GIFTED LEARNER PROFILES
Learn more about the different attributes of a gifted student.
Motivated Learner
What drives gifted children? Sometimes the adults in their lives are puzzled by the intensity of their passions or by the gap between what they seem able to achieve and what they do.
At Madrona, we place great value on finding all of our students' motivation and giving them reasons to enjoy being at school. If they are highly motivated, we want our efforts to reward theirs. If they are disengaged, we will find a way to rekindle their spark.
Children are born with an innate drive to learn, and ideally, their homes and schools provide a suitable context for their emotional and intellectual growth. Not every child can thrive in every setting, however. When children find that academic work doesn't offer the level of depth or pace of new connections which suit their brains, their motivation suffers. Less obvious perhaps but more significant is that children, especially those who are highly sensitive, often don't feel safe enough to learn when they don't have secure connections with the people around them, including their teachers.
At Madrona, we want every student to feel seen, heard, and understood. We place a lot of emphasis on creating relationships that will lead to satisfying educational experiences for everyone. Our low ratio of student-to-educator allows for a balance of instruction, guidance, and support for independent learning to suit each child. Whether students are anxious perfectionists who find it hard to complete anything without help or various learners who burn through the material on their own and ask for more, we want to know them well enough that we can be the kind of teachers they need in a range of different situations.
Resilient Learner
All children have a unique relationship to risk-taking when it comes to their education. Some are confident learners who shrug off mistakes and persevere through the toughest challenges, while others are perfectionists who experience every error as a personal defeat.
Particularly for gifted children who are used to grasping new materials with ease, dealing with difficulty can be a. new and discouraging experience.
Persistence and hard work are skills that life-long learners need: whether in kindergarten, graduate school, at a new job, or in interpersonal relationships, we all eventually encounter problems whose solutions are not immediately apparent.
At Madrona, once we establish trust, we give our students opportunities to engage with challenging material at a level suitable for their individual needs.
Sensitive Learner
The nervous system is in high gear, easily affected by stimulation from the environment around them. This trait often accompanies intellectual giftedness, accounting for some of the strengths in learning and memory that set such children apart. Living with sensitivity isn't always easy, for both the children and adults who care for them. Many school settings are overwhelming for those who:
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Register every change in temperature, noise, or light
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Are aware of (or even distracted by) subtleties of interpretation
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Experience nuances of emotion with painful intensity
A level of stimulation that feels right to many people may be too much for highly sensitive children. Sensitivity is partly governed by genetics and partly influenced by environmental factors. Whatever contributes to sensitivity levels, we need to offer care and protection to children while their brains are maturing. They don't get to choose what or how much they feel, and if we try to "toughen up" children we have deemed oversensitive, we risk provoking their defences against vulnerable feelings. Such defences may interfere with the process of maturation so that those who must need to develop resilience become much less able to do so. Anxiety and attention problems can result when sensitive brains are consistently pushed beyond their ability to cope.
It is a common misconception that gifted children are "bored" and therefore need more stimulation. This apparent boredom may indicate that their brains are actually shutting out too much of the wrong kind of stimulation, protecting them but at the same time cutting them off from their own sense of engagement with the world. A different pace of learning might benefit them (more than increased stimulation). They also need rest and relief from pressures that feel overwhelming.
Madrona deliberately operates on a small scale, with a low student-to-educator ratio, so that sensitive learners can thrive in our environment.
Twice Exceptional (2E) Learner
Bright and gifted students can also face challenges. Some students who are gifted are also diagnosed with an additional exceptionality, such as dyslexia, ADHD, a learning disorder, ASD, anxiety, and others. These students are sometimes referred to as twice exceptional or 2e students.
Twice-exceptional students often go undiagnosed, especially when their high ability hides their challenge or when their challenge prevents them from demonstrating their exceptional abilities. This in turn can lead to frustration and anxiety in 2e students.
At Madrona, we recognize the specific needs of twice-exceptional students and make sure that they have access to enriched/advanced educational opportunities that allow them to develop their interests, gifts, and talents while also addressing their other learning needs. The provision of simultaneous support, such as specialized accommodations and therapeutic interventions, ensures that students have the opportunity to achieve academic success and social-emotional well-being.