UNDERESTIMATING KIDS

‘Gifted’ programs should be a model, not a club

GOTHAM’S gifted kids shouldn’t be the only ones getting a well-rounded education. Yet that’s increasingly the case. If you have a 4-year-old in New York City, you’re likely having conversations around, believe it or not, test preparation. Registration for the Gifted and Talented exam in January has passed, and many parents are nervous.

New Yorker Type-A insanity sets in. “Will you sign up for a test prep course?” “Which test book should we get?” “I’m starting to think my child is neither gifted nor talented!”

The multiple-choice test, a mix of puzzles and sequence questions, is supposed to pinpoint which students are gifted. The reality, though, is that the specific questions are almost beside the point. Most kids can be taught how to do them. Getting a 4-year-old to sit and answer questions from a stranger for 45 minutes is the real difficulty, especially when each question is asked only once.

Once results are in, children scoring in the 90th percentile or above are eligible for a district level Gifted and Talented program. Children scoring in the 97th percentile or above can enter the lottery for one of five Citywide Gifted and Talented schools. (In many years, however, only those scoring in the 99th percentile have been admitted.)

Seats are designated by lottery and only about a third of kids who qualify for these programs or schools ultimately nab one.

Some years it’s even lower than that. There are simply nowhere near enough seats for all the “gifted” children in our five boroughs.

The G&T program in New York is theoretically set up to give advanced children the opportunity to learn at their level — but it should really serve as a model for public education.

The Citywide schools teach the curriculum one year ahead of other public schools, while most gifted district programs follow the same curriculum as regular classrooms but with more “enrichment” opportunities.

There’s no uniform curriculum within the district programs, but they may include more projectbased learning, more field trips and more creative teaching.

Example: Instead of studying transportation by reading about it, classes take trips on buses and subways, with pilots and boat captains invited into the classroom to discuss their roles. The popular G&T program at PS 166 on the Upper West Side does in-depth exploration of the arts — from Mexican folk dance to African thumb pianos. PS 33 in Chelsea has a highly regarded robotics program. It isn’t cookie-cutter learning, and it works.

Which is why more of it should be applied to all city schools.

Alina Adams, an education writer who runs the Web site NYC School Secrets, told me, “What we call ‘gifted’ education in the US would be considered standard for all kids — and probably a couple of years behind — in Europe and Asia. American kids are just as capable. The US education system grossly underestimates them.”

Why not give our kids a chance to catch up?

Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña has often lamented the lack of black and Latino students in the G&T programs. This would be the perfect way to bring the enriched program to all. Parents are clamoring for one curriculum over another. Why not give it to them?

Adams points out that it wouldn’t cost anything extra: “You would still need the same number of teachers, the same number of classrooms, the same number of books and supplies — even if you were teaching, say, ‘Anne of Green Gables’ . . . in kindergarten, or multiplication tables instead of addition in second grade.”

Of course, what ultimately makes G&T programs a success is parental involvement. After all, a kid who is registered and prepped for the test likely has a parent who is actively involved in his education.

A Gifted and Talented curriculum for all, coupled with mandatory parental involvement, might just make a big difference in our schools. The idea that only those deemed gifted by a test they take when they’re 4 years old should have access to more inventive ways of learning is ludicrous.

Instead of dumbing down standards, let’s have our kids rise to a challenge.