Variations²ᵉ Magazine — Summer 2021 Issue

No. 6 Summer 2021

The Complexity of Cultures in 2e Education Race, Gender, and Scholar Identity | Asian Americans and Twice-Exceptionality Indigenous Youth in Education | 3e: Cultural and Linguistic Barriers to Identification

2e News Publications about 2e in a World of Cognitive Diversity 2eNews.com and Variations2e magazine provide readers with high-level information and perspectives about twice-exceptional (2e) education and cognitive diversity. We cover a broad range of topics that are essential for all educators, parents, and professionals. 2eNews.com membership is free. Sign up at 2eNews.com.

CONTENTS 02 Letter from the Publisher 03 Letter from the Editor 04 Cradling Different Thrice-Exceptional (3e) Voices of Ethnically Diverse Parents 12 Asian Americans and 2e Stereotyping the Parental Instinct

14 I’m Gifted Too Using Culturally Responsive Teaching to Address the Learning Needs of 3e Students 18 Stories That Know Barrio Nerds and Intelligences

20 Indigenous Youth in Education Overlooked, Underrepresented, Invisible

26 Exceptionality (e), 2e, and 3e: Cultural Factors and Considerations in Identifying and Serving Gifted Students of Color with Other Exceptionalities 31 Culture Matters Race, Gender, and Scholar Identity

WHAT IS 2e?

An annual subscription is just $35.

Twice-exceptional kids and adults display gifts, talents,

Weinaccept allyetmajor credit cards via Stripe.34 and potential some areas are challenged in other Over Here! areas. Learning can include attentional

Ask differences about special pricing for organizations. challenges, autism spectrum disorder, sensory integration issues, and more.

Youngsters require both support and enrichment, as well as special counseling to help them grapple with the myriad obstacles that can stand in the way of their success. Children and adults alike benefit from understanding the duality of their needs, the importance of self-advocacy, and the possibilities for accommodations.

BRIDGES 2e MEDIA

Seeing Twice-Exceptional Youth in a Neuroblind Society 38 Shifting the Narrative Addressing Systemic Racial Disparities of Gifted Students of Color 41 The Cultural and Linguistic Barriers to 2e Identification Why Latino Students Are Being Left Out

44 Neither Could He Breathe Exceptionality, Victimization, and the Death of Elijah McClain 48 A Call to Action Practice Allyship in Our Everyday Lives 50 Bagatelles

54 Black Brains Matter Interview with Colin Seale 56 Furthering a Shift in the Twice-Exceptional Paradigm Understanding the Sociocultural Milieu of Gifted Student Development 61 Smart Books For Smart Kids Diversity Through Books

CONTRIBUTORS Join the Conversation Do you work with 2e students and have insights about research, theory, and best practices?

Are you a parent of a 2e child with an informative or inspiring story to tell?

Are you a 2e student who wants to tell your story?

We welcome contributions from writers with experience and insights about twice-exceptional and neurodiverse populations.

We look forward to sharing your stories with the international 2e community.

For editorial inquiries, send an email to info@2enews. com.

PUBLISHER Carl Sabatino

MANAGING EDITOR Chris Wiebe

HEAD OF CONTENT OPERATIONS Jon Baum ART DIRECTOR Heather Lembcke

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Brian Chu Stephanie Coxon Stuart Matranga COVER Heather Lembcke

MEMBERSHIPS memberships@2enews.com www.2enews.com (818) 506-1091

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2e NEWS ADVISORY BOARD Susan Assouline Susan Baum Paul Beljan Kim Busi Kathi Kearney Deirdre Lovecky Marlo Payne Thurman Dan Peters Julia Roberts Ellen Rosen Linda Silverman Meredith Warshaw Variations2e ­— Not all great minds think alike is owned and published by Bridges 2e Media.

Publication and content copyright Bridges 2e Media © 2021. All rights reserved.

Letter from the Publisher: Toward a More Perfect System Some people argue that many of our institutions will require a substantial or complete overhaul to bring about equity and justice.

But what would the perfect educational system look like?

All of us think deeply about the education of those we work with directly — the students we see every day, get to know, and care most about.

But taking responsibility for the whole system requires pondering the process, means, and ends of educational decision-making.

Professor Samuel Freeman argued that “being in a position to develop one’s capacities and talents, whatever they may be, is needed to maintain one’s status and self-respect as a free and equal citizen capable of social cooperation over a complete life.” Clearly K–12 education has a significant role to play in this all-important process of developing capacities and talents, and the 2e philosophy revolves around these critical concepts. What is the best “system” for accomplishing this?

How would we even go about divining such a perfect balance of possibilities with all of the differences that influence the direction of our decision-making?

Ideally, we could all come together and work genuinely and collaboratively to design and redesign, and then tweak some more. But in the meantime, we could play with an idea by philosopher John Rawls, who suggested a thought experiment as a starting point for confronting tough problems and reaching just outcomes. Rawls imagined sitting in a “veil of ignorance” that keeps us from knowing who we are and identifying with our personal circumstances. By being knowledgeable about real-world issues but ignorant of our personal circumstances, he believed we could more objectively consider how societies should operate. Rawls’s thought experiment assumes three principles of justice. One of which is the “difference principle,” which states that the outcome of our exercise should guarantee that all advantages should be available to everyone — and if there are any social or economic differences in the social contract, under a veil of ignorance we would all likely agree that justice would obligate us to help those who are worse off.

Given a deeper look at the veil concept and the application of the difference principle, his argument in the education space might be that all participants would advocate for the besttrained faculty and optimal educational resources, programs, and strategies to be available for everyone. I think he would agree that under the veil of ignorance, no one would choose 2

to create an educational system where sexual orientation, race, ethnic background, economic status, and/or gender identity would or should negatively impact a student’s prospects of economic success or psychological well-being.

We know enough about the mechanism of self-actualization in education to conclude that whatever our position is in the real world, we would expect to see ourselves and our history referenced in the ideas, events, and values embodied in any curriculum. There clearly would be a need for agreement on the big ideas, essential questions, and enduring understandings that we would want to see addressed in the curriculum before stepping back into the real world.

Under the veil, I’m quite certain that there would be agreement that everyone should have the opportunity to benefit from access to the ideal education system and from the opportunities that follow. According to Rawls, approaching tough issues through a veil of ignorance can help us decide more fairly how the rules of society — or in our case, educational systems — should be structured. Of course, the education system is part of a larger set of interlocking and overlapping systems, and all would have to be constructed justly to maximize the benefits in education. There also are assumptions in the Rawlsian method that are problematic; there always are in thought experiments. It is interesting to note how self interest and group interests merge to become the model for an improved system.

If nothing else, the exercise might be helpful in some communities. People absorb information differently; they respond to arguments differently and are moved by different approaches. A Rawlsian-like approach could contribute to positive dialogue, mental and emotional shifts, and perhaps a set of shared goals that could make a real difference. It’s doubtful that this or any other approach would result in a perfectly just system; bumps and snags would occur at every turn. But a Rawlsian approach could take us on an exploration of self and others, and on to the discussions and work to create the ideal education system with passion and great optimism. If we came up with a system, we would then be obligated and justified in expending the time, energy, and resources to make sure that everyone in our country has access to one of the most fundamental rights and to one of the most significant cultural creations: education for all.

Carl Sabatino Publisher

Letter from the Editor

Producing a magazine issue exploring relationships amongst culture, ethnicity, and twice-exceptionality has long been a goal of ours here at Variations2e. As advocates, educators, and parents, we know all too well the challenges that 2e students can face. They can struggle in school. Their profiles are complex. They are often underidentified in traditional educational settings, which can impede their potential and squash their love of learning.

While being both gifted and having learning differences poses unique and formidable challenges, students of color face obstacles and forms of oppression in many, if not all facets of life. We exist in a society with systems that are rooted in white supremacy. Within the American education system, this looks like marginalized communities’ history and culture not being represented in America’s largely Eurocentric curricula.

It looks like the underfunding of public schools in low-income areas, and Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) being particularly vulnerable to the school-to-prison pipeline.

