Gifted students are those children who demonstrate high performance in intellectual, creative, artistic, or leadership areas. They can excel at specific subjects, or a wide variety of skills. They come from all walks of life, all cultural groups, and all economic classes. The fact is, “gifted” is an incredibly broad term, and the huge variety of gifted children provides both unique opportunities and challenges for the classroom.
In the film Gifted, Ms. Stevenson identified from the beginning Mary’s exceptional skills in mathematics. Mary was truly a prodigy, and the first-grade classroom had nothing to offer her. In fact, it would very well be harmful for her to stay in such a situation. Students who are not pushed hard enough can become disinterested and disruptive to the rest of the class. We see this in Mary’s case as she openly defied her teacher, criticized the principle, and resisted cooperation with class activities and procedures.
Ms. Stevenson acted correctly in providing Mary with additional curriculum and assignments. While these things were still far below Mary’s level, providing students with more challenging work can keep them from become disengaged and bored. Honestly, there was nothing anyone at Mary’s elementary school could have done, her knowledge being that much advanced. Mrs. Stevenson acted correctly again, in my judgement, in encouraging Mary to attend the school for gifted learners. However, the fact that this initiative was taken entirely by Ms. Stevenson demonstrates a failing on the part of the school. Never was Mary tested so that the school system could gain a deeper understanding of her abilities and then act accordingly. The school was willing to help her secure a scholarship for a gifted learners school but otherwise showed apathy, even hostility, towards Mary. Despite Frank’s initial opposition to the idea, Mary eventually does take college classes, coming back to elementary to play with her friends and to learn her other subjects. It is important that, when seeking to provide gifted students with the necessary environment for them to learn, that we do not isolate them. This can stunt their emotional and social growth and place undue stress on the student. One thing Ms. Stevenson does mess up with (other than having an affair with a student’s parent), is that she initially reacts to Mary’s insolence in a defensive manner. While no one likes a smart-aleck, Ms. Stevenson initially seeks to give Mary harder and harder problems in an effort to humiliate her by showing she does not know everything. Obviously this failed in Mary’s case, but doing such a thing with other students can be incredibly damaging. Teachers must never aim to humiliate their students in front of the class. A teacher must provide guidance and challenge, encouraging efficiency and self-sufficiency.
While Gifted is a fictional scenario, the film still shows the severe damage that can be done when a child is not provided a stable and supportive family environment. Mary was frequently emotionally distressed during the legal battle between Frank and her grandmother over her custody. She felt disconnected from the decision-making process; she admitted to enjoying her time with her grandmother but clearly stated her desire to continue living under her uncle’s care. While removing the child from the familiar setting of her home and placing her in foster care was seemingly the best compromise, it was emotionally destabilizing for Mary. The child’s well-being should be put first, and both competing guardians were guilty of failing to do this. The grandmother was just seeking Mary for the sake of her own ambition. Frank, while he genuinely wanted the best for her, was limiting her potential by discouraging her passion, belittling her gift, and keeping her from access to better education and educational tools. Had things gone as they should have, Frank, Mary's grandmother, and Mary would have discussed a possible arrangement together with the school, aided by insight provided by her teacher and testing.
In regards to a proper and positive approach to education, Gifted goes to show that 1) gifted students need to be provided an environment in which they can be adequately challenged to unlock their full potential. 2) They, like every child, need the support and encouragement of their family, friends, and teachers. 3) A teacher who is actively invested in the welfare and success of their students, being willing to put in extra effort and time even outside of normal school hours, can direct the energies of the family and student to achieve so much more.
However, Gifted also show the dangerous consequences that an inappropriate approach to education can hold.
