Saturday, April 4, 1998 | 4:06 a.m.
SANDRA THOMPSON is vice president/associate editor of the Las Vegas SUN. She can be reached at 259-4025 or on the Internet at [email protected]
IF good things come in small packages, can quality education take place in a closet-sized space?
Yes, according to local teachers in the Gifted and Talented Education program -- even though they'd prefer more room.
In the 15 years Sue Gurlides has been a teacher, she has taught GATE classes in a shower room and storage area. She now works with her students in an audio-visual storeroom off the library at Dale Allen Elementary School.
That's typical throughout the district, GATE teachers say.
It's not that GATE isn't supported by school administrators, principals, teachers and parents. With the massive overcrowding in the Clark County School District, space is at a premium. Priority is given to federally or state-mandated programs.
About 50 percent of states, including Nevada, do not mandate gifted and talented education programs. The Nevada Association for Gifted and Talented, formed in 1991, would like to change that.
The association hosted a convention last weekend in Las Vegas to discuss the needs throughout the state and how to become a more vocal advocate for gifted and talented education.
Such a voice is needed. Despite the increased scrutiny of education on national and local levels, little attention has been paid to gifted and talented education.
"In the past we've been advised not to push for mandating of (gifted and talented education) programs," Tarte says. "But until it's mandated by the state, gifted and talented education won't receive the attention and funding it deserves."
One reason gifted students sometimes take a back seat is that school districts often must scramble to keep up with -- and fund -- mandated special-education programs.
Another reason is the widespread misconception that brighter students will make it in school no matter what. So the emphasis is placed on dealing with "at-risk" students.
But all children are "at risk."
Ellen Sloane, coordinator of the GATE program for the Clark County School District, says academically talented children, despite their abilities, are at risk of dropping out of school.
Some become underachievers. After they quickly learn the basic concepts, they are bored with the repetition. They may not turn in their assignments. Some also have poor study skills in later grades because things came so easily in the past that they didn't have to study.
Middle school is a pivotal time, Sloane says. "It's not cool to be smart and a girl in middle school. Your hormones are raging. It's the turning point of underachievement."
She says gifted children also carry an emotional load. They internalize things and worry a lot. "They carry the weight of the world on their shoulders."
Yet there's no prototype of a gifted child. The paradoxical spectrum ranges from those who are leaders to those who are very introverted.
The key is that these students need to be continually challenged.
Sloane cites an astounding statistic: Bright students usually master between 20 percent and 70 percent of the year's instruction (curricular goals) before the ITALICS first END ITALICS day of school.
In Clark County, 5,000 students in third through fifth grades and 450 sixth-graders are in GATE. The number drops in middle school because GATE classes are an elective, and many prefer band, orchestra or other electives. GATE is not offered at the high school level. Instead, there are Advanced Placement and honors courses.
GATE students attend regular classes, but are pulled out for specialized instruction a mere 2 1/2 hours a week. Whether that's enough time to offer expanded learning opportunities and challenges is open to debate.
"We'd like to see a collaboration with general education to provide challenges all the time," Sloane says. "You don't stop being gifted after 2 1/2 hours."
GATE programs are stimulating. For example, in Gurlides' classes the fifth-graders study oceanography and "issue resolution" where they weigh the pros and cons to come up with an educated conclusion. Her fourth-grade students are into archaeology and astronomy. Her third-graders do research on a variety of issues and learn to make presentations.
For one project, students had to be a particular inventor and explain how they came up with their inventions. Then they had to invent something to make life at home easier.
GATE was started in Clark County 25 years ago when teachers and parents, including Gurlides and Tarte, were asked to develop a program to meet the special needs of students. They came up with what was then called the Academically Talented program, which emphasized the creative thinking process. A few years ago, the name was changed to Gifted and Talented Education.
Initially, the program was open to children as young as 4 and kindergarten age. Now, it begins in third grade.
Critics call it an elitist program. They say all children should be challenged in the classroom and receive the same quality of special instruction.
"Elitism is a form of socioeconomic position and not intellectual, so how can we be elitist?" Sloane asks.
Is a football team "elitist" because it has the best athletes?
"We encourage athletic excellence, and excellence in music and art. Yet we don't nurture our gifted population," Sloane says.
She believes outsiders truly don't understand the nature of gifted education.
"There are those who say gifted education benefits all. There are strategies (used in GATE) that can be used by teachers across the board," she says.
The bottom line, Sloane says, is to keep kids thinking, not just achieving.
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