inside these walls

The Gifted Teacher

Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see. Arthur Schopenhauer

For the past five years, I've has the privilege to be a teacher of gifted and talented students. Our state refers to them as AIG students.(I love the way the state likes to categorize exceptional students by a series of letters like OHI,or BEH.) People would often refer to me as "the gifted teacher," and I would qualify that, telling them that, no, "I teach the gifted." The truth of the matter is, there was a wide range of "giftedness" in my classroom. For example, a few students fell into the category of "profoundly gifted." These children had IQs above 150 and, well, what can I say? They were amazingly brilliant. They were the ones who could hit the target no one else can see. Another group of students were very bright, with IQs in the 125 - 140 range. They were quick-thinkers and a lot of fun. Generally, they weren't high-maintenance and they laughed at all my jokes. They got their work done quickly and usually managed to get As. Now the last group of students I had were mostly academically talented. Their IQs fell below the 93 percentile but they received high scores on achievement tests. They were what society calls "good test-takers."

I will miss these children. I taught both fourth and fifth grades, and I kept the same students for both years. My fourth grade class last year was (in student lingo) pretty awesome. My heart breaks at the thought of saying good-bye. They made me feel like I was, indeed, a "gifted" teacher.

posted by jackie @ 5:20 AM