It looks like students of color being subject to the stereotypes, microaggressions, and implicit biases of their educators and peers. It looks like students of color not having access to the guidance or resources necessary to succeed in school, or apply for and attend college. All of this contributes to a world in which students of color are vulnerable to internalizing our society’s message that their voices and identities do not matter.

Another important goal of this issue is to spread awareness of the challenges that students of color face so those of us in positions of privilege can be better allies. We must reflect upon and recognize the benefits we have experienced as a result of our ethnicity, focusing on accountability over fault.

While this issue does not explore all cultures and dimensions of race, we have produced it with a spirit toward expanding our ongoing conversation about twice-exceptionality to include these critical social justice components. We also recognize that gifted and twice-exceptional students of color are only a small percentage of a broader BIPOC community who deserve our support and advocacy.

Chris Wiebe, Ed.D. Managing Editor

Our primary goal for this issue is to give voice to the scholars and educators whose important contributions and continuing work explore the intersections of race, culture, giftedness, and twice-exceptionality. Their insights underscore the specific challenges that twice-exceptional and gifted students of color face and provide guidance for educators and parents about how to be a part of improving the situation for these students.

The work of these scholars and practitioners holds lessons and recommendations for improving educational policy and bolstering strategies, curriculum, and programs to better serve the needs of BIPOC students.

The issue of Variations2e also presents the voices and experiences of families of color who have twice-exceptional students. Their stories underscore the challenges of being a 2e student of color, as well as sow hope and inspiration for positive change.

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Cradling Different

THRICE -E XCEPT IO NAL (3 e) VO ICE S O F E THN ICA L LY D IVE RS E PAR E NT S

by Juniette Kang’a

“He’s just, well, (long pause and

shrugging shoulders) different.”

The helpless words from the principal seated across me rang loud, echoing in my brain as I tried to comprehend their meaning — was it culture, was it thinking process, was it skin color, what did they mean? I managed to catch my breath and ask the question I dreaded most: “What do you mean, different?” As the principal described my child and all his quirky behaviors, I was lost in thought about what to do. Every negative statement was caveated with “he is really intelligent, highly able,” plunging into the array of “just doesn’t fit in, unlike other children, wanders away, simply ... different.”

Such a simple word, yet there are so many dynamic experiences of families living in this rare world of “different.”

Multiple exceptionalities, ranging across cognitive, ethnic, and racial diversity and cultural and socio-economic backgrounds, complicate the lives of high-ability children. Such children who are gifted, have a learning challenge, and are ethnically diverse are referred to as thrice-exceptional, or 3e.

Oscillating between the different worlds of their identity, 3e children often struggle to understand the world. I remember when my child first started coloring his class and would select peach crayons, combining some to make 4

caramel and creating a diverse range of colors on people. When I would ask why, testing to see what he knew about race, he would say everyone looked a different shade of brown. He was four years old. Fast forward to eight years old and, upon joining a gifted class in a public elementary school, he came home and asked why he was the only person of his skin color. I pointed out that there were all types of brown, but he responded, “No, mummy, the darkest is caramel” (referring to some of his

friends of Latinx heritage). But he was the only Black kid in his class.

Several weeks later, he began to ask existential questions. He would come home and ask why he was in the afterschool program. He would ask why I wouldn’t stop working and be with him. He asked if I could meet him at lunch time at school. He had no friends.

However, he had a tree, a special place to be. Finally, on two separate occasions in the same week, he asked me what the “f” word was, and what the word “negro” meant. My alarms went up, and I began to probe into things as I put two and two together with the “why am I alive?” existential questions.

Obtaining information from him to find out what had happened took several days as I frantically wrote down every word he said. After I had confirmed that all was well in his gifted classroom, and that the bullying was happening during lunch and after school, I reached out to the principal with the details. Little did I know what an arduous journey I was about to embark on.

I knew I couldn’t be alone experiencing this journey. I therefore sought to find out how this unfolded in stories from 3e parents who are blazing the trails to inspire, enthrall, and enlighten as they cradle and raise their different children.

The 3e parents interviewed were of South Asian and African American heritage, as well as immigrants from East Africa and the Caribbean islands.

He enthusiastically completed a major project and was engaged because it was his interest and played to his strengths.

Strength-based approaches to learning are extremely important for twiceexceptional children. It’s easy to want to focus on remediating their challenges, but focusing on strengths builds self-efficacy and self-confidence, and addresses their need for higher learning.

CAN CE LIN G COOKIE-CU T T E R

Different minds, different races, and different years bring along different challenges, and as Nisha knows too well, that’s okay.

A key hallmark of 2e children is their need for novel information. Nisha’s only child fits this hallmark perfectly.

Merone’s brilliant mind races with ideas and easily grasps concepts of interest.

Rather than viewing him as curious and connecting concepts in learning with his lived experiences, his teachers would deem him disruptive, alluding to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) when he would excitedly raise his hand and ask a question that seemed semi-connected to the topic, but not exactly. One public school official in early elementary even said, “We are moving on and leaving him behind, he can’t stay still or pay attention.” This resulted in Nisha spending considerable time being present in each of the six elementary schools Merone attended. “I tried to be there all the time, checking in often, trying to help in anything I could, whether it was volunteering in the Parent Teachers Association (PTA), serving lunches, chaperoning field trips, or being a room mom. It helped them know I care.”

Merone stood out as the nerd who preferred to speak about atoms rather than SpongeBob, resulting in social isolation. Nisha even tried to make him watch SpongeBob a few times, but it was excruciating, and back to science

he went. To this day he recalls how perturbed he was one day when a child asked what water is made of.

With the overrepresentation of African American males in special education, it’s no surprise that families will try to protect children by ignoring the signs. I have experienced this, and Nisha did as well. Nisha said, “It was indeed difficult seeing him being picked on and having family say I just needed to be harder on him.” His dad, his uncle, and multiple people would think he was just spoiled and not trying hard enough. However, Nisha knew he was uniquely different and ensured he understood that it’s okay to be different, and actually better to not be “cookie-cutter.” She would point out that successful people were often called geeks and nerds at one time. Still, Merone had difficulty fitting in, cycling through six school settings before landing at Bridges Academy, a Los Angeles-area school for 2e children.

“Bridges sounded like a place where he could flourish, and he did,” she said. “One of the best things is that he was able to work within his strengths.

They look for what you are strong in and balance homework based on demonstrated knowledge. They also allowed him to choose how to present his projects. He has never been good at writing, so being able to type helped him a lot. Bridges supported independent projects of interest and he liked Artificial Intelligence.”

Merone is pursuing his dream of working in artificial intelligence. He redently graduated college with a double major in computer science and psychology, keeping his brain churning like it always should be for every 2e or 3e child or adult.

TIPS FROM NISHA

WHOSE CHILD RECENTLY GRADUATED

Prepare for college: Sometimes we become so engrossed in managing the day-to-day that we forget to help train in life skills, independence, and self-care. Since executive function is a challenge for many 2e children, parents step in to help organize and plan, never letting go in the high school years to prepare them for young adulthood. Say it twice, say it ten times: Independence is important. Once school is covered, help them be independent.

Cater to their strengths: Advocate for independent study in areas of interest, as this will keep students engaged and excited about learning.

Get involved in helping out with the school as much as you can by being present, communicating, and letting them know you care.

Confidence building: The world around your 2e learners is not geared toward championing them, and the constant negativity around and perception of their ethnicity or race being different can bear an unspoken psychological burden. Your voice, and your encouragement, and your belief are key. Engage in uplifting them and educating them on their unique strengths and challenges.

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comprehension. He learned quickly, remembered complex concepts, was curious about the world around him, and absorbed every moment.

MIND-BOGGLING RIDDLE DISCOVERY

Triple-masked, how much more convoluted can it be? Is it his culture, his race? After all, Latino/Black kids are __ (fill in the stereotype as a teacher).

Is it a learning disability, could he be gifted? All these perplexing elements may keep the caring teacher up at night and rightly so. It’s certainly the biggest challenge for culturally diverse twice-exceptional children’s ability to benefit from a strength-based or gifted program. Steve catapulted right into this riddle.

