GATE, Gifted and Talented Education, is frequently being neglected or even dropped in American schools as No Child Left Behind, NCLB, forces the schools to focus on remedial education by demanding that all students are brought up to a proficient performance level. Yet GATE education is just as important as remedial education.
GATE Students Are a National Resource
GATE students, with their creative thinking and problem solving can become the technological, political, and societal leaders of tomorrow. These children are the scientists, the doctors, the artists, that will contribute to the nation's cultural heritage and future lifestyle.
GATE Students Won’t Develop Their Skills Alone
Certainly, the GATE students are already at proficient or advanced levels. Many administrators believe that since GATE students are at high levels, nothing more needs to be done for them. This is a fallacy and a disservice to those students.
GATE students have creativity, leadership capacity, and high achievement capabilities that should be developed to benefit future society. The No Child Left Behind legislation in 2002 stated that gifted students “need services and activities not ordinarily provided by the school in order to fully develop those capabilities.”
Leaving GATE students to languish and not providing them with the stimulation they need, and allowing cutbacks in GATE programs, does away with future prospects. When they don’t receive the challenges they need, they often become bored and become underachievers.
Without stimulation to achieve and reach higher, GATE students begin to equate being smart with easy work. When something hard comes along, having never had to exert themselves to achieve before, they may give up and avoid the challenge.
In addition to becoming passive and bored, some gifted children become angry and resentful at having to sit through lessons they have already mastered. These students need challenges realistically set at their level.
What GATE Education Does
GATE education is often misunderstood. It’s not simply a way of keeping the fast learners in classrooms occupied and busy, as some people think. It’s a path to developing great minds. It should be comprehensive and provided on a continual basis as the students move through school.
According to the National Association of Gifted Children Standards, GATE education should be "accessible to all gifted learners within the regular school curriculum." It should be articulated with the general education program. It should have goals and objectives, just as regular education does.
GATE Should Be a Schoolwide Program
Individual teachers routinely differentiate the curriculum within their own classrooms, to accommodate all levels of learners. By doing so, they are making an attempt to reach the gifted students. Yet, to be most effective, GATE needs to be an integral component of the school-wide educational plan. It needs to be valued and supported to most benefit the students.
How GATE Education Affects Our Future
GATE education fosters the bright young minds that must be cultivated to improve the science and technology of the future and to solve problems the world faces. GATE education typically focuses on problem solving and finding innovative solutions to everyday problems.
By giving gifted children goals and challenges that are reachable for them, but not for the average student, they will become motivated. Their yearning for learning will flourish. They will become seekers of knowledge and providers of solutions, both now and in the future.
 |
