For decades, schools have offered gifted programs, with test scores dictating academic placement. At Heritage Elementary, Pathfinders served that purpose. But this year, the school has launched a new program and a new way of thinking, busting the gates of gifted education wide open to all first through sixth-graders — no test required.
In fact, there are no tests at all in Ellen Brumley’s Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) class. There are no grades, either. GATE’s premise is an expansion of the school’s Whole Child Initiative, which takes a holistic approach to education, focusing on five tenets aimed to help students feel challenged, healthy, engaged, supported and safe.
As the school’s Whole Child coordinator, Brumley is now taking that initiative to a new level, treating every child as a unique individual with special talents and gifts. Around 225 to 250 students participate. Kindergartners are not included because of their ages, shorter attention spans and lower maturity levels.
Because she is essentially creating a program from the ground up, her curriculum is a combination of old Pathfinders materials and her own ingenuity. While she knows what she will teach for the next few weeks, she has not yet decided on her lesson plans for spring, allowing her the flexibility to teach at the pace each child needs.
Once a week, students come to her classroom to learn things like manners, hygiene, Internet safety, public speaking and other character-driven, age-appropriate skills. Tuesday, second graders used role-playing and art to learn how to give and receive compliments.
The lessons are the types of things good teachers instinctively teach, principal Cindy Wamble said, but by dedicating a class to it, Brumley is able to go beyond that, giving all children the opportunity to experience critical thinking and high-level skills normally reserved only for traditional gifted students.
Brumley said while there may not appear to be a strong academic component sometimes, the skills she is teaching spill over to students’ other classes.
“Any child is going to perform better when they feel good about themselves and when they feel they’re capable of learning,” she said.
Although school has only been in session a few weeks, Wamble said she is already seeing a difference in the students. They have more confidence, and their self-esteem is improving. They chatter about the class in the hallways and seem to be enjoying it. The other teachers throughout the school have become involved as well, fostering a deeper sense of collaboration among what was already a close-knit staff.
“We’re all on the same team, whatever it takes to educate our children,” Wamble said. “There’s a huge sense of community in this building. Now we’re taking it to a different level.”
She said parents have been somewhat confused by the program, especially if their child was not part of the original Pathfinders program. It will take time to make them understand that every first through sixth-grader at Heritage Elementary is now a gifted student.
“This allows all children to reap the benefits of a gifted and talented program,” Wamble said. “All of our children have talents and gifts, we just need to find them and expand upon that.”
Carmen K. Sisson is the former news editor at The Dispatch.
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