Why should precocious children remain a priority in France?
A few months ago, I read an article from our Quebec friends who talked about ideas for keeping giftedness as an opportunity in Quebec.
I thought to myself, why in France does it seem mission impossible to integrate a precocious child(or gifted or high potential or, for those who don’t like the term, zebra) into the education system, whether via the national education system or alternative schools!
Should we create / choose a school adapted for precocious children?
In 2009, Jeanne Siaud-Facchin explained in her book “Aider l’enfant en difficulté scolaire” that 45% of zebra children repeat their schooling, and that in 2003, 20% of teenagers hospitalized in psychiatry at the La Timone hospital in Marseille were gifted.
Jeanne Siaud-Facchin: Helping children with learning difficulties.
Hello Sadness!
I think this is already due to the fact that most teachers are not necessarily able to recognize when they are dealing with high-potential children. And parents are clearly not informed about giftedness in France.
I don’t have any shares in Jeanne Siaud-Facchin’s publishing house – I’ve never even met her! But his books are so crystal-clear when it comes to understanding giftedness, that they should be put in everyone’s hands. 😉
If you’d like to learn more about the gifted child, I recommend his book:
Finding your place as a different child in an ultra-normative country
Finally, when you look at the subject of precocious children in France, you realize thatwe’re completely in denial! I sometimes get the impression that you have to be average, standard to be a good person in our society.
Not too smart, not too dumb, not too nice, not too dumb, not too cultured, not too simple, not too poor, not too rich, not too girl, not too boy, not too loud, not too quiet, not too atheist, not too religious, not too introverted, not too extroverted…
A middle-of-the-road society, where you stay in your place, snug in your little box, like a little sheep…
But the zebra is not a sheep, and even if he sometimes tries, there comes a time when he can no longer stay in the little box. And that’s good!
I’m still surprised that in 2018 there are no free, state-run schools for precocious children.
More than surprised, in fact, I think it stuns me ^^! Why? Simply because a precocious child learns differently from a child who is not gifted.
On the other hand, precocious children could very well be developed with other pupils and vice versa… But only if we accept neurodiversity, and I’ll go even further, that we were trying to encourage it within the school curriculum. A vast project. As I often say, the strength of our world is its diversity.
The world is an immense garden of human beings
So how do we help gifted children reach their full potential?
Helping precocious children with the “C.R.A.I.E” method!
The C.R.A.I.E. educational path:
– To understand
– Recognize
– Support
– Identify
– Enrich
If we in France were to achieve the first two points: UNDERSTANDING AND RECOGNIZING, it would be a huge step forward for our society! 😉
Indeed, DETECTING zebra children as early as possible is the best way to help them develop their potential and make it a real force in their lives. 😀
The further I go, the more I become aware of the general public’s prejudices and lack of knowledge on the subject of over-efficiency!
And honestly, it saddens me… 🙁
The undetected precocious child = an unaware future gifted adult!
Thanks to the blog, and to you who take an interest in it, (I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you 😉 ) I have a lot of adult readers who recognize themselves in the characteristics.
However, you often ask yourself, are you a zebra or not?
In the end, I too feel that I could have discovered it much sooner. Well, 30 years isn’t that bad! 🙂 And if I’ve discovered it now, it’s because it had to be that way. #jerelativise
I’m still convinced that it’s a real responsibility to ask the question: could my child be a zebra? As an educator, a teacher, a family member, we have to say, why not, what if he were? Prevention is better than cure…
Not for a matter of ego…A zebra child is not necessarily an unknowing genius… Maybe so, but maybe not!
What’s certain is that he’ll have a different way of apprehending the world, which will require him and you to adapt.
Taking the test and realizing that our child is not HP is not a disappointment . On the other hand, having him tested and discovering that he is will call into question a large part of his education and development. Not least because of the very specific perception of life he’ll have from childhood onwards.
Giftedness in France today.
To give precocious children a real chance in France, there are a few solutions that can be put in place right now. (I promise one day I’ll apply to the Ministry of Education, but not just yet :D).
– Step one: Inform AND democratize the notion of high potential!
We really need to fight against the prejudices that exist in France. Apriorisms linked in particular to the terms “gifted” or even “precocious child”. No, not all precocious children end up as Nobel Prize winners or NASA engineers. And so much the better.
Explain characteristics, give concrete examples. Quite simply, to educate!
Most parents do not detect their zebra children, even though they themselves are zebra children without knowing it.
So giving zebra children a real chance means detecting them as early as possible and helping generations of zebras!!!! Which brings us to the second step…
– Step two: detect zebra children in childhood!
Far too many of us discover our adult high potential ! It’s a real obstacle for us, for those around us, for all our relationships, for our professional future and for our well-being. Not to mention what we to others and to the world!
Primary and secondary school teachers should be trained to identify high potentials in their classrooms. The number of high potentials in France is estimated at between 2% and 10% (depending on the IQ defined as 125 or 130). It’s huge!
– Third step: enable the creation of specialized schools with an appropriate teaching staff.
So yes, Montessori, Freinet and Steiner have all proved their worth. But I find it mind-boggling to have to pay almost 6,000 euros a year to send your zebra child to an alternative school!
As for those that could be public and accessible, the vast majority are in Paris!
I believe that creating more open public and private schools, rather like the New Zealand education system, or the Scandinavian model, would help French children to be more alert, more tolerant and more respectful of each other.
Pilot schools, with all types of profiles, which, in an ideal France, would eventually simply be “the norm”. Teaching them not just one way, one method, but many different teachings and visions would be the key to putting empathy, benevolence, solidarity and, of course, diversity back at the heart of our society.
Bringing people together instead of dividing them…
You can also find more information, resources and tools on Giftedness in Mel POINAS‘ book. With a lot of humor, Mel tells the story of the discovery of her giftedness and the routines she put in place to finally find her place!
Le livre
Écrit par une HPI !
Un témoignage et des solutions concrètes pour découvrir, comprendre et apprendre à vivre en étant HPI.
To go further, you can read
- Extracurricular activities and the zebra child
- I am gifted, I live it well and I have not failed at school.
- The best books about High Learning Potential
- Characteristics of High Potential
