Confusion should be expected when we are differentiating between a bright and a gifted child. Teachers and parents both get confused at times. If you ever ask a teacher about who they think is a gifted child, then they are likely to pick those kids who are presumed bright. Teaching bright kids is a real treat for the teachers. The reasons are quite obvious because the bright child is always studious, intelligent and smart with added behavioral traits like listening carefully, respecting the teacher, and answering very gracefully. Their primary nature makes them enjoy and love the school. They find classroom lessons and homework easy to do.
And then there are the gifted children, they are rarely on the same page as the class is. Gifted children don’t show very normal characteristics and that upsets the teachers too often. Rebellious in personality, their time is spent mostly in thinking about things other than the teachings of their teachers. They are hungry for something different to do in the classroom. Extremely repetitive tasks generally bore them. As a consequence, they fall behind in the classes. It is seen that these students also keep staring out of the window or reading some other book during classes.
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A large number of gifted children hate classrooms and that does not even suit them. The normal coursework is not much challenging to them and they detest the concepts or ideas being taught in school, and the reason is because it’s far behind their intellectual level. Many a times they create unusual problems in the classes; and sometimes they may go to extreme stages and annoy teachers by passing silly comments or not involving in classroom work. Despite of these traits they may show up wonderfully on the tests.
Parents are teachers generally have no idea about dealing with gifted children. They are always extra smart and intelligent. Sadly, teachers often give less attention to these children. Generally, teachers love to pay attention to bright students as they better fit in with the course ware and adapt easily. There are many reasons when a gifted child falls back in class. Out of these, the main reason is that their perceived intellectual abilities may be way above that of average students in any classroom.
We have already discussed the difference between gifted and bright children and as you can see there is a silver lining between them. Differentiating between these is crucial for both teachers and parents, as they both need different intellectual treatments to show their optimum abilities. Once you have recognized, it is far easy to manage them.
Remember, you have to be very careful when distinguishing between a bright and a gifted child, because that has a lot to do with child’s attitude and growth. A gifted child is hard to change and generally stay like that forever. While the bright child can be easily polished to gain more efficiency and work in a better way by applying some special techniques and methodologies.
