Stop Calling Advanced kids 'Gifted'

Start writing... In school there was always a subject or many that some of us accelerated at while others struggled to pick up the material. With being well versed in certain subjects those students often would get labeled as 'gifted, genius, etc.' What those terms actually do to the person can set them up for struggles later in life. Those struggles can lead to depression and anxiety and other mental and behavioral issues for that individual. From a young age I was constantly told that I was gifted in certain subjects this lead to added pressures from family, peers, and teachers to have me always be perfect and anything less was unacceptable. I remember bringing home a test in middle school where I tried my best and I received a "C". My teacher was disappointed in me saying I didn't try hard enough and my mother thought I deserved to be grounded because I know better than to bring home a grade that was below a "B+". Hearing these comments made me feel upset as my older sisters were never advanced in subjects as I was so they never were grounded for bringing home low grades.

Once in high school I was immediately placed in advanced classes in literature and math. Those were the two subjects that I was good at. With taking those advanced classes there is also a ton of homework that kids are required to complete and standards that those kids must remain at to remain in those classes. This can cause added pressure to the kids to remain in those classes by pressures from family members or other outside pressures that the child might be facing. You never truly know someone's home life and being told that they need to stay in these classes to do better for themselves in the future. Also those kids might have after school jobs and that also cuts into the large amount of homework those advanced classes are giving them.

I didn't have an after school job my mother wanted me to focus on my school work and education more. There have been many times that I had to eat dinner in my room as I had barely touched the surface of all of my homework. Trying to get enough sleep for the next day to di it all again is taxing all because I kept hearing the term 'gifted' and how I needed to always be perfect with my school work and anything less was not good enough.

Why should the term 'gifted' still be used if it ends up causing all this pressure and added anxiety later in life for these kids that transfer into adulthood. A term that was intended to be meant with endearment to encourage those that were able to grasp a subject faster than their peers to keep them advancing ends up added extra stress later in life.

What about those who are told that they need extra help in those subjects? When they find out that their peers are advancing while they are struggling can also cause them to have struggles later in life as well. Including thinking that they are not as smart as their peers and and limiting themselves to what they want to do later in life because they might have been told when they were younger that they will never be good enough to challenge themselves.

While it is great to give children the opportunity to challenge themselves when they show they are advanced in certain topics versus there peers it truly shows that you want to nurture that child but also you have to be careful at the language that is used to the child as it could put unnecessary pressure on the child including later in life. There is two options to encourage these kids while also not diminishing the ones that might be able to grasp the subject. The first one could be having a separate class for the advanced kids but that limits them from being with their friends and peers that might not be on the same level as them. The second being to keep all of the kids of various levels in one classroom and offering more challenging work for those that want the more challenging work. This lets the kids still stay with their peers but it also allows the chance for the kids to be given too much homework from the teacher but it depends on the teacher and how they want to try and shape the student.

In short language plays a big part in development and using terms such as gifted often add a pressure that kids end up with this idea of having to be perfect and and always give 110%. While that work ethic is great it also leads to burn out and mental and behavioral issues later in life. Instead of gifted what terms should we use or should we try different teaching strategies for kids on all different levels? What thoughts do you have on this issue comment below.