Steve’s son Zawadi was his first born, full of joy and curiosity — the crowning of their American dream. Steve and his wife had relocated to the U.S. from East Africa to pursue his post-doctoral studies. They had challenges getting pregnant, so Zawadi was a true gift from God, as his name means. Zawadi started reading three-word books at two years of age and had an amazing verbal, reading, and visual memory. His auditory capacity was high, learning words and their meanings such as congenital and pulmonary at three years old, recapping them with full 6

Teachers, friends, and his doting parents were always amazed by him.

He was accelerated in kindergarten.

Nevertheless, there were the quirky behaviors such as sensitivities to noise, environments, and people, and an odd gait in his walk. His parents never thought much of it until he was in first grade. Teachers began to say that he acted odd and seemed bored, not understanding what was being said in class. However, he would return home and regurgitate everything that happened in detail and say he didn’t want to do class work, because, well, he already knew it. He had learned multiple languages simply by listening to teachers speak, and consequently was knowledgeable about geography and world cultures. He would collect dead birds to study their parts, spot stones and name the minerals in

may result in gaps in provision of services that impact their socialemotional and intellectual well being.

This delay in identification was further impeded by Steve’s cultural upbringing amidst trying to navigate the identity of his son being African American and also East African. He would question whether teachers’ observations were driven by the color of their skin or truly reflected a non-biased thought process. He would concern himself with how his son fit in being often the only Black kid in his advanced or gifted classes. 3e parents face more difficulties in identification, as they are overrepresented in special education and underrepresented in gifted programs. Steve decided to internalize and believe that his child was indeed talented and gifted. It is this belief that drove him to pursue the necessary testing, attend parent advocacy workshops, and learn to literally be comfortable in his skin and accept all his child’s exceptions.

“Children need to see themselves in what they read, particularly with so much media not being inclusive of multiple diversities and cultures.” them, and of course knew every type of shark that existed. Teachers could not wrap their minds around his intelligent presentation juxtaposed against behaviors they deemed childish, including his inability (of refusal) to produce work.

Dual masking, in which a child’s gifts and talents either mask their disability, or their disability masks their gifts and talents, is a common phenomenon that impacts the identification of 2e children. This unraveling can be extremely stressful as parents struggle to understand why their child is able to absorb complex content yet presents asynchrony or childish behaviors that don’t match with peers. The delay in identification of their gifts or disability

Following acceptance of his child’s duality being gifted and autistic, Steve channeled his efforts in enriching Zawadi’s learning. Having been born in Africa, Steve noticed the discrepancy in world history lessons and the scarcity of the African story. He was determined to weave in extracurricular learning and readings. Zawadi, akin to many gifted children, developed a fascination for World War II in sixth grade. When he asked to learn about World War II because he was just not interested in anything else, Steve seized the moment and let him know he would provide materials for him. He compiled a mix of videos, articles, and games with fascinating information about the weaponry used in the war and a snippet about troops that were brought

in from Africa. The conversation at the dinner table that night was filled with questions as Zawadi bubbled with excitement and curiosity. He was amazed that there were troops from Africa, wondered why Africa got involved in the war, and much more.

The conversation opened up topics such as colonization and which side of the war various African countries stood.

As it turns out, Zawadi’s great-greatgrandfather fought in World War II. One story led to the next, including the history of their tribe, leadership, and kings in Africa.

“It is important to find ways to weave in materials that show one’s cultural perspectives,” Steve said. “Children need to see themselves in what they read, particularly with so much media not being inclusive of multiple diversities and cultures.”

Producing work did not come easy for Zawadi. A common misconception of 2e children is that they are unmotivated to do regular classwork, quickly bored, and require novelty to fully engage in learning. This belief and Zawadi’s lack of productivity caused stress in the family, particularly with their own cultural background and upbringing where children did exactly as told and had no voice. Tension would build as they were perplexed by the work production challenge juxtaposed against the intelligent child they knew.

“Patience with oneself is important,” Steve said. Beverly Wells, who has studied 2e families, notes that they often experience high stress, frustration, and paralysis due to the difficulty in navigating the various ways they can support their children. For Steve, this stress was real, and he and his wife quickly learned they couldn’t solve everything in one day.

TIPS FROM STEVE

WHOSE SON ZAWADI IS NOW IN A PUBLIC MIDDLE SCHOOL:

Embrace your child’s exceptions: Sometimes we question whether they are truly gifted or if we are overemphasizing their abilities. We also struggle to accept their disabilities, or try to protect them as diverse kids.

Embracing their exceptions is the starting point to enriching their experiences.

Be patient with yourself: 3e parents experience immense stress. Find ways to calm and relax amidst the fight to support your child.

Celebrate each milestone: Take time to enjoy the unraveling mystery of your wonderful child.

Don’t be afraid to seek help, whether it is hiring an educational advocate, attending parent or family therapy, or simply getting help with chores. Do something that helps ease the grind of life so your mind can be available to support and motivate your child.

Include culturally authentic materials and activities: Joy Davis, in her book Bright, Talented and Black: A Guide for Families of African American Learners, highlights the importance of this. When children “see themselves” in materials, they can identify better with books and materials since they know they are represented.

Teachers: You may be the only voice that believes in these students apart from their parents. Lead from their strengths.

“Celebrate each milestone or achievement and take time to rest,” he said. “Being a 3e family is a mysterious journey of discovery, and you need to know that there is both joy and pain.”

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color and [said] this was not the first time” Lina said. “[It’s] definitely a mode of systemic racism and we need to accept it exists.”

TRUE PARODY

Right from the birth of her son Caiden, Lina knew she needed to be prepared to battle for him daily. Born with type 1 diabetes and a laryngeal cleft, and needing to use a feeding tube for the first two years of his life, Caiden endured multiple therapies, interventions, and surgeries. Despite the medical challenges, Lina and her husband noticed that at an early age, Caiden had an “exceptional ability to absorb information and hold onto it.”

Having grown up in the Bahamas and been trained and taught as a teacher in the USA, Lina’s expectations of school were different than what presented itself when Caiden joined public school.

Her neighborhood was overwhelmingly white (>85 percent). Despite being one of a few children of color in school, his kindergarten teachers immediately noticed his intelligence, showing he was in the 85th percentile for grasp of content knowledge in the class’s curriculum. His special-education teacher was caring and saw his talent.

Even with this support, the teacher was surprised to learn that one of the apps Caiden had to use in class could not recognize him because it didn’t take diverse populations into account. “His teacher constantly apologized that the app could not recognize children of

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Caiden continued to advance in school.

In third grade, he was placed in fifth grade math, reading, and science classes. An unexpected twist resulted in an administrative change that was nonfavorable to Caiden. The new principal questioned why he was in a fifth-grade class yet couldn’t speak without an assistive device, perform various tasks, had repetitive movements, and was always in motion. They concluded that he had behavioral issues and should be withdrawn from the advanced classes.

That same principal was also overheard using a racially and disability focused name for Caiden, which had to be reported to the local office of civil rights.

Lina decided to keep her focus on getting Caiden support for his abilities.

She documented everything, read all her rights under gifted and IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) laws, and requested multiple tests — including fourth- and fifth grade level assessments. Lina says

and had him retested. Caiden tested out of reading, spelling, computation, problem solving and most grade level assessments, scoring high above average. Notwithstanding, the school refused to accept the results and also pulled him out of the high ability cluster groups he was in. Lina wrote respectful letters and tried to meet with the administration, which was led by that same principal. She said they were uncooperative, pushing her and her husband to engage an educational attorney. Eventually, she found Flex School, a Northeast U.S.-based program for 2e students, and began to work on enrolling him there with funding from the district.

Lina also reported that her faith has been a strong anchor. Joy Davis, in highlighting unique aspects of Black culture, points to faith and its role in African American life. Faith helped sustain Lina and her husband through trials and tribulations, knowing that they are expected and can be overcome.

It has brought peace, calm, and the ability not to project real anger on all the barriers they have faced in medicine and education.

She wrote respectful letters, tried to meet with the administration — led by that same principal — but, as expected, they were uncooperative, pushing her and her husband to engage an educational attorney. the school, apparently doubting the validity of the tests, initially refused to release the results. Lina threatened to report the school under FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act), which she says compelled the school to share the results.

