EDN 552: Introduction to Gifted Education

The Legend of the Pink Monkey / A tale retold by Cici Clovis

Us Pink Monkeys have a tough time finding one another.

Now, before you start calling the loony bin to make sure my room is ready, let me explain. Some time ago, some behavioral psychologists were studying a tribe of monkeys and how they interacted with one another. For some reason which only a behavioral psychologist could hope to understand, they dyed one of the monkeys pink and placed it back in the tribe. The other monkeys attacked it so viciously that they had to race to its rescue before it was killed.

Lesson: Being different is dangerous.

The trouble is that we all learn to wear our Brown Monkey suits to avoid being attacked, which means that we not only can't really relate to the other Brown Monkeys, we have a hard time identifying the other Pink Monkeys.

(You might want to share this analogy with your intellectually gifted children. Other Pink Monkeys do exist; eventually we find each other. This has helped my kids deal with the problem of being different. It seems to me G/T people are fated never to have great, whacking crowds of friends, simply because there are so few of us. It tends to be a lifelong issue that doesn't end just because we grow up. But we almost always develop a few deep friendships that do tend to endure through the years, and these friendships are very satisfying and fulfilling relationships. I rather suspect that most of the parents who participate in TAGFAM are Pink Monkeys, themselves. As you see, we do manage to find ways to contact one another. Hang in there!)

Tony's drying dishes / and cleaning out the hall / And all he did was use the phone / to make a friendly call./

For Tony's being punished / (which happens more and more) / Because he's only four years old / and much too smart for four./

A case of what I mean is this: / His parents thought it prattle / When Tony asked if he could phone / his uncle in Seattle./

So Tony's parents answered "Sure" / Only to check too late / and find he'd talked from coast to coast / for fifty minutes straight,/

which started Tony hollering. / He wasn't fresh or bad, / He'd asked to call Seattle, / and they let him, and he had.

Tony's in the corner / upon the Naughty Stool, / all because he tried to do / the work in nursery school.

When Tony tired of coloring, / To vary his routine / Miss Keith, his teacher, had him make / a bowl of plasticine. /

But even though he made the bowl / Miss Keith looked fierce and smitten / to note that on the back of it /

MADE IN JAPAN was written. / And since it didn't seem to help / when Tony told Miss Keith / he only wrote what all cheap bowls/

had written underneath... / Not really liking fierceness much, / He took a pencil, WHOOM / and fired it in a rubber band /

Tony's in the corner / Where he's been sent again / Because - at four - he reads and writes / like someone nine or ten.

Upset about the Bowl Affair, / Miss Keith - appearing grimmer - / Decided Tony might enjoy / a lovely first grade primer. /

The trouble was that later on / when she was less forbidding / and asked if Tony liked the book, / he answered "Are you kidding? /

My dog can run. My ball is fun. / My kitten is a pet. / See Mother cook. See baby look. / How boring can you get?" /

And just to warn some future child / the story wasn't bearable, / he scribbled on the title page: / "Don't read this book. It's terrible."/

Since Tony, what with this and that, / was no example-setter, / the teacher said to stay at home / until he acted better. /

Which didn't bother Tony much, / for what could be forlorner / than spending half your waking hours / restricted to a corner?

So now he's sweeping sidewalks / and beating scatter rugs, / and though he keeps his mind alert / by watching birds and bugs. /

He's sick of being punished / (which happens more and more) / because he's only four years old / and much too smart for four. /

He's sick of how his mother says / in accents sad and moan-y: / "He's brilliant, but / I don't know what / we'll ever DO with Tony.

If Dr. Seuss had a Gifted Child ....

by Mary Beth Northrup

Dear Mom-I-am, dear Mom-I-am, we have a problem, Mom-I-am. / Your son won't do what he must do. He drives me crazy, yes it's true!

He will stall and squirm and hum, and leave all of his work undone. / He dreams and will not pay attention, have you considered medication?

With other kids he does not play, he is alone much of the day. / Something does not seem quite right, because I know he must be bright.

He seems to learn, despite the rest, but the work is not his best. / He is disruptive, yes it's true. He just won't do what he must do!

Yes, teacher, I can really see, how frustrating all this must be, / A child who does not meet the norm, a child whose mold won't fit the form.

I've had him tested on WISC-III, by your approved test agency. / He scores far higher than the mean, there's more to this that can be seen.

So help us, help us find the way, to teach this child best if we may. / He is not like the rest you see, he acts and thinks far differently.

We need another way to teach him, another way to finally reach him. / Not the normal thing you do, but something altogether new!

What! Something new - go bar the door! We've not done it that way before! / If we do this thing for you, then all the rest will want it too!

Change our ways, that can't be done. Same for all, not changed for some. / All children are gifted, yes it's true! Just MAKE him do what he must do!

Please, please, teacher, hear me through. The laws say you must help us, too. / His needs are different than the rest, we CAN help him to do his best.

We can make this easy too, it will not be more work for you. / This can work out, you will see. Try it, try it, please, for me?

All right, all right, if I must. I still maintain this is not just. / But first there is red tape you see, tests and checks and IEP.

And after weeks and months of proving, finally we can begin moving. / Then I'll try it and we'll see, if this method is the key.

Hey, I see something, yes I do! We have found something he will do! / No more fiddle, squirm and hum, no more worksheets left undone.

He's zipping through, he's learning fast, he's doing his best work at last. / Why did I put up a fight? I guess dear Mom, that you were right.

(August 24-December 12, 2010: See syllabus for schedule of f2f & online dates)

"The truly creative mind in any field is no more / than this: A human creature born abnormally, / inhumanly sensitive. To him...

Add to this cruelly delicate organism the overpowering / necessity to create, create, create- - -so that

without the creating of music or poetry or books or / buildings or something of meaning, his very breadth

is cut off from him. He must create, must pour out / creation. By some strange, unknown, inward

(I no longer have an office phone but your VM goes directly to my email, so, please leave your email address & and I will reply asap.)

What do gifted kids (& adults) look like? (act like, talk like, sound like...!)