Are people asking, “Why do we even have a program for advanced learners?” Is your program in danger of being dismantled? Is your budget on the chopping block next year?
Here’s the thing: if your program is not in jeopardy right now, it will be someday! Don’t be caught flat footed.
Learn to explain your purpose clearly and convincingly now.
First, grab a copy of the book Made To Stick, from the Heath brothers. It’s about how to craft memorable messages. Here are a few thoughts based on this book.
People believe in stories, not facts.
You know people who believe very strange things. It doesn’t matter that all the facts are against them.
You’ll never get them to change their minds with data, charts, and research. They’ll just argue back with their own data, charts, and research! And now you’re stuck arguing about whose data is right and whose data is wrong.
No one wins that battle.
You Need A Better Story
If people have subscribed to a story, you can only fight back with a better story.
So, drop the stats. Don’t link to a research paper. Do not quote an academic! Tell the story about why your gifted program is so important.
Stories are simple. Stories are emotional. They are easy to remember.
Your Story is Your Students
Well, lucky for you, you happen to have the most powerful story of all: children in need!
Your students’ success is your story! What is school like for them? How does a gifted program change this? Let their parents talk. Let alumni return and speak for themselves. Heck, a 3rd grader can tell their story.
Gifted kids are perceptive. They have great insight into what’s holding them back. They can explain what’s keeping them excited in a classroom. Your students are your story.
A Powerful (and Fact-less) Story
If you’ve seen that awful “Rethinking Giftedness” video from Jo Boaler, you know how powerful a story is.
She doesn’t cite any research.
There are no numbers. No charts or graphs. Just some hand-picked kids talking into a camera and then edited to match Boaler’s exact beliefs.
She tells a powerful story.
Sure, it’s blatant propaganda, but that video has convinced thousands of people that gifted programs are bad. You can’t argue against it with research and facts. You need to tell a better story.
Break a pattern!
In Made To Stick, The Heath brothers say, “The best way to get attention is to break a pattern.”
So what about your program’s story is most surprising? What will break people’s current pattern of thought? What will capture their attention? Why will they remember your story?
We have to re-frame the needs of gifted students. Most people think of them as “above average.” That’s way off. Gifted kids are way way way above average. They’re outliers. And some gifted kids are outliers among the outliers.
Consider this research from Johns-Hopkins in which the authors uncover the number of students performing one, two, four, and even eight years above grade level.
That’s so surprising!
Yet those authors do a terrible job of telling a good story about their findings. If you clicked that link, you probably took one look and passed out. Here’s the first half of the opening paragraph:
America’s K-12 education systems place students in grade levels by age and set performance
expectations accordingly, using historical, average grade-level performance rather than any specific content students are expected to master. This should not surprise us. Nearly all aspects of America’s schools are built upon age-based grade levels and corresponding grade-level expectations: standards, instruction, curriculum, and assessment, among others.
😴
Do Not Let Academics Do The Talking
This is the big problem with letting academics speak for us. They are bad at communicating. They write for other academics, not your audience.
I actually rewrote that research and told a story with animated images and surprising comparisons. There are no tables of data, page-long paragraphs, or 5-syllable words.
If I were running a gifted program, I’d tell the story of specific kids.
Kelsie was a 3rd grader who could read at an 8th grade level and she hated school. Here’s how we helped Kelsie and her family…
Now that’s a hook!
The Medium
Do not create PowerPoint slides!
This is predictable. It’s boring. PowerPoint brings out the worst in presentations.
Instead, be a storyteller! Surprise your audience through your medium.
- Hand out physical student work from kids who are way above grade level. Let folks read hand-written letters from kids who are bored to death.
- Have students speak in person or record video interviews. Let your alumni explain why the gifted program was important to them (you are keeping in touch with your alumni, right?).
- Move away from facts. Move towards emotion.
Oh, one more thing… don’t use PowerPoint!
Where are your parents?
Parents are powerful. They make things happen – especially the parents of your top-performing students.
My school district didn’t have a middle school gifted program for decades. This was an obvious problem. But it was never acted on.
The big bosses didn’t have a reason to care.
So, what finally got their attention?
A lot of parents moved their kids to a neighboring school district that did have a middle school gifted program.
And they took their test scores with them.
There was a middle school gifted program within two years! 😝
Consider how you can use parents to tell your story more effectively. I’ve written about how under-utilized most parent nights are.
Consider Your Audience
A story needs to connect to your audience. Understand what they care about most. Shape your story around them.
For instance, the big boss cares about kids’ happiness, sure… but they really care about test scores. So frame your story around test scores!
If we lost our gifted program, we’ll lose the students with the highest test scores. Their families are smart and successful. They will move their kids to a neighboring district that has a gifted program. They will tell the other smart and successful families how to switch districts. This has already happened in Districts X, Y, and Z.
That’s a pretty clear story, right?
I hope this helps you begin crafting a story to tell about your gifted program. And do grab Made To Stick which is a delightful and easy read. Good luck and let me know if you’ve had success!