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5.  Children may need counseling, mentoring, and guidance from caring adults, whether parents, counselors, or their classroom teachers to optimize their potential.

Comments:

Many times children with unusual potential show glimpses of their developing gifts to parents and teachers.  It is very easy to begin to expect too much, too soon, and to begin to value the gift over the child.  In many cases, underachievement is often the reverse side of perfectionism to avoid these issues.  The cartoons illustrate the surface evidences of some of these underlying tensions.

Permanent value of the child, regardless of gifts or accomplishments, helps caring adults give the support that leads to excellence.  There are many cases of children who performed better or made the higher grades after the pressure to do so was removed.

Professionals often have eyes to see a child in a different, more objective light.  In our family we have one child who was diagnosed as having "attention deficit without hyperactivity".  His gifts were often hidden in bewildering behavior and he was not working up to expected capacity.  We thought his array of symptoms were simply personality quirks or purposeful misbehavior.  Our talk with a physician and careful reading of resource material helped us to understand our child better, and to treat some of his actions as challenges for him to meet, rather than as deficits to erase.  A more understanding environment gave him the support he needed to succeed in his own way.  Professional expertise can often help to clarify a child's needs.

Some of the issues raised in this course are unsettling to most people.  An understanding of the stages of Racial Identity Development help during this process, but the human contact with a caring facilitator may make the difference in understanding multicultural issues and your ability to reflect on, process, and use the material.  Therefore I have required an interactive journal as part of the coursework. You may find your interchange with me a useful tool in your understanding of the material, or you may find the interchanges on the forum of more use.  Many people taking this course also find themselves discussing course material with family and friends.  Because this course is usually constructed with many two-person, small group, and large group discussion groups, it is highly suggested that you identify a "discussant" in your off campus location who is willing to dialogue with you on these matters.  There are no expectations on the age, experience, education level, or strength of your relationship with this individual, although your feedback may lead me to make suggestions in these areas for future course participants. These reflections are integral to the course and your active engagement in these activities is foundational to your learning.

Completing the  Implicit Association Test  as a choice activity  (forum 5) .  Completing a dialogue using Fennimore's article  (forum eight)  Reflecting on the Parent/Teacher Scenario (forum nine)   (Details and links to these activites are on the Weekly Guide).