1) Parents can try to live through the lives of their children and do damage in the process. This is how Mary’s grandmother acted in the film. Mary’s grandmother was greatly knowledgeable in mathematics, but she never was able to achieve greatness in the field. She tried so had to achieve it through her daughter but eventually drove her to suicide under all the stress. In Mary, she saw her last opportunity to make a name for herself in the world by grooming her to one day solve the Navier-Stokes equation. While in the film this situation unfolded with Mary’s grandmother pouring tutoring and practice on Mary to hone her into a finely-tuned mathematics machine, in the households of “average” gifted children, the same problem can appear in a different way. Parents, unwilling to suffer even the thought of failure, take over their child’s homework, often “helping” with assignments and projects to the point that the parent’s name, not the child’s, belongs on it. A fearful rejection of the possibility of failure strips children of the chance to learn, places undue stress on them, and, in the end, sets them up for failure once the crutch of their parent’s help is removed.
2) Gifted students can often place a financial burden on schools. Mary consumed knowledge a monumental rate and needed access to a wide range of advanced mathematics books and learning apps, as well as a laptop to run those apps, to satiate her craving for learning. While Mary was lucky enough to be provided these things by Frank and her grandmother, many student’s families do not have the resources to indulge on such “luxuries,” and many school systems find themselves too worried on finding enough funds for textbooks to even begin to worry about technological aids such as computers, learning software, etc. Unfortunately, the problem here is not so easily remedied. It requires a cultural shift, a change in what society values, to get these students what they need. As long schools are underfunded and find themselves the first institutions to have their budgets cut, as long teachers are chronically underpaid, as long as “accountability” and testing take forefront to making the child a better and self-sufficient individual, no children – gifted or average – will ever be able to flourish in our schools.
3) My last point is a critique of the film just as much as it is a critique of the way we approach education in America. So much emphasis is placed on, what I would call, a “cult of individuality,” that is, everyone is unique, intrinsically special, and inherently deserving. Mary was, (fictional, but) undeniably exceptional. It is inarguable that her case mandated additional resources and special treatment. However, most students are not Mary. Yet, parents and teachers often convince students that they are. It is great fun to watch in awe and cheer Mary on as she single-handedly astounds ivy-league mathematicians and common folk alike, but, for the rest of us, success does not come by the luck of a genetic draw. Success and progress in the real world comes through hard work, almost always done in a cooperative manner. You cannot build a company by yourself. You cannot push societal change by yourself. You cannot even live a life by yourself. Yes, these things require that you put in your fullest effort, but it is folly to think you can single-handily charge in and make things go your way. American culture promotes an ideal of individualism, often at the sake of those around us. Students are told from a young age that they can change the world, that they can be anything they want to be. Yes, it is important to stoke a child’s dreams, but we should encourage the process of improvement more than the end goal of mastery. When mastery inevitably fails to come easily, the child can become discouraged and quit. “If I am not like Mary, then obviously math is not my thing,” one might be falsely led into thinking.
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On top of this, the cult of individualism encourages competition of a destructive nature. For those who do continue their fight to reach the top, stepping on others is permittable as long as the end of your own success is achieved. It breeds a mentality that is fearful to ask for help, as to do so is to acknowledge one’s own failure. Yet, this is not failure, but simply part of the learning process. As established above, there is little that one can achieve on an individual basis. Since one is, form birth, reliant on a network of “others” – parents, peers, teachers, community leaders, societal and governmental institutions, etc – one has a duty to those said others, a duty that is neglected under an individualist viewpoint. Because society gives so generously to us, we are morally indebted to give back to society, to provide for those less fortunate than ourselves so that the benefits of our society may be reciprocated throughout the whole. However, since we view success as a purely personal objective, we are unwilling to devote those resources we received as a benefit of having been a part of society back into society that we may perpetuate its stability and ensure the continuation of those benefits for the generations beyond. To bring my point back to education: “Why should I pay taxes for a public-school system even if I don’t agree with it (private, voucher, and homeschool users) or don’t use it (those without children or the elderly)?” The health of society is sacrificed for the selfish comfort of the individual.
While Mary is encouraged to interact, and most importantly, empathize, with her peers, Gifted still plays into this American mindset.
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