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I believe...





Gifted Awareness Week 2019 is all about myth-busting and I am happy to blog my thoughts again in celebration of this auspicious week and this fascinating theme.

What a great opportunity we, those of us in the gifted education community, have to highlight myths and truths about gifted learners, giftedness and gifted education. The difficulty I have is where to start with this? There are SO MANY myths about gifted learners. If you hop on over to Myth-Busted you can read about the myths that gifted students say they are contending with every day, and what they think about these myths.

For me, as a teacher of gifted students, as a parent of gifted kids, as a gifted adult, the one, all-encompassing, over-arching, epic mother-ship of a myth that I want BUSTED once and for all is anything that starts with this:



This seemingly innocuous phrase is often put at the front of mythical statements like:
- I believe every child is gifted
- I believe giftedness represents a fixed mindset
- I believe I've never met a 'truly' gifted kid
- I believe gifted children don't exist, they just have pushy parents
- I believe that all children should be treated the same

Adding I believe to statements that negate the existence of giftedness doesn't make those statements alright!

'Believing' in giftedness isn't an option. It isn't an option to not 'believe' in the existence of trees, for example. More specifically in education, it isn't an option to 'believe' in medically diagnosed conditions that may impact on learning like ADHD or ASD. It isn't an option to 'believe' in other conditions that impact on learning, diagnosed by experts, like dyslexia or dyscalculia. It isn't an option to say that a child who is deaf simply has a fixed mindset about their hearing.

When we talk about learners with differences, it isn't acceptable to say 'I don't believe in dyslexia' or 'I don't believe I've met anyone who really has ADHD'.... So why on earth would anyone think it's acceptable to say 'I don't believe in giftedness'?

There core issue stemming from this 'belief' myth is that it serves as a barrier for our gifted learners. This barrier that prevents them accessing educational or social provisions that will support them as learners and young people growing up in our world.

Let's be conscious of this 'belief' myth, and BUST IT! It's not really that hard to move from 'belief' to 'evidence'. We live in the time of evidence-based practice, not belief-based practice, so let's turn to the large international body of research and theory that has developed over time that outlines, amongst other things:
- who gifted learners are
- what their common characteristics are and what these mean for practice
- what we can do to support their intellectual, social and emotional needs

The newly revamped TKI Gifted site is a huge store-house of national and international research and theory and can act as a great starting place for moving from the myth of 'belief' toward evidence-based knowledge and practice for our gifted learners.

This blog is part of the 2019 Gifted Awareness Week Blog Tour


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