The testing revealed Caiden was two grades above in every subject. Lina engaged a private neuropsychologist

Caiden is now in a private school, Flex School, fully paid for by the public school system. He has flexibility to advance to upper grades in his strength areas and is enjoying doing computer science.

TIPS FROM LINA

WHOSE SON IS NOW ATTENDING FLEX SCHOOL AND LOVING IT You know your child best: You ARE the expert on your child.

Never give up: Dedicate yourself to advocacy and rise above perceptions you can’t control, such as “angry Black woman/man.”

Educate yourself on the system and live respectfully, true to who you are.

Identify partners in the school system that believe and care.

Accept that systemic racism exists in technology and curricula, be alert, and protect your child at all costs.

Announcing Season 3 with Maria Kennedy!

Bridges 2e Media and 2e Center for Research and Professional Development present …

CRUCIAL CONVERSATIONS ABOUT COGNITIVE DIVERSITY A monthly webcast featuring the top minds in gifted and 2e education

To learn more, visit 2eCenter.org/Crucial-Conversations-Webcast 9

Indians around the world have contributed to great innovations and successes. Despite this, Rupyip points out that her country is typically depicted in media coverage poorly. To help Nerrit embrace his heritage, she takes extra effort to teach him about Indian inventors and their contributions to math, science, computers, and other STEM-related innovations. It not only builds his pride but also lets him see people like him all over the world, including Silicon Valley. Nerrit is technologically brilliant, and this has inspired him to develop games, animate, and create IT-based projects.

“I have designed his own personalized enrichment program where he can advance and become an expert, immersing himself in the technical field,” Rupyip said.

NAVIGATING THE WESTERN WORLD

Fun is frequently poked in crosscultural movies about the challenges of navigating the Western world as a newcomer. However, these challenges can seem insurmountable when you are the parent of a 3e child, as Rupyip has come to learn. Having left India seeking a better education for her 2e child, she realized that things she took for granted, such as sleeping to the sound of the air conditioner, or her social networks, were going to be history.

“The greatest challenge for my son Nerrit was understanding the predominant culture of the country and staying true to himself,” Rupyip said. “When he did try to fit in, he was reminded that his skin tone and thick South Asian accent were not like other children’s, making him retreat socially.”

Another social challenge brought about by 2e asynchrony was that most children his age played organized sports such as soccer. He loved to play on play structures, but those were deemed “for little children,” thus leaving him standing alone and anxious, unable to have a natural outlet for play.

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South Asian heritage brings more complexity for a 3e child. Many are considered academically brilliant, and the cultural norm is to ignore the disability, refuse to accept it, and/or avoid the child. Nerrit had autism but was also high in his abilities, which was difficult for Rupyip’s family and community to grasp.

“The dominant community (neurotypical) does not mingle outside of their social norms,” Rupyip said. “As a child who couldn’t fit into any neat labels, Nerrit’s challenges and gifts would get swept under the rug and I would be told I was exaggerating what I saw.” Rupyip has learned to overcome this by leaning on some of her positive cultural values — most of all her faith.

“I find a quiet place to pray, meditate, and do yoga. Yoga is a common practice in my culture and I teach my son to do it to allow anxiety to flow out.” She has also created a zen space for her son where he is free to create and innovate.

Drawing from his choice of colors, lighting, sensory needs, and interests, she has many times seen him get into a state of flow being in his zen space.

TIPS FROM RUPYIP

WHO IS HOMESCHOOLING HER SON NOW DUE TO COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Emphasize the positive aspects of your culture: Every culture has something to offer the world. You need to counter stereotypes and find the gems in each culture.

Create a personalized zone for your child: Anxiety from adapting to a new culture can build up quickly. Creating a physical environment that allows your child to be themselves is important.

Customize it to whatever brings them joy and allows them to innovate and explore or relax.

Lean in to cultural practices for calm and self-regulation: Whether it is faith, meditation, mindfulness, nature walks, or yoga, find ways to self-regulate and anchor your child in your cultural practices or values.

Identify experts in various fields who are from your ethnic or cultural background: When a minority in any country, seeing oneself in the narratives of those who have been successful is important in building identity and aspirations.

3e ACTIONS FOR 3e LIVES

The racial and cognitive bullying my son experienced plummeted into anxiety and stress for us all. Conflict arose with the school, resulting in a legal investigation that revealed bullying had indeed occurred. This led the school to implement corrective actions to ensure the bullying didn’t happen again.

Meanwhile, I watched my ever-curious, ever-intrigued-by-life son’s grades and interest in education deteriorate.

The school declined to provide any services, saying he was highly capable but unmotivated and already in gifted programming.

I realized I needed to fight, but how, I had no idea. I joined a parenting class on advocacy and learned how to advocate for services to support his weaknesses. My husband and I worked on getting our son enrolled in our local charter school and having an IEP implemented there. Even then, it took a lot of advocacy to get to a place where we could scaffold all his challenges.

It dampened my spirits continuously to keep focusing on how to help him fit in, not be different in behavior, act like everyone else, be social. However, my best efforts didn’t yield much of an outcome. Effort led to an apex of frustration as I pondered, “At what point would he be accepted for just who he is — different?” He was different at sight, different invisibly, and as the principal had echoed, just “different.”

In this process, I learned about twiceexceptionality. I began to review courses and attend seminars to educate myself on the intersectionality of high ability and disability. Along the way, I found Bridges Graduate School and decided to plunge right into the doctorate program. Delving into all the compelling perspectives on strength-based, talentfocused teaching approaches has created a shift in my thinking.

Similar to most parents of 3e children, I have had that “stuck” feeling plenty of times. Where do I go from here?

Between managing his IEP, playing

advocate, and balancing my own professional career and other children, it’s easy to get lost in activity and miss the most important element of being 3e — the beautiful, brilliant mind.

Ethnic diversity and racial identity are as integral to one’s essence as are their giftedness and disability. It is important that children embrace and enrich all they are. These 3e minds have untapped potential that the world is waiting for to drive innovation and entrepreneurship, and challenge our neurotypical thinking.

In order to harness these minds, we need to invest time in enriching them and continue to explore and find ways to enhance their educational experiences.

I surveyed parents of 2e children to understand whether there was a major difference in their educational settings.

The majority of the parents reported that they still had to find external enrichment regardless of the school setting, whether it be private, public, homeschool, or specialized 2e schools.

Through all the learning in the doctorate program I am pursuing at Bridges, I decided to challenge myself with my own 3e approach to 3e living: Enrich, Explore, and Enhance. A first step is understanding your child’s strengths and documenting their interests.

Every three to six months, I evaluate my family’s activities and determine if they allow exploration, enhance their interests, or enrich their experiences.

It is in this process that I interject material from multiple cultures and even languages I may not understand.

It keeps my children’s curiosity piqued and allows them to know that we live in a global world, full of places to explore and people to meet. I don’t limit it to school-related items, but to every sphere of life due to a deep-seated belief that education is every day.

The journey continues and we see our son blossom yet take some steps back.

However, we know there’s a gem there, and we will let it shine on.

Juniette Kang’a

Juniette Kang’a is a creative marketing professional and mothre of a 2e child with a passionate commitment to helping others realize the untapped potential of 2e individuals. She has 16 years of experience in pharmaceutical commercialization, creating programs for advocacy, education, and access for which she was the recipient of the PM360 Elite Launch Expert Award. She holds a master’s degree in design management and is currently pursuing a doctorate in cognitive diversity at Bridges Graduate School of Cognitive Diversity. She has designed and implemented faithbased education programs to support third-culture families in life-stage transitions. To this end, she is engaged in collaborating and building programs that support gifted and twice-exceptional enrichment and strength-based education for families of diverse cultures and backgrounds.

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Asian Americans and 2e STEREOTYPING THE PARENTAL INSTINCT

by Stuart Matranga

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO

be an Asian American? Asia, with 17 million square miles, includes over four billion people in 48 countries, speaking more than 2,300 languages. In other words, there is plenty of diversity.

