North Carolina's Definition of Gifted and Talented
“The General Assembly believes the public schools should challenge all students to aim for academic excellence and that academically or intellectually gifted students perform or show the potential to perform at substantially high levels of accomplishment when compared to others of their age, experience and environment. Academically or intellectually gifted students exhibit high performance capability in intellectual areas, specific academic fields, or in both intellectual areas and specific academic fields. Academically or intellectually gifted students require differentiated educational services beyond those ordinarily provided by the regular educational program. Outstanding abilities are present in students from all cultural groups, across all economic strata, and in all areas of human endeavor.”
(North Carolina. Gen. Stat. § 115C-150.5)
(North Carolina. Gen. Stat. § 115C-150.5)
My philosophy of gifted and talented
There are several ways that the word gifted can be defined. The first definition that I think of is when a person is given something by someone as a sign of appreciation-- a gift or present. Connotatively, a gift is something that is considered special and given as an honor. Another definition of gifted that is more relevant to the academic setting is when the term is applied to a student who excels in a certain subject area. On the surface, a gifted student is one who gets higher grades than his peers and requires a more rigorous and challenging workload in order to stay interested in his learning. A gifted student has the cognitive skills that allow him to process information more quickly and think more abstractly than his peers. Students can be gifted not only in different subject areas but can be gifted with different skill sets as well. For example, one student may be very artistically talented whereas another may excel in math, just as one student may be a very visual learner, whereas another is better at kinesthetic learning.
Whether it is a gift to someone or a gift someone has, being gifted carries a sense of being special. The special talents of all children need to be taken into consideration in the classroom and differentiation needs to occur to highlight each child’s gift.
Whether it is a gift to someone or a gift someone has, being gifted carries a sense of being special. The special talents of all children need to be taken into consideration in the classroom and differentiation needs to occur to highlight each child’s gift.