Intellectually gifted children
By James Olsen, Ph.D.

We don’t talk much about intellectually gifted (IG) children any more. The talk today is about meeting “standards” and what to do about dropouts and underachievers. Really smart kids are rarely discussed, it’s as if they are not out there along with everyone else. In my career I didn’t have many chances to work with this group. I always had the kids no one else wanted and I liked it that way because if they were going to have any chance of success, they needed dedicated help.

After working with my delinquents, the principal rewarded me with an IG (intellectually gifted) class of Chinese kids in our junior high. There were twenty-five of them and after one teaching day, I realized they could very well learn without me. “What is my role?” I asked myself. I had to redefine my relationship to them. I should have known better because previously when I was teaching in a Greek elementary school in the Bronx in New York, I had one pupil who was clearly IG.

I went to my mentor, a retired public school principal who was teaching the eight grade at the same school and asked him what I should do. His advice was succinct and to the point. “Olsen,” he said, “just get out of his way.” I did. He read what he wanted which was science. He also did the science experiments for the class because they always went right for him and worked out the way they should. I couldn’t say the same thing when I did them. He and I would talk together when the class had left for the day so I could share any pearls of wisdom I had. I discovered quickly he had the pearls.

Today we know a lot more about IG kids and yes, they do have problems like everyone else. They bore easily. So the work has to be really intellectually challenging. I worked with one nine-year-old IG kid here in SMA and learned to make the problems more complicated and more abstract. (We had adult discussions but emotionally he was still a child.) I assigned him research papers and using the internet, my library and the Biblioteca’s resources, he loved doing the research and kept asking for more, more, more!

My fundamental problem as a teacher was to keep up with him, continue to challenge him and open up new areas of experience for him. We visited an active archaeological site here in SMA, went to the art galleries in town, attended a musical festival, met a famous Mexican mathematician, the head of UNAM’s Math Department who had discovered a solution to a famous math puzzle when he was 17 years old. They discussed string theory, black holes, Albert Camus and the problems of mathematical modeling while I listened.

Since I had taught in a university I simply decided to intellectually treat him like a college student. He loved it. When he returned to school in the States, his mother told me the school had decided not to leave him back after all. She also told me that he had been put into a class of gifted children.

I thought how little we know about these kids after all. Initially the school didn’t have the sense to get out of his way much less to capitalize on his enormous cognitive talents. I was pleased and proud because at least they now knew one important dimension of who he is. But I’ll tell you; the school system can scare me.

The Olsens have worked in the field of education for 95 collective years. They can be contacted at 154-4374 or email sml 154-4374@prodigy.net.mx.