Why do we need GT education?

The idea behind gifted education is similar to the idea of special education; it is an effort to accommodate learners who have abilities that do not align with the academic norm compared to their classmates, or are in educational settings where the curriculum doesn’t meet their learning needs. In addition, gifted learners are not only "ahead" of their classmates academically, but also experience asynchrony, or a mismatch between their cognitive, emotional and physical development. Gifted children often develop unevenly across skill levels and may be able to reason as a 15 year old, write like a 12 year old, manage their emotions like a 5 year old and yet have the body and lived experience of an 8 year old (their "true" age). This incongruity can cause a great deal of stress of gifted children as well as poor behavior at school and home due to being chronically underchallenged. Asynchrony can also make it difficult at times for adults and peers to know how to appropriately interact with gifted children.

Unfortunately, one of the most prevalent myths about gifted children is that they will succeed in life no matter what. Some educators and administrators erroneously believe all gifted children love school, naturally get perfect grades, are good at everything and don't really need special programming or opportunities to fully develop their abilities. This might be why your own local school doesn't have robust gifted programming (too many schools don't, and many that do are phasing them out for various reasons that will be discussed here in later weeks). But all kids deserve to learn something at school everyday and shouldn't be asked to sit through lessons or material that they have already mastered, or wait until upper grade levels to be given the opportunity to experience academic rigor.