…and some of us had jackets…
At Bellehaven Elementary here in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Dennis Higgins teaches seven boys
who are refugees from the traditional classroom.
At my old class, I got bullied…
A lot of kids just called me dumb and lazy …
Here the kids can feel safe to try things that may be hard for them.
And I'm still not great at reading, but I'm getting better.
Mr. Higgins' students are what academics call "twice exceptional." They've been formally
identified by the school system as gifted. And they all have an identified disability,
as well.
Older juveniles play aggressive …
For example, Zain Bajwa is a second grader who can already do fifth grade math. He also
has dyslexia.
I'm loving the way you're using all that wonderful vocabulary you've learned.
Many schools focus only on the disability — but ignoring a child's strengths can be
devastating.
If we took the very thing you did the worst at and said, "That's what we're gonna do most
of the day" — that, you know, you're gonna do it not only in reading, but you're gonna
do it when we talk about social studies. "And, oh, by the way, get out your history text."
How many times can you fail in a day and not feel that you are truly a failure?
When teachers support the development of a child's gift, they're letting these kids know
that they can excel at something.
Excellent job. Wonderful contribution. Thank you, Mateo.
Dr. Mary Ruth Coleman is president of the Council for Exceptional Children.
Mary Ruth If we don't catch this early and provide appropriate support and help kids
understand where their strengths are and where their struggles are, they begin to define
it for themselves. "I must be stupid." "They think I'm smart, but they don't know." Or,
"I must be lazy." And it's a message teachers send to children: "If you'd work a little
harder, you could do it." They do not perceive themselves as learners, and they will not
feel good about school situations that require them to do things that they struggle with.
Let Zain be the lead. Let's go guys, let's go!
Thanks to a supportive principal, Mr. Higgins can work with these twice-exceptional kids
in their own small class. This year Mr. Higgins has all boys, but girls can be twice exceptional,
too, like his daughter, Chaytea. She's the one who inspired him to get into this field.
His methods, developed with his wife, Dr. Elizabeth Nielsen, include challenging these
bright kids with sophisticated projects —
because the infants might get really badly injured.
and how do you, how do you think they know that?
— and he works to remediate their disabilities.
Aardvark, ok, I love that word
Mr. Higgins has been working with Zain on the basic connections between letters and
sounds, and Zain's father has noticed a change.
Nosy. Good job.
… he is, like, more delighted, more in — he come home, and he seem like he's — he's
very successful every day.
Let's say it all together now.
Have one map…
You've got it!
Zain can see that he's making progress. And he…he hasn't said this, but it has to feel
good to him. It has to. He can join in and say, wow! I can think about things because
I can read about things.
To identify twice exceptional kids, teachers should watch for inconsistencies in their
students' performance.
Mary Ruth The first thing that would happen is you would see this youngster who, when
you ask them a question, they say, "[Gasps twice] I know," and then they'll tell you
just everything about whatever question you've asked. But then you ask them to jot down a
sentence, and they have a hard time jotting down a sentence.
So they practice…
Dr. Coleman could easily be describing Eli Stone, who has a gift for science.
And so we had studied electricity, solar electric, coal, nuclear electricity. And he understood
at five renewable versus non renewable energy.
Eli loves to talk, but writing is another story.
Eli hates writing. He hates the physical act of holding a pencil and writing words out.
This is typical of many twice-exceptional kids.
A computer is one way to work with reluctant writers.
even though the spelling issues are still there and the grammar issues are still there,
he can get his ideas across in a more sophisticated way.
Are we starting at the beginning with 'when the rain came down?'
Mr. Higgins hopes to ease the boys back into a general education classroom, so every day
they spend some time with children in the mainstream. Today they're on a field trip
with the class next door to record a song they all wrote together.
[Class singing] …it touched every meadow, it touched every tree…
Success for these boys involves addressing their disabilities while giving them every
chance to develop their gifts.
It can be very difficult to have a child who is extraordinary in any way but kids like
Eli, innovative thinkers are going to be the ones who come up with a creative solution
that just might save the world. If you ask Eli what he's going to do with his life, he
will tell you I'm going to save the world.