By Horacio Sanchez

The paradox is that the slow and the gifted learner place too much emphasis on
being smart. The struggling student believes he or she is not smart enough to
take on challenging subject matter and tends to easily give up. The struggling
student believes that he or she can never master the challenge and therefore
avoids putting forth the effort required. The gifted child who has glided effortlessly
through the lower grades often does not encounter his or her first academic
challenge until middle school. By that time the student has come to believe that
being smart means never having to struggle. Not having experienced academic
challenge early enough creates a false expectation of what being smart is. This
false expectation can produce a sudden bout
of anxiety when the work is not easily
mastered and internal fear that he or she
might not be as smart as they have been told.
As a result, the gifted learner might not seek
help but rather faint a lack of interest in school
or engage in negative behaviors to avoid
letting anyone know that he or she is
struggling.

The natural drive that motivates both the response of the struggling and the gifted
student is the need to feel successful. The amygdala, the part of the brain in
charge of emotions, has three universal needs: the need to feel safe, the need to
feel wanted, and the need to be successful. The need to succeed is so powerful
that when it is not met it can produce strong emotional behavior. Children who are
told by their parents that they cannot succeed, will rather portray the part of the
unmotivated student or demonstrate behavioral problems rather cope with having
tried and failed. The child told by parents and teachers alike that they are smart
will often create excuses for the sudden drop in academic performance than tell
anyone that he or she cannot understand the work. The surprising outcome is that
both the struggling student and the gifted child often choose to play the part of the
unmotivated or belligerent student rather than let the world know the emotional
reasons for their behaviors – fear of failure.

Extended periods of failure for both the struggling and the gifted learner can
produce such chemical instability that the result is true behavioral and emotional
problems. If the gifted child’s potential goes unidentified for too long, this profile
student will become undistinguishable from the struggling student with behavioral
or emotional issues. Since the initial struggle first begins for the gifted learner at
middle school, it is easy for teachers who don’t know the student well not
recognize how bright the child truly is. This is especially true for minority males
who belong to underperforming subgroups. The existing bias that these profile
students consistently struggle academically makes it difficult for most teachers to
see the potential of these gifted learners.

 Resiliency Inc. 2009 1

The peculiar thing is that the solution for both the struggling student and the gifted
child is exactly the same. Creating ritualized nurturing environments in which
students are more able to take risks. Predictable rituals improve the brain’s
chemical balance. It is the more chemically fragile struggling and gifted student
that will be unable to cope with challenge appropriately. School environments that
are highly structured can improve chemical functioning reducing emotional
responses.

Nurturing environments in this case means places where it is safe to make

mistakes. From the first day in school it is important for teachers to drive home to
all students that school is a safe place to make mistakes. It is by mistakes that we
can all learn. If it had not been for the ability to learn from mistakes and the
willingness to keep on tiring man would have never flown or walked on the moon.
The greatest mathematical, scientific, and engineering discoveries are all
outcomes of man’s ability to learn from his or her mistakes and never have the
mistakes stop him or her from trying again.

Modify the standard curriculum for the accelerated to

the slow learner. The technique is exactly the same,
preparing the same subject matter for an upper grade
level and for a younger grade level. However, the key
is not to set preconceived limitations on how far each
student might be able to go in an area of interest. Once
a student experience success, it is important to allow
them to build on it. The drive to succeed is so powerful
that once the struggling student finds areas of interest,
he or she might surprise you how far they can go.

Teach students the truth about the brain. That it is like

a muscle that can become smarter. Each student can
build a stronger brain by learning. The harder you work the faster it can grow.
Many students believe that intelligence is a stagnant quotient. That is because
parents and teachers unknowingly establish that perception. Parents say that you
are not as smart as your bother. Supportive teachers tell students that they are
not all going to be good at math, or social studies, or English. Students interpret
that message to mean that when you struggle in something it means that you will
never be good at it. For some students who struggle in all academic areas, the
message means that that they will not be good at school. The message should be
that every student can get better at any subject if they work hard enough.

Teachers should remember that resent research by the International Center for the
Study of Giftedness at the University of Munster in Germany determined that
highly gifted individuals display surprising weaknesses that can make them look
like a struggling student. Gifted students may be sensitive to logical contradictions
in spelling and be very poor speller. Their motor skills may develop relatively
slowly producing very poor penmanship. Teachers unwilling to struggle through
the poor penmanship and misspelled word might miss the brilliance of next great
mind of our generation.

 Resiliency Inc. 2009 2