Gifted college students are sometimes difficult for administrators
to understand and develop proper programs. Many gifted students are simply not
recognized and move through their careers, lives, and academic work unchallenged. The authors Gentry & Lackey (2012)
discuss the concept of gifted mismatch and how this is even more difficult for
misunderstood minorities that already struggling with their own identity. People with the highest capacity of
development are often left unchallenged in academic programs.
The authors discuss a concept called “Eagle Eye” to
help explain giftedness. The Eagle has a wider range of perception and six
times more focus. Their world is so rich that according to Gardner they can see
things, based upon their perceptual strength, others cannot. Matched with their
cognitive abilities the world is fundamentally a different place and many of
these students are left to their own devices to make meaning out of it.
Early literature focuses on the description of
gifted students as fluent, flexible, elaborate, and original. They are curious
about life, sensitive to their environment, have deep values, and can readily
see multiple relationships between things. When including Gardner’s Theory of
Multiple intelligence we can see that they use multiple intelligences across
different spectrums to navigate their environment. In other words, where the average person may
find moderate success in one genre the gifted student may master multiple planes
of human development.
Accordingly, giftedness can be described as the
following:
Cognition: Vivid and rich imagination, learn new things rapidly,
fast thinker;
Perception:
Passionate/intense feelings, childlike sense of wonder, open minded;
Motivation: Very
independent/autonomous, curious/desire to know, high drive;
Activity:
Lot of energy, sustained concentration on things of interest, spontaneous; and
Social Relations: Questions rules or
authority, very compassionate (Heylighen, n.d.).
The author contends that it is a failure of our education
system to not recognize giftedness in students. When this occurs on a wide
scale the country fails to capitalize on its most important resource-the human
mind. This phenomenon becomes even more apparent with minority members who are
not often viewed with the same academic potential as others. Our bias, false
beliefs, and rigid definitions often leave this group out in the cold even
though they have abilities that far exceed the average.
Gentry,
R. & Lackey, T. (2011). Simply gifted: Their attributes through the eyes of
college students. Paper presented at the International
Conference "Peace through Understanding" (Jackson, MS, Apr 4-8,
2011). 2011 16 pp. (ED529168)
Heylighen, F. (n.d.). Gifted people and their problems. Retrieved from http://talentdevelop.com/articles/GPATP1.html
