Why the Hurry With Gifted Kids?

* Re “Trustees to Discuss Halting Early Exams to Identify Gifted Children,” Nov. 18:

Why are parents in such a hurry these days? My own children were in gifted programs. I’ve also taught gifted children for 30 years. And I still believe that we can wait until second or third grade to place our children in a gifted program.

Gifted children are also children who are maturing emotionally and physically. At 6 years old, they need skill development in basics such as cutting and writing letters and focusing their attention. Unfocused attention is not always boredom; more often it is a lack of age-appropriate maturity and self-discipline.

A gifted program teaches all of these skills, of course, but to fill classes, students from other grades often are required. That means the emphasis cannot exclusively be on the first-graders.

Believing that gifted children tune out at the first-grade level is another way of saying that our first-grade teachers are not qualified to teach gifted children. That isn’t true. First-grade teachers are specialists in early child development, which describes gifted children also. Teachers who have a special bent for working with bright children can be chosen and can also have additional training in characteristics of the gifted.

Parents should relax and participate at school if they can. They should remember they are the first teacher and the most important teacher their child can ever have. The California Assn. for the Gifted is an organization addressing all its attention to gifted children. If parents join, it will provide knowledge and other parents with common concerns.

ELAINE WIENER

Villa Park