Keep Their Bikes Rolling

I’ve been reading Gifted Grownups and came across a passage referencing the brain’s Reticular Activating System (RAS).

This system helps the brain distinguish between relevant and irrelevant stimuli. Basically, it tells the brain, “Pay attention to this” or “Don’t pay attention to this.”

When something is boring, our RAS tells our brain to tune it out.

Hopefully this sounds important to you as an educator!

Falling Bikes

I love the imagery Marylou Kelly Streznewski uses:

It’s a bit like trying to ride a bicycle very slowly. Thus, when stimulation falls below the level necessary for that particular person’s neural development, she may become what we on the outside describe as bored, restless, distracted, annoying. From Gifted Grownups

As a teacher, you must move fast enough and offer enough complexity to keep your students’ brains rolling along.

Or else the Reticular Activating System will simply tune you out.

Faster Bikes Need More Speed

Gifted students require faster and more complex stimulation than their age peers. Their bikes require more speed to keep upright.

This is why a classroom that aims for “grade level work” is difficult for gifted students to sit through. Their bicycle is not moving fast enough. And they fall over.

Then, when we see gifted students struggling… **we do the exact wrong thing!***

We slow down.

We re-teach.

We force kids to do things that are mind-boringly easy and then wonder why they aren’t displaying their high intelligence!

Aim High

If you’re working with gifted students you cannot aim for average and try to sorta bump it up 10%. Gifted students are ready for thinking that is 2 or 3 or more grades ahead (read more about that here).

So you cannot aim for grade level standards. That is a minimum requirement for average students.

You have to pre-assess, check for understanding, and move on as soon as students are able.

You have to aim high and scaffold down as necessary.