Perhaps the biggest thing Asian Americans have in common with one another is mainstream American prejudices about who they are.

In a recent University of Iowa study, “Nothing Fits Exactly: Experiences of Asian American Parents of Twice-

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Exceptional Children,” Soeun Park found that societal expectations, sometimes influenced by stereotypes, “may complicate the experiences of Asian American parents who have twiceexceptional children.”

From her dorm room in the University of Pennsylvania, where she was finishing her doctorate in psychology, Park tries to unravel some of the tired stereotypes about Asian American 2e students.

“This study was a learning experience for me,” she said. “I grew up in South

Korea and as an Asian person, I can say that we, too, internalize some of these stereotypes.”

The trope of the Tiger Parent, inadvertently popularized by Amy Chua’s ironic 2011 book, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, doesn’t really show up in Park’s study — or in many others — except as an oversimplification.

“When you Google ‘Asian American parents,’ you get ‘Tiger Moms,’” Park said with a laugh, explaining the stereotype of strict, harsh parents who want their children to get all A’s. “Of

course, that is not possible or practical for everybody. The ‘Tiger Mom’ doesn’t exist in reality.”

What does exist within the few studies done of 2e and Asian Americans are parents less attached to old-world, authoritarian concepts of parenthood and more interested in, as Park said, “flexibility and constructing their parenting practice” according to their children’s exceptionalities.

“The parents that I met were relieved when they learned about 2e. They didn’t have a negative reaction,” Park said, referring to the 2018 report coauthored by Dr. Megan Foley-Nicpon.

“They wanted to know what was going on and that they were not the only parents in the world who have this type of kid.

“Identifying their child as 2e was more of a normalization, just as it would be for any parent,” Park said.

The complication with 2e comes from students standing at a double crossroads. They are pulled between their gifts and learning challenges, as well as their Asian and American identities. This may add additional preconceptions that magnify a student’s understanding of their own twiceexceptionality.

Identifying their child as 2e was more of a normalization, just as it would be for any parent.

“In general,” Park said, “being seen as a ‘forever foreigner’ is a concern in the Asian American community. It’s a dayto-day life stereotype. For example, almost every day people will say to me, ‘Where are you from?’ I say, ‘California.’

They say, ‘Where are you really from?’”

Park explained that Asian Americans consider themselves a racial minority in the U.S., but when schools talk about racial minorities, sometimes Asian Americans are not discussed.

“We are invisible in many ways,” she said. “When that intersects with 2e, it

also contends with another prevailing stereotype of being a ‘model minority.’

The idea, for example, that Asians are good at math puts another level of stress on a student.”

Like any other American, Asians who live here long enough fall prey to some of the same biases.

During her research, Park came upon a parent whose son had obvious learning challenges as well as gifts. “After he was identified as 2e,” she said, “most of this mother’s difficulties came from within her family. She struggled to communicate what 2e meant to her family members, who, though American, had perspectives about parenting that were more stereotypically Asian.

Identifying their child as 2e was more of a normalization, just as it would be for any parent.

Park concluded that there is a need to “demystify certain images of Asian American parents — often negatively biased — and to embrace the universality of twice-exceptionality beyond races and ethnicities.”

Resisting cultural stereotypes, an Asian American parent in Park’s study gave her 2e kids advice that wouldn’t be expected by those who understand Asian Americans through a pop-cultural lens. She said, “choose what comes naturally to you, do what gives you the most satisfaction and enjoyment. Don’t be in a stereotypical career or don’t study something that you’re not going to like the rest of your life just because it’s going to give you money.”

In addition to advocating for their children who are both gifted and learning challenged, Asian American parents of 2e students often have to step out of the “model minority” and “Tiger Parent” stereotypes, she said.

“I’m happy,” Park said, “that my study was able to debunk that mysterious and mythic image of Asian American parents of 2e students.”

“Her mother wanted her to raise her son in a stricter way, she said Some of her siblings thought more physical punishment would work to stop the son’s destructive behaviors, often caused by his undiagnosed exceptionalities. Coming from that family culture, mitigating the differences between Asian and American ideas of child raising was definitely a struggle for this mother.”

Another parent in the report said, “I’m not Asian. I’m not American. I’m Asian American. What does that mean?”

As far as the study goes, most of the parents were tireless advocates for their children, seeking to find an accurate diagnosis, and supporting and championing their “complicated” kids.

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I’m Gifted Too

USI NG CU LTURA LLY RE SP O NS IVE T EACHING TO AD D R E S S THE LEA RNIN G N E E D S O F 3e ST U D E NT S

by Joy Lawson Davis and Carlita R.B. Cotton

SIGNIFICANT EMPIRICAL

and anecdotal research undergirds education’s continued efforts to provide services for gifted students. A wellknown dilemma, however, is that the majority of students served in gifted programs nationwide are from middle class white and Asian cultural groups, leaving gifted students from culturally diverse populations underrepresented, overlooked, and simply missing from gifted programs nationwide (Ford, 2013; Gentry et al., 2019). Included among those who are underserved

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are gifted students who have at least one learning exceptionality and are from culturally diverse backgrounds (particularly Black, Latinx, and/or Indigenous/Native American). Davis and Robinson (2019) categorized these unique multi-exceptional students as thrice-exceptional or 3e students: culturally diverse, gifted, and having other exceptional conditions such as dyslexia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, physical disabilities, etc. (see Figure 1).

More specific attention to the needs of 3e students is needed to enable educators to understand their unique strengths, challenges, and the support systems they need to succeed in school (Anderson, 2020; Davis & Cotton, 2021; Mayes & Moore, 2016). Culturally diverse multi-exceptional students need educators who will understand that they are gifted too. Many teachers of diverse students are not equipped with the skills they need to ensure that diverse students with multiple exceptional conditions are engaged in

Figure 1: 3e: Culturally diverse, gifted, and having another exceptional condition

Black, Latino, or from other culturally diverse/ oppressed group

Identifies as gifted or having potential to be identified

Having Dyslexia, ASD, BD, or other exceptional conditions

Source: Davis & Robinson, 2018. Reprinted with permission. instruction and motivated to achieve at levels they are capable of (Davis, 2019). Across the nation, the majority of classroom teachers are white, middle class females, and their students are increasingly children of diverse cultures and low-income backgrounds.

This cultural discontinuity creates problems with teachers who may not fully understand and embrace their students’ cultural backgrounds. The lack of teacher training in culturally responsive pedagogies further complicates teachers’ capacity to work with students from culturally diverse backgrounds. In this article, we will take a glimpse at how culturally responsive pedagogies can provide a more accurate fit for students’ cultural norms and intellectual strengths with their learning environment, ultimately leading to a better chance of academic success for 3e learners.

Culturally Responsive Teaching — Matching Curriculum to Student Needs and Strengths Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT)

is not a new educational pedagogy. For several decades, numerous educational theorists developed and disseminated theories, research, and practical experiences borne out of interaction with culturally diverse communities and the learning needs of their children. A. Wade Boykin, Gloria Ladson-Billings, and Geneva Gay are among the key theorists whose work has provided an excellent framework for ensuring the integration of cultural norms, traditions, and values into the teaching and learning experience. Davis, Floyd, and Roberson (2021) provide a summation for CRT and how it can be used in the gifted education classroom. In their work, they describe CRT as being practices that: • Provide curricular materials developed by and for diverse cultural groups in classrooms/schools (ensuring representational and authentic imagery, literature, philosophies, norms, and traditions)

• Develop and deliver instruction to accentuate and build upon student strengths (i.e., teaching from a strengths-based perspective)

• Disallow use of derogatory, stereotypical, and negative phrases and terms to refer to individuals or groups (establishing a “micro aggression”-free environment)

• Create genuine trusting relationships with students by experiencing their families, cultures, and environments through cross-cultural experiences • Involve parents, families, and community leadership as “cultural agents” in the instructional program (they know their community strengths and can serve as role models of gifted individuals who have excelled across domains despite societal challenges)

• Integrate the authentic history of all immigrant and native groups across the disciplines (Native American, African American, Asian American, Caucasian, Hispanic American, Middle Eastern, and first-generation immigrants from around the world)

Tamikah, a Girl with a ‘Mind for Mathematics’ Tamikah is a third-grade African American girl from a low-income family.

