Tracking kids from a young age
When I was 6 or 7 years old, I took a series of tests to see whether or not I was “gifted.” I remember going into a little room, talking to the man who was administering the test, answering his questions, playing with blocks and shapes, and taking an IQ test. Well, according to the results of all his tests, I was, in fact, not “gifted.” A few months ago, I was going through some old school work and art at my mom’s house. She had kept a copy of the report that this man wrote about me. He talked about how quiet and anxious I was during our meeting and during my tests. I wonder how much that anxiety affected my performance. Even as a 27 year old woman, who has graduated from college, it made me feel bad to read this report about myself. It made me remember how I felt when I learned that I hadn’t “passed” the tests and wasn’t “gifted.” I had to stop myself from saying that I really must be dumb. I don’t know how I’ve made it all these years considering that when I was 6 I was too stupid to be considered “gifted!”
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I, too, was tested for the gifted program in elementary school; however, I don’t really have any recollection of the information gathering method. I know from my mom that I barely missed getting into the program in elementary school by a few points. I was later tested in junior high (middle school), and I was accepted in the program and remained in it through high school.; I guess because my parents didn’t make a big deal of the elementary school testing; I was okay.
Regarding your comment about anxiety and its role in testing, I believe that it is often overlooked in the process and it does impact testing scores. A second-grade girl in my Special Ed class was placed in this class while she was in foster care and had been removed from her family the year before. Her IQ scores were very low according to her file; however, she was performing (not at grade level)in our class and in her times with her regular ed class. I truly believe that anxiety and the emotional upheaval in her life had to have impacted her scores. – Kelley Martin
I agree with the fact that “bad grades” and not “passing” does affect me emotionally. Why is this? Is the answer because we have been trained to care about grades? What saddens me even more is, when I convinced myself that I truly did not care, I could not find any other path to success but receiving good grades.
This amazes me, how this cycle continues. I want my students to have other options of success, and not just behavioral. I want to see these issues in a different light, a light that has a solution without disorder.
Anna L. Kelley