ADHD and Giftedness look a lot alike, at least in the school setting. In fact they look so much alike that it comes up in teacher credentialing classes. They may also be co-morbid. (Successful ADHD people are also often gifted, which I bet is the extent of the co-morbidity - the giftedness helps get around the disorder, and the successful ones write the articles.)
Given my high-faluting education, fabulous wardrobe and bougie lifestyle, I figure I can claim success myself. So there.
Honestly I don't get the fascination with GATE programming. Maybe I would had I received it myself, but I went on my merry, distracted, gifted way without it.* I'm not sure what it's meant to provide. As far as I can tell, GATE stuff tends to be more hands-on, more inquiry-based, more open-ended. It may be somewhat accelerated, I suppose - but giftedness is not the same as skill, so if we are saying GATE programming starts at a higher level of skill we are excluding gifted persons who have limited familiarity with the material, right?
All of my Kindergarten students are gifted. They have all learned a lot already - like, how to speak a language, how to walk, how to get attention, how cool their world is - before they come to school. And they can all learn the school stuff. Some of them have talents I don't. This is not Hallmark stuff or even Howard Gardner, here: they are all gifted.
I have yet to meet the learner who does not learn more when the work is engaging and involves doing and asking. So why isn't GATE good for everyone? I have to wonder if GATE classrooms are fulfilling some other need we perceive children to have.
*Admittedly I spent a lot of valuable learning time staring out the window, getting in trouble, tapping my foot and ripping paper into microscopic pieces (unless I had scissors, in which case I cut it into said pieces). But I got a scholarship to fancy college and everything, so I must have learned something.
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