The Importance of Channelling Your Child’s Gifts

Two children are sitting in a corner of the library. The first says, “Do you seriously believe that Shakespeare didn’t plagiarize everyone from Bacon to Marlowe? He should be considered exemplary for his purloining abilities alone.”

“That may be true,” answered the other, “but new research turned up by the British Museum, and interpreted by Professor Bartlett of Oxford, would seem to indicate…”

Individuals who tour Synapse often overhear such remarks and comment “What a pleasure they must be to teach.” And they are a pleasure!

In cold blood

“Why, you could take these kids, put them in a library for a year, and they’d be just fine.” When I hear that, my blood runs cold, because from the bottom of my very being I deny that statement. A gifted child will not survive alone in the library. The gifted child needs a constant challenge to maintain his interest and enthusiasm.

The trouble with the “place them in the library for a year” theory becomes apparent if we think about the telephone. If you wanted to find out the time of performances at a theater or you needed someone to fix your furnace, I doubt that you would pick up the phone and dial seven numbers at random.

It is the same principle when teaching the gifted child. Knowledge, the capacity for learning left on its own becomes a torrent of water. A flood sweeps far and wide, but sweeps everything in its way. Without direction it goes where it will, leaving havoc in its path. A river, however, that is channeled and directed is a source of life for all who live along its banks. It has purpose and direction and fits into the ecology of the land.

Love of learning

The analogy holds true when thinking of gifted children. They need the direction that will channel them into the type of learning experiences that will form the basis for a lifelong learning process; that will form the basis of the future life and work and productivity of this special child.

The goal at Synapse is to educate your child for the future to help your child meet his potential. Together, it is a goal within our grasp.