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Talented Can Do More Faster
i . >
Need Richer Academic Fare
Does your school’s educational
climate give warmth to the gifted
child, or does it blight his talents?
Without causing a major revolu
tion in the classroom, gifted chil
dren can enjoy an enriched curric
. ulum and move at a faster pace,
if their individual needs are rec
ognized and fulfilled,
i Dr. Paul Witty, professor of ed
ucation at Northwestern Univer
sity, gives parents some idea of the
enormous possibilities for the
■ schooling of the gifted.
Chief methods now being used
are acceleration, enrichment, and
. grouping, either in special classes
or special schools.
Acceleration, he says in an ar
| tide in the PTA magazine, can
: take the form of grade-skipping, or
of speed-up. The Fund for the Ad
' vancement of Education in a five
year study found that a gifted
■ youngster could skip a year or
even two years of high school and
still adjust well to college life.
In a speed-up program, individ
uals or a whole class may do the
work of several grades in less than
average time. In Baltimore, a pupil
of high ability may complete three
years of junior high in two, and
some senior high pupils may take
a year of college-level work in high
school, and then be admitted to
college with sophomore rank.
Under an enrichment program,
the gifted child remains in his class,
but because he’s likely to do the
academic work in half-time, spends
the rest of the school day in inde
pendent activities. These may mean
research projects, creative writing,
individual scientific investigations,
or even extra courses.
Other schools use the special
class system, lifting the gifted from
his grade to place him with his aca
demic equals. The Cleveland school
system uses a “major work class”
approach, in which children may
even change schools to join their
equals in a grouping which may
put second, third and fourth grad
ers in one room, fifth and sixth in
another.
This method, says Dr. Witty, is
THE SHOW’S the thing, especially when it’s written by a social
studies class. The idea bloomed when the class began a study of
stamps round the world, and wound up with a full-fledged production
on national customs.
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based on enrichment, not accelera
tion, and the focus is on self-plan
ning and self-motivation. The child
initiates, not the teacher. There is
much discussion and evaluation,
and the level of thinking and
achievement soars to a new high.
A variation of this approach,
called “partial segregation” is un
derway in a Pittsburgh elementary
school, where the first half of the
morning is spent in regular classes,
while in the last half, the gifted
go to workshops for special interest
studies, while the less gifted re
main in the Classroom to perfect
their academic skills.
Any community, says the educa
tor, can do something about its
gifted children, if it is so deter
mined, blending what it has with
what it knows its gifted should
have.
Star Teacher
Loves Work
Teachers who deserve an “Oscar”
for the top quality of their peform
ances are individuals who don’t
limit teaching to the classroom.
“They’re always teaching, at
home, with friends, as they talk
with enthusiasm of something
they’re doing,” says Dr. Marcus
Nadler, one of three 1961 winners
of New York University’s great
teacher awards.
“They couldn’t stop teaching if
they wished, because they love
their work so much. This contrasts
with inferior teachers whose work
is a chore, whose charges are nuis
ances, and whose students’ ques
tions foolish.”
Professor of finance at NYU’s
graduate school of business admin
istration and a member of the fac
ulty for 34 years, Dr. Nadler says
that a great teacher works on the
assumption that all young people
are good; that each is an individual,
and that he must be friend and
counsellor, nor merely teacher of
subject matter.
“A teacher must forever put him
self in the position of the student,”
comments the educator. “The
problem may not be simple to the
student, or the answer easy. See
it with the student’s eyes, which
means the teacher must have end
less amounts of patience.”
Too many young people go into
teaching because they don’t know
what else to do, says Dr. Nadler.
(Continued on Page 0)
The United States actually de
clared itself officially independent
two days before the Declaration of
Independence was adopted. World
Book Encyclopedia reports that
Congress approved on July 2, 1776,
a resolution by Richard Henry Lee
that “These United Colonies are,
and of right ought to be, free and
independent States.”
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Marks Mish Mash
Makes Mother Giddy
By Lydia Bickford
AP Newsfeatures Writer
Filed in my desk drawer is a fas
cinating folder titled “report
cards.” It details the academic
achievements — and the falterings
—of my three children over a 15
year period.
It also dramatizes the wild gyra
tions of many school principals as
they experimented with one type of
report card after another, in a val
iant effort to interpret the child in
a way pleasing to his parents.
It wasn’t too complicated in kin
dergarten days. There I was re
assured that my child starred in
“playground,” even though she told
me she had once bitten a classmate
who had knocked over her sand
box creations.
But from the day the academic
world intruded, I was the recipient
of a hodge-podge of cards, letters,
character ratings, numerical sym
bo s, (familiar one like 85 per
cent), numerical symbols, (unfa
miliar ones like 1 up to 4 and 4 up
to 1), letter marks, and various
combinations thereof.
Teachers in the early elementary
grades chose paragraphs of inter
pretation. “Can sound out new
words freely; finds mathematical
concepts difficult to grasp.” This
method pleased me, but evidently
displeased others.
The next report was a compro
mise. Paragraphs remained, but
letter marks were added, and I
could feel the hesitation as the
teacher hovered between B, B mi
nus, or maybe B plus.
The Aibility Gap
Now came a new concern—any
gap between classroom perform
ance and ability to perform?
This brought about another com
promise: numerical marks, with a
(Continued on Page 9)
HUNTERS
Save your Deer and Elk Jaws. These jaws are needed to deter
mine the age composition of our big game herds and this in turn
indicates their condition.
HOW TO REMOVE JAWS
1. Cut back cheek of animal well beyond mouth opening.
2. Pull jaws apart until they separate.
3. Grasp back of lower jaw and pull free.
INFORMATION NEEDED
1. Name of hunter. ?. Sex of kill.
2. Location of kill 4. Date of kill.
COLLECTION POINTS
Deliver to Alaska Dept, of Fish & Game office in Kodiak
(Old Federal Jail) or any field men of the department.
For information call Game Division office, Ph. 486—2258.
Thank You—
RON BATCHELOR, Biologist
Alaska Dept, of Fish & Game.
_J
DONNELLEY & ACHESON
Men’s Dept