Evening star., 1941-01-15
Gifted Child
Is Entitled
To Time
Hurrying Through
School Robs Him
Of Experience
By ANGELO PATRI.

Some years ago, we'll within the
memory of experienced teachers,
we discovered the gifted children
and began adjusting the school for
them, or, perhaps, adjusting them
to the needs of the school. We made
some mistakes at that time, the
worst being the practice of speeding
the bright child through school as
fast as he could make the grades.
In those days it was matter Of
pride for parents to have the young
est child that ever graduated from
a high school into college.
In those days. many teachers Of
authority seemed to believe, if their
practice speaks truly of them, that
learning the facts of the course Of
study was the most important part
of a child's education. They hur-
ried the children along, urged them
to do more and more and helped
them to pass tests that carried them
rapidly through the schools. In
vain, some of us pleaded that the
texts were not all of school life;
that children needed leisure for
assimilation and growth; that it
would be better to enrich the child S
experiences and broaden his cour-a
Of study rather than to hurl him
through the grades. Speed was the
thing
This is the harvest time for those
speeded children. They are out in
the world making their way now,
and at a recent conference of edu-
Gators, they reported directly what
their experiences with their speeded
education had been. They hadn't
liked it.
They found themselves unsuited
to the life into which they were
pumped by the hurrying process.
They lacked the poise that comes
of experience; they lacked the ma
turity of judgement and action; they
lacked the social viewpoint of their
classmates, and found themselves
on the outside of things in general.
They would have done better, in their
judgment, had they taken more
time and proceeded more deliberate
ly with the matter of growing and
learning. With that point of view,
l most heartily agree
Children grow with deliberation.
They are granted 81 years and more
for their growth by nature, and
nature is not to be denied. She will
permit cooperation, but stubbornly
resists opposition to her DEGREES.
Speeding children through life is
against nature and she will have
none of it, Furnishing the children
who, by no will or wish of their
own, violated her decree.
1t is wise and right to enrich
the course of study for speedy chill
dren. Information is not what gives
power to the intelligence and
strength to character. What is
needed for those most desirable ends
is experiences, actual and enlight-
ening experiences with things that
belong to everyday life, like making
furniture, cooking meals, printing
a story, cleaning a room, planning
and seeing through a benefit, a
play, social need as a playground
for the school or clean milk for its
children.
Experience with life, it's people
and its ways will educate children
and the brighter they are the more
experiences they may enjoy, and
the more varied they can be until
they discover their particular field
of industry. But they are entitled
to their full time for growth. Better
allow them to have it. Enrich the
school. broaden the children's ex-
periences, and give them time.