She was diagnosed with dyslexia in the second grade. Her school district provides some support for her with an elementary special-education resource teacher assigned to her Title I school.

Although she was found to have a learning disability, her second-grade teacher also noticed that Tamikah was very advanced in mathematics. She gave her a pre- and post-test using the math textbook and recognized that she correctly answered questions at a 98 percent proficiency level. There was no gifted-education resource teacher assigned to her Title I school. As a result of these limited resources, Tamikah’s giftedness was never addressed in school. She floundered in class and often started acting out because she was bored during math time and eventually became inattentive in special-education resource time as well.

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Using CRT to Provide a Richer, More Engaging Instructional Experience for Tamikah Based on Tamikah’s profile, she could benefit from advanced or accelerated instruction in math and perhaps even other subject areas. The following are a few ideas based on CRT designed to improve the learning experience for Tamikah:

• Design a bibliotherapy unit enabling Tamikah to read a book about Black girls like herself who enjoy math. An excellent book choice is A Girl with a Mind for Mathematics: The Story of Raye Montague by Julia Finley Monaca. Allow Tamikah to share what she learned in the story with her classmates with an oral book analysis • Create math word problems for students to solve that include familiar places and names of people from their community (use of representational literature)

• Invite a community person, high school, or college student with interest in mathematics (or a math-related job) to speak to the class about the importance of mathematics (community as cultural agents, role models)

• Ask a music teacher to create a music lesson plan focused on rhythm or beats in African American music genres (jazz, be-bop) (authentic history/student strengths) • Engage Tamikah in a small problemsolving group related to mathematics (communal learning)

• Teach students how to use the board game of Wari or Mancala and describe the games’ African origins (authentic history of strategic games)

Conclusion Consideration of students’ cultural norms, strengths, and interests provide important cues that can help educators develop improved opportunities to engage, motivate, and ensure the best match between the schooling environment and students’ cultural norms and strengths. Teachers who take advantage of professional development in cultural competency and who make the effort to redesign curriculum using the culturally responsive pedagogies are in the best position to create more responsive and engaging classroom experiences for all students. Students with multiple exceptional conditions from diverse backgrounds can thrive in these types of culturally responsive environments that match who they are as learners and are designed to focus on their strengths in dynamic, flexible ways.

References Anderson, B. N. (2020). “See Me, See Us”: Understanding the Intersections and Continued Marginalization of Adolescent Gifted Black Girls in U.S. Classrooms. Gifted Child Today,43(2), 86-100.

Davis, J.L. & Cotton, C.R.B. (2021). Presentation at 2E Virtual Conference. The Center for Gifted Education: The College of William & Mary. Williamsburg, VA.

Davis, J.L., Floyd, E.C., & Roberson, J.J. (2020) The 4Rs: A framework for rigorous, culturally responsive teaching & learning for racially diverse gifted learners. Teaching for High Potential. National Association for Gifted Children.

Washington, DC. Davis, J.L. & Robinson, S.A. (2018). Being 3e, a new look at culturally diverse gifted learners with exceptional conditions: an examination of the issues and solutions for educators and families. In S.B. Kaufman (Ed.), Twice Exceptional: Supporting and Educating Bright, Creative Children with Learning Disabilities (pp.278-289). Oxford University Press.

Davis, J.L. (2019). Reframing Professional learning to meet the needs of teachers working with culturally diverse gifted learners. In A.M. Novak & C.L. Weber (Eds). Best Practices in Professional Learning and Teacher preparation: Special Topics for Gifted Professional Development. 51-69. Prufrock Press

Ford, D.Y. (2013). Recruiting and retaining culturally different students in gifted education programs. Prufrock Press.

Gentry, M., Gray, A., Whiting, G. W., Maeda, Y., & Pereira, N. (2019). Access Denied/System Failure. Gifted Education in the United States: Laws, Access, Equity, and Missingness Across the Country by Locale, Title I School Status, and Race.

Report Cards, Technical Report, and Website. Purdue University: West Lafayette, IN; Jack Kent Cooke Foundation: Lansdowne, VA.

Mayes, R. D., & Moore III, J. L. (2016). The intersection of race, disability, and giftedness: Understanding the education needs of twice-exceptional, African American students. Gifted Child Today, 39(2), 98–104.

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Joy Lawson Davis

Dr. Joy Lawson Davis is a career educator with over 40 years of experience as a practitioner, scholar, author, and consultant. In addition to local district and university experiences, Davis served for five years as the Virginia state specialist for K–12 gifted services.

A graduate of the College of William & Mary, she holds both master’s and doctorate degrees in gifted education.

Davis has conducted workshops and served as a program consultant, keynote speaker, and distinguished guest lecturer across the U.S. and in locales such as South Africa, the Caribbean, Dubai, and Turkey. She served for five years on the Board of Directors of the National Association for Gifted Children. She has published numerous articles, technical reports, and book chapters, and is author of three books including the awardwinning book: Bright, Talented, and Black: A Guide for Families of African American Gifted Learners. Davis is the special populations columnist for NAGC’s Teaching for High Potential and serves on the Gifted Child Today advisory board.

She was recently awarded the 2019 Dr. Alexinia Baldwin Gifted & Special Populations Award from the NAGC Special Populations Network and the 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted organization (SENG).

Carlita Cotton

Dr. Carlita R.B. Cotton holds a doctorate degree in educational psychology and gifted education from the University of Connecticut. She is currently a professor of psychology and gifted education at Goodwin University and a consultant for 2e and 3e students. She has years of progressive experience in development and oversight of academic programs, policies, and initiatives to promote student growth and achievement. She is a passionate education advocate who has directed instructional programs to meet the needs of at-risk youth and has built top-performing teams wholly committed to the academic success of each student.

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Stories That Know BARRIO NERDS AND INTELLIGENCES

by Juan F. Carrillo

Your voice is going to determine the kind of stories you want to tell.

-Amy Tan, Voice and Story

AMY TAN REMINDS US

of the importance of voice and story.

My story: I grew up in a barrio (working-class community) in South Los Angeles, California. As the son of Mexican immigrants with limited economic means, I had to endure erasure, disrespect, racism, systemic violence, and marginalization. This was at play amidst the beautiful Southern California weather, good times at the beach, friendships, and family gettogethers. Yet, early on, maybe age six, I knew something was going on — I just could not completely name it. I could tell that people like me were not fully

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captured in the assessments of many schools, pedagogies of educators, or in everyday interactions, all of which left me feeling “out-of-place” in school. I loved learning and did very well. Yet, I lived with a hidden pain. A hidden loss.

A hidden suffering and recognition that something was missing. This process of alienation pushes many Latinx students out of their own genius and is completely missed by traditional conceptualizations of what it means to be gifted or exceptional.

I often tell students how I left Compton at 18 and got on a Greyhound bus to attend the University of Michigan with very little money, just a dream and an anxiety of trying to “be somebody” and give back. The music, food, and

relationships I grew up with were altered by a new set of exchanges that were more committed to social class mobility and competition. I would sit in my dorm and think of my L.A. workingclass community as the snow fell, or I would think of my grandparents’ home in Sinaloa, Mexico, where we played in the creek or wandered around the town’s fair as music and food and dancing made the night magical. The strange thing is that those stories were not given much space. I had to “succeed.” I had to show how smart I was at a top-tier public university. This happened over and over and, in many ways, still permeates my current life as a college professor. I am not arguing for a zero-sum game, but the social construction of “gifts” is often linked

with unequal power relations and definitions. Hence, “barrio” stories are often not used to define personhood in progress, the genius and soul that is narrating in time, place, and history and even in the midst of systemic injury and pain.

Latinx Students and the Absurd I draw from the absurd three consequences, which are my revolt, my freedom, and my passion.

-Albert Camus I have written about the politics of giftedness as it relates to working-class Latinx students and referred to some of these students as barrio nerds. This research demonstrates how navigating multiple cultural worlds is truly a gift.

