From praise to pressure, this is the unfortunate switch many kids labeled as “gifted” face. A report by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation states, “the top environmental conditions harming adolescent wellness… were poverty, trauma, discrimination and an excessive pressure to excel.”.
There is no lack of pressure in a gifted kid world. Kids who test into advanced classes are directly or indirectly told they are smarter than other kids, giving them an ego boost.
“I thought anything worth doing would come naturally to me,” says Cate Adams, an Appalachian State University junior studying to be a teacher. She says this label led her to a lackluster understanding of study skills.
Adams says schools can help minimize this issue by focusing on teaching and encouraging study skills. She even suggested that schools should not tell students they are gifted. Educators should acknowledge that students need more rigorous work than some but not phrase it in the way that they are smarter than other kids.
Adams feels the knowledge of being gifted gives students no extra skill to know; it only contri butes to an ego and unnecessary pressure.
It’s not only the school system’s responsibility to create an environment that can help students grow to their potential. The previously mentioned article used the quote “Adolescents who believed that both of their parents valued character traits as much as or more than achievement exhibited better outcomes at school, greater mental health and less rule-breaking behavior than peers who believed their parents were primarily achievement-minded,” from the Washington Post.
Junior Lycus Corderio agrees: “I never learned how to study properly. I did get to learn a lot of new stuff for high levels but that did stress me out more because of the workload”. Cordero also agrees that they felt smarter than other students outside of the advanced program. For junior Adison Milligan, the effect of advanced programs was “Burnout”.
The all-around pressure in a gifted kid’s world can lead to frustration, loss of motivation, and eventually burnout.
