A Message from John Rauh:
As a teacher of "gifted" students, I too often get eye-rolls and shrugs from my friends and colleagues when I mention the many challenges the students face: Aren't they already motivated, they ask. Aren't they already college-bound? Why do already-smart students deserve extra attention? Giftedness, of course, has mostly to do with intellectual ability, not motivation, and in very profound ways, being labeled "gifted" may actually work against a student's desire to embrace learning in a classroom setting.
Rockford School District’s secondary gifted courses are rigorous and time-consuming-- we typically lose 30-40% of our underclassmen by the time their class graduates, mostly due to the heavy workload. And for those who make it, they're too often barely moving forward, fueled only by a vague hope that colleges want to see rigorous course selection in the increasingly competitive admissions game.
But, education, I believe, is about more than checking off boxes on a to-do list, despite the fact that that's the prevailing attitude in our culture. External pressure to perform is not sustaining, though, and that's one of the many reasons why many of our students begin to flail. At some point, without an internalized belief in the implicit value of learning, the sacrifices required to be successful in our gifted program become too burdensome, and many students drop out or check out.
Students in the program's "capstone" course are those who have freely chosen to embrace the onerous but honorable and ideal task of internalizing learning. The class is fully independent, student-driven. Students must create and execute an original project, one that's interdisciplinary and academic (as a capstone to the program based on those same ideals), one that expresses the student's beliefs and learning.
What are these students capable of? Some examples of projects from the last few years include: composing an original classical music duet; conducting breakthrough scientific research in cancer medicine; artistically designing and programming an original video game designed to teach mythology to younger students; creating an online Lao-language teaching program to connect families struggling with language barriers; writing an original academic paper on the South African film industry to be published in an academic journal; and many, many more.
Only those who are willing to risk failure in defense of an original idea volunteer for the course. In short, these students epitomize the ideal relationship with learning, and they are inspiring!
Rockford School District’s secondary gifted courses are rigorous and time-consuming-- we typically lose 30-40% of our underclassmen by the time their class graduates, mostly due to the heavy workload. And for those who make it, they're too often barely moving forward, fueled only by a vague hope that colleges want to see rigorous course selection in the increasingly competitive admissions game.
But, education, I believe, is about more than checking off boxes on a to-do list, despite the fact that that's the prevailing attitude in our culture. External pressure to perform is not sustaining, though, and that's one of the many reasons why many of our students begin to flail. At some point, without an internalized belief in the implicit value of learning, the sacrifices required to be successful in our gifted program become too burdensome, and many students drop out or check out.
Students in the program's "capstone" course are those who have freely chosen to embrace the onerous but honorable and ideal task of internalizing learning. The class is fully independent, student-driven. Students must create and execute an original project, one that's interdisciplinary and academic (as a capstone to the program based on those same ideals), one that expresses the student's beliefs and learning.
What are these students capable of? Some examples of projects from the last few years include: composing an original classical music duet; conducting breakthrough scientific research in cancer medicine; artistically designing and programming an original video game designed to teach mythology to younger students; creating an online Lao-language teaching program to connect families struggling with language barriers; writing an original academic paper on the South African film industry to be published in an academic journal; and many, many more.
Only those who are willing to risk failure in defense of an original idea volunteer for the course. In short, these students epitomize the ideal relationship with learning, and they are inspiring!