SENG’s mission is to empower families and communities to guide gifted and talented individuals to reach their goals: intellectually, physically, emotionally, socially, and spiritually.
Perhaps because I am an attorney as well as a political scientist, I equate empowerment with advocacy. I think of advocacy as making change by persuading others to change their beliefs, their practices, their policies, their regulations, and sometimes, their laws. Because I strongly believe in making change, I presented a recent SENGinar titled Bootcamp for Determined Advocates.
In this article, I share my favorite advocacy hints from Bootcamp for Determined Advocates. Although I thought that my SENGinar would be a departure for SENG — a hard-core legal and political presentation rather than one about social and emotional topics — to my surprise I discovered that my favorite advocacy hints involve relationships and emotions. I will call these advocacy tips “heart hints.” Calling them “heart hints” emphasizes a basic truth: that the most effective advocacy comes from the heart.
Heart Hint #1: Share Your Child’s Typical Day at School
If you want others to feel your child’s school experience, record details from one school day. Follow your child, take notes, and perhaps film parts of the day. Specify ages at which your child learned classroom-taught lessons, show repetitions needed to learn new material, and ask your child to share feelings about school. Demonstrating how much of a day is spent sitting quietly while pretending to learn helps others understand what happens in your child’s mind.
Heart Hint #2: Just Love My Child
Ask teachers why they went into teaching and listen with care. Understand the long hours teachers work and gently share that your child learns a great deal outside of school through reading and curiosity. Releasing the teacher from having to teach your child everything can build trust and open flexibility in the classroom.
Heart Hint #3: Let My Child Learn
When a teacher admits that addressing all children’s learning needs in a typical classroom is impossible and that children suffer when forced to sit still, teachers become more willing to allow advanced learners to read, visit the library, or learn via the Internet during school hours. Suggest voluntary strategies like finding resources for upcoming units and sharing information with classmates.
Heart Hint #4: Run Contests for Students
Volunteer to run contests in schools to build relationships and appreciation among adults and students. Resources such as Hoagies Gifted Education Page list contests and awards across many areas. Choose activities that match children’s interests and offer them for the benefit of students and the school community. Also consider watching TED talks like those by Dr. Sugata Mitra on self-organized learning environments.
Heart Hint #5: School as Extracurricular
Some gifted children learn extensively outside school. Consider treating school as an extracurricular activity and create “home learning” transcripts to illustrate at-home learning. Comparing school and home transcripts publicly can highlight differences and support advocacy for better options.
Heart Hint #6: Science and Newborn Babies
If educators doubt biological bases for giftedness, share scientific studies such as Molfese & Molfese’s work showing newborn auditory ERPs can help predict later reading performance. Citing evidence can move hearts and minds.
Heart Hint #7: People are Politics
Politics is fundamentally about relationships. Laws, regulations, and policies are applied differently depending on personal relationships. Parents who show care for all children and trust in educators build better relationships with school boards, administrators, and teachers; negative attitudes erode those relationships.
Heart Hint #8: Sunshine Laws
Learn your state’s sunshine laws (open meetings and freedom of information laws). Use that knowledge to build cooperative relationships with officials by gently reminding them of obligations, rather than using legal knowledge to attack. Good-faith use of sunshine laws builds trust and cooperation.
Heart Hint #9: Rules for Radicals
Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals teaches that advocates should comfort allies and surprise opponents, anticipate counterarguments, and see the whole picture. Effective change requires persuading both minds and hearts.
Please let me know if these heart hints help you or your child. To listen to the entire Bootcamp for Determined Advocates SENGinar, including slides, audio, and Q&A, consider supporting SENG by purchasing a copy from the SENG Store.