Committing to equity and social justice are in many ways gifted orientations, and the centering of hybrid, critical identities are also part of this “gifted” construct. Hence, in my research, being at least twice-gifted encompasses these types of orientations. Hybridity, navigations, explorations of identity, resistance, and a formation of innovative “new worlds/knowledge” do not always fit neatly into the schooling dogmas in various spaces.The absurd then is embedded in our own definitions, and what a student does or does not “have” is more a byproduct of our arbitrary labels and measures. This can lead to a long history of problematic assessments rather than a nuanced understanding of an individual journey.

These aforementioned gifted identities are often centered on what is known from coming of age in the margins.

In these spaces of displacement and precious knowledge, various understandings, growth, and broader, critical world views are being formed.

In my own life, some educators were better than others at seeing this link.

Ideas for Teachers and Parents For teachers, parents, and other interested stakeholders, I would encourage three key orientations when working with Latinx students: (1) Stories, (2) Power, and (3) Reflexivity.

For stories, I would encourage leveraging the historical dimension of the Latinx experience in the U.S. and to

situate the student experience in these narratives as a source of empowerment, “life,” and genius. I would also encourage critiquing power dynamics in how exceptionality is defined and being creative within a particular context about how to cultivate the unique gifts of Latinx students. Reflexivity is very important in that it pertains to reflecting on our own “eyes” and story.

How is your positionality affecting your definitions, teaching, and approach to Latinx students? There is much critical reading and unpacking that needs to happen so that the real work of solidarity can really come to the forefront in supporting Latinx students.

Your Voice Finally, I end with an orientation toward Latinx students. Finding your voice and story as a Latinx student will be a battle. From media bombardments to everyday struggles over dignity, things will hurt along the way. Yet educators can take part in the journey of tapping into the intelligences and ways of knowing that come from the margins that are outside the common-sense notions of giftedness. Do not lose faith, there will always be a place to come “home” to. It may be the plastic covered sofa. It may be the alley or bus stop that reminds you of the intellectual trips to eat with mom at El Pollo Loco. It may be the knowing that when nothing made sense, you still had a time in your life when baseball cards and wrestling figurines were everything. Maybe that was my life. One quarter to play at the arcade in Los Angeles. I played until I got blisters and could breathe again.

Breathing. Your voice is layered with words that can bring you back to that plastic covered sofa with or without the consent of the “norms.” Let me know when you catch that wave. It feels good.

It feels liberating. Your story is a witness to your exceptional gifts.

Juan F. Carillo

Juan F. Carrillo is an associate professor at the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University (ASU) and a recipient of the 2020 American Educational Research Association’s Division G Early Career Award (Social Context of Education). He is a native of working-class communities in south Los Angeles, California, and the son of Mexican immigrants from the state of Sinaloa. Carrillo was a high school social studies teacher in south Phoenix, Arizona, and east Austin, Texas. His work in K-12 schools also extends into the realms of mentoring, chairing departments, and curriculum design, always with the aim of reaching students in-context.

Prior to joining ASU, Carrillo was an associate professor at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill School of Education (UNC). At UNC, he was the founding director of the Latin@/x Education Research Hub, the Chiron Award recipient for teaching excellence and service, a board member with the Scholars’ Latino Initiative (SLI), and a Thorp Faculty Engaged Fellow.

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Indigenous Youth in Education OVE RLOOKE D, UNDE R R E PR E S E NT E D, INVIS IBL E

by Maria Gentry

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The author acknowledges that Purdue University is built on the ancestral and unceded lands of the Potawatomi, Shawnee, Miami, and Delaware peoples.

We owe them a historical debt for the place where we work and study. I pay my respects to the elders and descendants who have stewarded these lands and waters since the beginning.

WHEN EUROPEANS ARRIVED

in what is now the United States in the 1400s, approximately 15 million Indigenous people inhabited the lands (Dunbar-Ortiz, 2014) and 90 percent of this population perished due to diseases brought by the colonists; starvation from loss of crops, land, and trade routes; government-sanctioned genocide; military action; forced removal from their lands, including The Trail of Tears and The Long Walk; and broken treaties (DunbarOrtiz, 2014). In addition, Indigenous children were removed from their families and educated in state or “Christian” boarding schools where they were not allowed to speak their native language and assimilation into European-American culture was the goal (Warren, 2014). In short, Indigenous people and their cultures were almost systematically erased from society and today still face a legacy of racism, discrimination, broken treaties, and invisibility (Fryberg & Townsend, 2008).

The Indian Education Act (1972) and the Indian Self-Determination Act (1975) provided grants to fund supplemental programming to public schools with Indigenous students and shifted control of Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) schools to tribal governments, resulting in the closing of most off-reservation boarding schools (for a full discussion of Indian Education, see Adams, 1995 and Dunbar-Ortiz, 2014). Today, 573 federally recognized American Indian Alaska Native (AIAN) nations exist (U.S. Department of the Interior, Indian Affairs, n.d.) in 35 states, with 90 percent of their youth attending state public schools and eight percent

attending Bureau of Indian Education schools (U.S. Department of Education, 2008).

This brief history is germane to a discussion of the absence of Indigenous youth in programs for gifted, creative, and talented youth, which are overwhelmingly composed of White and Asian students. Black and Brown youth, including AIAN, are severely underrepresented in these programs across the country. This underrepresentation is longstanding, with little or no improvement since the inception of gifted education and availability of data on the race of students identified for special services.

With regard to access, AIAN youth were eight percent less likely than all other race categories to even attend a school that identifies youth with gifts and talents.

Underrepresentation persists despite research, advocacy, and a focus on underserved groups since the inception of Javits Foundation funding in the early 1990s. In fact, in keeping with the invisibility theme, many recent reports have excluded AIAN youth from their analyses, something that keeps conversations about AIAN youth in gifted education in the background.

Our recent analysis of the ten most commonly used ability measures for identifying youth with gifts and talents revealed only two including any AIAN youth in their development or

normative samples, yet these measures are routinely used to make high-stakes decisions regarding who qualifies for special gifted education services (Gentry et al., in press).

Access, Equity, and Missingness of AIAN Youth from Gifted Education In Access Denied/System Failure (Gentry et al., 2019; www.purdue. edu/geri), we examined access, equity, and missingness in gifted education across race, type of school (Title I/ non-Title I) and locale (city, suburb, town, rural) using population data from the Office of Civil rights for the years 2000, 2012, 2014, and 2016. In short, we reviewed data from every public school in the country and created report cards for each state (http://bit.ly/ aian_access) examining access, equity, and missingness.

We defined access as simply attending a school where a student could be identified for services. Equity means representation in gifted programs proportional to representation in the general population. The term missingness is defined as “students who could and should have been identified based on the percentages identified in each state” (Gentry et al., p. 4).

Missing students with gifts and talents are either underrepresented in gifted programs in schools that offer gifted education, or attend schools that do not identify and therefore have no access to identification. AIAN students who are missing have unrecognized gifts and talents and do not have opportunities to participate in programs for students with gifts and talents.

Access: With regard to access, AIAN youth were eight percent less likely than all other race categories to even attend a school that identified youth with gifts and talents. Although Title I schools were more likely to identify students with gifts and talents than were nonTitle I schools (61.4 percent vs. 55.7 percent, respectively), they identified far fewer students with gifts and talents (7.9 percent vs. 13.5 percent, respectively). Most AIAN students attend Title I schools.

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Figure 1 depicts the access ratio on the X-axis with the representation index on the Y-axis by state. As shown, only North Dakota, Oklahoma, Delaware, Alabama, and Hawaii have equitable access and representation in gifted programs for AIAN youth. A large number of states have equitable access but high levels of underrepresentation despite the access. Sadly, a number of these states also have large populations of AIAN youth (Idaho, New Mexico, and Oregon).

Worse are states like Alaska, Montana,

Arizona, and South Dakota, who have terrible access in general, and in schools with identification, poor representation of AIAN youth in gifted programs.

Wyoming, with low access, has good representation in schools that identify.

