Organizing is Essential for Effective Advocacy

By Barbara G. Lewis

            Sometimes what the schools are teaching, and what your youngster is eager and able to learn, are drastically out of sync.  Recognizing that this is the case can sometimes take a while, but it is the first important step toward becoming an advocate for your child.  The second is deciding that you are going to do what you can to remedy the situation, so that your child will be happily engaged in valid learning.  It is possible that approaching a teacher will lead to accommodations that allow a bright student to be challenged with new material and appropriate academic expectations.  But if the teacher were able and willing to respond in this way, wouldn’t he or she have been the one to take the lead on this, and inform the parents of the measures that need to be taken to correct an undesirable situation? 

Many individual attempts to get changes made for able learners are met with lack of understanding and an unwillingness to change.  Too many parents fail to take the third step that can result in more satisfactory results.  Organization.  Coming together as a group of parents to ask for similar things from your schools, is one of the most important and effective steps you must take, when advocating for gifted education for your children.

There is strength in numbers, for several reasons.  When you ask the schools, at any level, to meet the different educational needs of your gifted child, you are asking them to make changes in how they teach.  Whether you approach the teacher, or an administrator, or the school board, speaking as a single parent advocating for your child can be an extremely difficult and often times unsuccessful undertaking.  There is great value, for you, your child, and the schools themselves, in finding others who have the same needs, and then speaking as one voice.

            Schools will be more likely to make changes if it means accommodating more than just one student for as long as that student happens to be in the school.  If they can understand that there will always be significant numbers of children who will benefit from the systems and expertise created to teach to those who learn at a faster pace and at higher levels than most, then the chances are greater that they will be more willing to respond.

            It is far too easy for a teacher or an administrator to dismiss a parent who says that his or her child is very bright, and needs greater challenge in order to stay interested in school.  It can be far more effective to be a parent asking that the schools do a much better job meeting the needs of all gifted children.  You are able to present yourself as someone who is working with the schools to help them to be the best, for every child.  Being part of an organization makes this possible.

Organizing can help you come together with others who face similar challenges, which can help to diminish the feeling of being the only one who has the problems that come with having a gifted child.  It is a great benefit to be able to share difficulties as well as the joys, the experiences you and others have gained, and possible solutions, both in school and at home.  Knowing you are not in this alone can give strength and help maintain the commitment it will take to effect change in a system that can be very resistant to change.  Sharing the burdens and multiple tasks of advocating, for the length of time it may take to create meaningful gifted education in a district, is essential.

It is also important to do everything possible to help children, who may have a hard time fitting in, find other children who have things in common with them, so that important connections and relationships can be fostered.  The emotional well-being of gifted kids is often a bigger factor to their being able to fulfill their potential, than is the caliber of the curriculum that is offered.  When parents come together, they can create opportunities for their children to associate with other kids with whom they may have much in common.  This is so important.  Schools actually have at times decided there were reasons to separate students of high ability, spreading then among classrooms, with no regard for their critical need to identify with intellectual peers, academically and socially.

Information is more effectively obtained and communicated when an organization exists.  Learning more about what it means to be ‘gifted’, what it means to be the parent of a gifted child, and what valid gifted education really is, means that you will be a better advocate for your child and a better parent to your child.  Sharing books, magazines, strategies, information about opportunities, and so much more, is possible when you know people who are learning right along with you, and need the same information you do.  And being in an organization will provide more venues to effectively communicate to the schools and to the community, than a single voice would have.

Organization is important on the local, as well as the state level.

Join the Massachusetts Association for Gifted Education as a single member.  If you are involved with a local group advocating for gifted education, affiliate with MAGE.  If there is no local group and you would like to make that happen, MAGE can help.

            The reasons to join with the state organization that advocates for gifted education in our schools, are similar to the reasons for organizing on a more local level, but are grander in scale.  At the center of it all is Information.  From information comes action.  And this works both ways.  The more you know about the subject of gifted education and the more you know about how individuals and groups in Massachusetts have an impact on how our schools educate students of high ability, the more effective an advocate for change you can be.  And belonging to MAGE can help you get vital information to those who matter, so that they will be compelled to take action. 

Just knowing what to ask for is essential.  MAGE can be your source of information.

            Communicating through MAGE can be a way to get your message of what your children need in school, to the most critical people and organizations in our state.  Who would you like to speak to?  Teachers, school administrators, legislators, teaching programs in colleges across Massachusetts who train teachers, state and local school boards and committees, and how about the public at large?  (We can’t grow if people don’t know about us.) – All these groups need to hear that students of high ability are often discovered to be the ones who are learning the least in our classrooms. 

Without understanding there can be no support.  People and organizations who influence what happens in the classrooms must first know more about why gifted children deserve equal opportunities to learn, and what it takes to make this happen, before we can earn their empathy and support.  MAGE can work to get information to these individuals and groups.

            Again, there is strength in numbers.  A strong state organization with many members and a network of advocates working toward common goals… this in itself sends a message that will have greater potential for resulting in a more satisfying response.   It is an indication that the problem is real, widespread, and deserves attention.  A few dozen committed individuals may draw respect for their efforts, but in the end will be dismissed too readily.

How to become a local organization to advocate for Gifted Education

Contact the Massachusetts Association for Gifted Education, and become a member.  You will receive information about how to approach the tasks of identifying and developing local support. 

Find other people, educators as well as parents , who are interested in getting the schools to recognize and respond to the need for gifted education.  Speaking to other parents and observing which teachers are most understanding and skillful in developing differentiation in the classroom can start you off with the core of your group. 

With the help of MAGE, you can become an organization, with a name, a structure, and bylaws.  Inform your school district at all levels that you are committed to working with them to develop (or enhance) gifted education in your district.  You may need to seek recognition from the school board/committee in order to conduct business and hold events associated with the school.

Introduce yourselves to other organizations within the district.  Ask to attend their meetings in order to explain who you are and what you are working toward.  It may only take five minutes, but the credibility you gain may be very valuable in the future.  And you will constantly be surprised to find support in the most unlikely forms.

Develop a profile in the community.  But this must be done in a way that is the least threatening as possible to those who make decisions in the district.  Invite them to attend your meetings.  Develop relationships. 

Work at developing ways to explain as clearly and engagingly as possible, why gifted education is important.  Listen to the arguments against gifted education and create the perfect responses.  So that you will not be reinventing the wheel, read as much as you can about gifted education and the ways that those who have come before you explain to others why you are doing what you are doing.

            Local organizations can learn of each other’s efforts, and share resources and strategies.  Gathering information about what other advocate groups are doing, and what other school districts do to accommodate gifted learners, is valuable.

Most importantly of all, learn as much as you can about gifted education, and gifted children, and their special needs.  They need your empathy and support and understanding, which you cannot give out of ignorance.  Divide this task among yourselves then share what you learn.

Begin today by joining the Massachusetts Association for Gifted Education.  Let us work together to respond to the needs of all of our children.