much as they
  can about their content area, as well as the
  liberal arts (making them more well-rounded.)
• Teachers must take part in continuing education.
  (Now mandated by law)

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How Can We Change This?

• Stop treating gifted children as if they are
  bored troublemakers.
• Provide gifted students with curriculum that
  matches their intelligence.
• Make accommodations to lessons as-needed to
  challenge gifted students.
• Stop allowing gifted students to be ridiculed for
  being intelligent.

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Closing

• Without the ability to think critically, to
  defend their ideas and understand the ideas of
  others, they (students) cannot fully participate
  in our democracy.

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Bibliography

• Vail, Kathleen. Nurturing the Life of the Mind
  If Schools Dont Value Intellect, Who Will?
  American School Board Journal January (2001).
  www.asbj.com.