The Journal of the World Council for Gifted and Talented Children

The World Council for Gifted and Talented Children
and the parents, and especially the good will of the headmasters, who were in charge of the
complicated time table, including the transportation of young children from home or from school to
the enrichment center, and back to 19 different home destinations. The headmistress with the
highest formal education among the three, and the only one who had school age children, said her
children were not to participate in the program because she "preferred dancing and music activities.
I rather they should not be gifted".
It seems that the negative attitude of both educators and the public towards the gifted
crosses religion and cultural borders. In an interview with Mr. Wagi Balum, the head of the Taibe
enrichment program, one of the Israeli programs located in Arab centers and aimed for Arab
children, he said: "98.5% of the Taibe parents objected to the program. Only 1.5% was for it, in fact,
they supported it in all possible ways. No wonder, only 1.5% of the Taibe children were accepted,
their very proud parents are, of course, warm fans. Financial support cannot be secured from the
city, because the municipality would not give away money against the wish of such a massive
majority of the citizens" (David, 2006).
Here are some examples of harmful, even destructive teachers’ attitudes towards gifted
children.
I. Many teachers would not allow a gifted child to answer any of the questions the teacher asks the
class unless nobody else is willing to answer.
II. In many classes it is a custom to use the knowledge and intelligence of the gifted children to
impress the headmaster, outside visitors, such as supervisors or visiting university staff
members, sometimes accompanied by pre-service teachers or education students.
III. Many times the gifted child, already used to not being called by the teacher, minds her or his
business during the class. The teacher sometimes calls the attention of the class to the gifted
student who "thinks too much of her/himself"; "does not think he or she has anything to learn.”
or just "showing disrespect to the teacher". Such insensitive reactions might cause permanent
damage.
IV. Falling asleep during the class has its own consequences, usually including the child’s parents,
who are "invited" to a consultation with the school counselor, the headmaster or even the school
psychologist.
V. A milder, though more typical behavior of the gifted child is daydreaming. This is followed, many
times, by sudden questions from the teacher directed to the gifted child in order to "catch" her
or him in what is perceived by the teacher as a behavior that ought to be ridiculed by the gifted
child’s peers.
VI. When the tasks the gifted child hands in are not "perfect" according to the teacher’s criteria, the
child is reproached, called names such as "clumsy”, "sloppy", "disparaging student”, or
"arrogant". When the gifted student is a girl, other name-calling might be added, especially when
the work handed in is lacking from the aesthetic point of view: "tomboy”, "egotistic" and even
"unfeminine.”
2. Enjoy teaching challenging, innovative and inventive students
As demonstrated, most teachers would rather not teach gifted children; they show a
negative attitude towards giftedness in general and towards gifted, studious students in particular.
Here is the list of some of the reasons to this situation.
It is quite often that the teacher assumes that being gifted is an advantage the pupil has
received, so he or she should pay back for it by helping her teach in general, and focus on the
advancement of weak students in particular. In such cases, the teacher ignores her or his
responsibility to teach the gifted student. The gifted child, sometimes even at a very young age, not
only understands he or she has no rights in the classroom, should not ask for attention and certainly
should have no expectations to be taught anything new, or at a suitable level, but is permanently "in
debt" to others because of the good luck he or she has been blessed with.
One of the main reasons teachers do not like to teach the gifted is the high energy level
needed in order to do that successfully. About 10 years ago, the author asked the permission of the
headmistress of one of the enrichment programs for the gifted to distribute the Hebrew version of
the TAAI questionnaire (Milgram, 1999) among her students. She agreed on one condition: the
author would have to teach each group participating in the study a 90-minute class about social
sciences studies. After teaching three such sessions, “not only were my underarms wet; I felt as if my shirt
76 Gifted and Talented International – 26(1), August, 2011; and 26(2), December, 2011.