On Being "Gifted"

Whenever parents describe their student as "highly gifted" (either because the student has been identified as such by a school or because his parents just think he is), their field of vision for that student's overall development can narrow tremendously, with the student's gifting (rather than his person) becoming the lens through which all decisions (academic or otherwise) get made.

The same thing often happens if/when a student is particularly talented in a sport or other extracurricular - that activity can become the prime driver for all else at all costs, a mentality often reinforced by the well-meaning words of coaches and instructors who understandably (at least for their activity) demand this kind of narrow commitment.

At Veritas, one of our goals as a school is to help students (and their families) remember that they are not their gifts, academically or otherwise. Yes, while our school is (and is considered) an educational institution primarily, our vision for that education is a broad - not a narrow - one in the tradition of a what a true classical liberal arts education is and should be.

Make no mistake, none of us (myself included) is perfect in our pursuit of this kind of education as we're all more influenced by our culture's call to "specialize or else" to get ahead, but if we rightly understand classical Christian education, this is what we desire (or should).

To that end, we offer a few electives (and plan to offer more), but they aren't random ones just for the sake of offering them; they serve our broader (not narrower) goal of exposing (not focusing) students in their study of the world (our 9th grade Aesthetics course comes to mind).

For instance, we provide training in faith defense and evangelism, just not in a decontextualized or isolated "how-to" course (talk to my eighth graders about what we just covered in Acts 17 in New Testament class).

Our goal for Kindergarten is not to help students "get a jump on the system" with an over-programmed, hyper-workload curriculum; rather, in the context of whole of our trivium education (grammar, logic, rhetoric), we want to establish and develop basic foundations of order, discipline, and relational skills upon which each grade can build. We will never have what some may desire to be a "rigorous" Kindergarten curriculum because that's not what the whole of the child needs at that stage.

All that to say, in answer to the question of whether Veritas (and soon The Academy) will challenge and engage "gifted" kids in the upper grades, I believe we do, can, and will, but defining what the ultimate purpose for that challenge is is the better question. If it's to help students Christianly grow in their humanity through God's Word doing His work in His world (which includes the challenging glories of mathematics, science, literature, history, theology, etc.), then I think we might fit the bill.

If the goal is purely academic for the purpose of "getting ahead" in whatever system they're wanting to beat, then I would encourage parents to look elsewhere.