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EXTERIORES
Ventanales • Universidad Casa Grande • Año IX No16
Gifted, the challenge of knowing them
The identification, education and needs of gifted, beyond the academic, are some of the topics that the Ph. D. Jim Delisle, addressed in the conference “Meeting the social emotional needs of gifted”, as part of a set of lectures that took part of The Inclusion School congress. The event was organized by the InterAmerican Academy, the United States Embassy and Casa Grande University, on the premises of this educational institute, on January 22nd of 2020.
Por R.J. Delisle graduated from the University of Maine in 1975 with a B.S. in Elementary and Special Education. He also studied Medicine in Special Education at the University of Millersville in 1976 and earned his Ph.D. in Educational Psychology —directed at gifted students— at the University of Connecticut in 1981. In addition, for over 30 years he has dedicated himself to gifted students and has written over 250 articles and 28 books. In his speech, Dr. Delisle emphasized that gifted people are not only about the mind, but about the heart and feelings. “It’s very easy to see gifted show they are smart; they go to school very easily. But many of them also have a higher degree of emotion at younger age...”, he noted before mentioning that, in his professional career, he has noticed that gifted have something unique that identifies them and finding it is the responsibility of parents and educators. “Giftedness is who you are, not what you do”, he said. However, paying attention to their emotions doesn’t mean you have to be less rigorous with their academic
development. In that sense, Delisle shared cases of his students who had a difficult start, such as a 5-year-old boy named Jacob who did not wanted to do his kindergarten homework. In cases like this, if this continues, Delisle warned that teachers should be careful, because by the time they get to school, they’ll “be totally disconnected from the school’s teachings”. On the other hand, he also addressed expectations involving the gifted, both academically and professionally. Returning to the case of Jacob, the speaker said that, after a teacher-student conversation, this kid’s professor asked him “what do you do well on school?” and “what do you like to learn in school that you haven’t learned yet?”. Jacob replied “Nothing. I don’t need your help”. This happens not because of fear, but, as Delisle emphasizes, because of a more common issue: in many gifted children who, although they do things well on a first attempt, when they have bigger and more complex challenges, they come to doubt their ability; the main reason is their fear of doing something wrong and not being ‘perfect’ anymore. Another set of expectations comes from their parents, friends or relatives, when it comes to their future. The lecturer exemplifies this with the case of his son, Philip, who wanted to be a writer since school.