Equity: We then examined equity of identification for the school in which youth are identified. We used a measure called a representation index (RI), which is the percentage of a group identified as gifted divided by its

percentage in the general population.

We defined equitable representation as having an RI of at least 0.80, which we graded as a “D” based on the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission four-fifths threshold at which less than 0.80 is considered adverse impact (29 C.F.R. §1607.4, 2019). An RI of 0.95 or greater proportional representation and received a grade of “A.” We refer to RIs greater than 1.00 as “well-represented” rather than “over-represented.”

Figure 1: Access Ratios and Representation Indices for AIAN youth by State in 2015-2016

Note. Bold typeface denotes the states with the largest percentage of AIAN youth attending schools that identify youth with gifts and talents.

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If we only examined national data, one might conclude that representation of AIAN youth is not that bad with an average RI of 0.83. After all, this RI exceeds the four-fifths threshold of 0.80. Further examination by state tells a vastly different story. With the exception of Alabama, Delaware, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Wyoming, AIAN youth are severely underrepresented in gifted education. As shown in Figure 1 and Figure 2, underrepresentation of AIAN youth is a national problem.

Figure 2 shows three maps of the United States, each with representation indices by state, in all schools, in non-Title I Schools, and in Title I Schools.

Figure 2: AIAN Youth Representation Indices in All Schools, Non-Title 1 and Title 1 Schools by State in 2015-2016 schools

Missingness: For missingness we calculated numbers and percentage of students missing from gifted identification for each state based on the average percentage of students identified in the state (in schools that actually identify youth with gifts and talents) to estimate a lower boundary missing. We then estimated an upper boundary using the larger percentage of students identified in the non-Title 1 schools. This resulted in a range of missing students. With few exceptions, most states are missing far more AIAN students than they identify. Missingness by state is depicted in Figure 3. In fact, nationally there are just over 25,000 AIAN youth identified with gifts, creativity, and talents, with up to 45,000 (or 63 percent) missing.

Discussion and Action One of the most disturbing findings of this work involves worse access, worse representation, and as a result more missingness in states that have the largest proportions of Native youth.

Take, for example, Alaska, where almost 25 percent of its students are AIAN, and only 33 percent of them even attend a school where they have the opportunity to be identified. For those who do attend such a school, their equity rates are abysmal, some of the lowest in the nation, with an overall RI of only 0.34.

Only 241 AIAN youth were identified in Alaska, with 90 percent missing. In South Dakota, only 20 percent of AIAN youth attend schools that identify,

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Figure 3: AIAN Youth Missing from Gifted Education Identification by State, Lower to Upper Boundary Estimates in 2015-2016

Note. States denoted with an arrow have the ten largest proportions of AIAN students. and they have a RI of 0.26. With only 56 AIAN youth identified with gifts and talents statewide, we estimate 95 percent are missing from gifted education.

These data raise serious concerns about bias in identification, racism, segregation, and the continued invisibility of potentially talented AIAN youth. By excluding them from programs for gifted, creative, and talented youth, we not only hurt their educational opportunities, but we also fail to enrich gifted programs with their rich cultures and diverse views. What a shame.

Imagine if we redefined what it means to be “gifted” by adopting and considering others’ perspectives. I offer just one example of such a definition as reported by Lara-Cooper (2014) who studied the Hupa, Yorok, and Karuk tribal members who live on the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation (HVIR) in Northern California:

Giftedness can be defined through k’winya ’nya:n-ma ’awhiniw (“the human way”), meaning to live in balance and harmony with the world by having honor 24

and respect for community members, the environment, self, ancestors, and creation. The human way is guided by language and culture and characterized by honor, humility, patience, gratitude, discipline, compassion, a good heart, and generosity, responsibility, and respect; maintaining relationships with the human, natural, and spiritual realms; understanding and valuing the HVIR worldview; and making a contribution to the HVIR community. (p. 6) There are plenty of ways of “finding” diverse youth with gifts and talents, ways that go beyond simple measure and quantification of giftedness. The question is whether educators have the will and commitment to expand their programs to make them fair and equitable. The first step is to examine the equity of the gifted program, and the second step is to broaden the program and its services through multiple pathways into the program to reflect the student population of the school.

The time to start is now. Waiting for evolution of gifted program equity has failed miserably in the past, as evidenced by consistently inequitable identification since the inception of programming. What is needed is

revolution and immediate change. Each of us can be a part of that change if we choose.

References 29 C.F.R. §1607.3 (2019). Discrimination defined: Relationship between use of selection procedures and discrimination.

29 C.F.R. §1607.4 (2019). Information on impact.

Adams, D. (1995). Education for extinction: American Indians and the boarding school experience, 1875-1928.

Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas.

Marcia Gentry

Dr. Marcia Gentry directs the Gifted Education Research and Resource Institute at Purdue University, where she enjoys working with doctoral students and engaging in research and gifted education professional development.

She remains active in the field through service to the National Association for Gifted Children and the American Educational Research Association and by writing, reviewing, and presenting research aimed to improve education for children, youth, and teachers. She focuses on underserved populations and creating an equitable, socially just field.

Dunbar-Ortiz, R. (2014). An Indigenous peoples’ history of the United States.

Boston: Beacon Press.

Fryberg, S.A. & Townsend, S.S.M. (2008).

The psychology of invisibility. In G. Adams, M. Biernat, N.R. Branscombe, C.S. Crandall & L.S. Wrightsman (Eds.), Commemorating Brown: The social psychology of racism and discrimination (173-193). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Gentry, M., *Desmet, O. A., *Karami, S., *Lee, H., *Green, C., *Cress, S., *Chowkase, A., & *Gray, A. (in press).

Gifted Education’s Legacy of High Stakes Ability Testing: Using Measures for Identification that Perpetuate Inequity.

Roeper Review.

Indian Education Act (1972).

Lara-Cooper, K. (2014). “K’winya’nya:nma’awhiniw”: Creating a Space for Indigenous Knowledge in the Classroom. Journal of American Indian Education, 53(1), 3-22. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/43608711 U.S. Department of Education. (2008, September). Status and Trends in the Education of American Indians and Alaska Natives: 2008 (NCES 2008-084).

Washington, DC: Government Printing Office. Retrieved from https://nces. ed.gov/pubs2008/2008084.pdf

U.S. Department of the Interior, Indian Affairs. (n.d.). Frequently asked questions.

Retrieved from https://www.bia.gov/ frequently-asked-questions Warren, D. (2014). American Indian histories as education history.

History of Education Quarterly, 54, 255-285. Retrieved from https://doi. org/10.1111/hoeq.12067

Gentry, M., Gray, A., Whiting, G.W., Maeda, Y.. & Pereira, N. (2019). Access denied/system failure: Gifted education in the United States: Laws, access, equity, and missingness across the country by locale, Title I school status, and race. Report Cards, Technical Report, and Website.

Purdue University: West Lafayette, IN; Jack Kent Cooke Foundation: Lansdowne, VA.

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Exceptionality (e), 2e, and 3e CULTURAL FACTORS AND CONSIDERATIONS IN IDENTIFYING AND SERVING GIFTED STUDENTS OF COLOR WITH OTHER EXCEPTIONALITIES

by Jaime Castellano

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MY FIRST EXPERIENCE

with twice-exceptional (2e) and thriceexceptional (3e) students was as a special-education teacher back in the middle to late 1980s, more than 35 years ago. At that time, there was no such label, no research. I recall thinking, “How can a student be so smart in a specific core academic area but unable to read, write, or do basic calculations?”

As a novice teacher, I focused on the disability, not knowing any better. I had a self-contained classroom of 12 students, covering Grades 3-5 who were all Hispanic, primarily Spanishspeaking, and low-income. They had either a specific learning disability, were emotionally disturbed, or had a behavioral disorder. The vast majority of teaching was conducted in Spanish.

One student, Leonardo, had a specific learning disability in reading and writing and was slightly below his grade level in math. He would often crawl under his desk and remain there. He was impulsive, emotional, and difficult to handle. However, he excelled in science, knowing facts and explicit details about any number of topics

related to animals and dinosaurs. Even when I mainstreamed him into a regular third-grade science class, the teacher was astounded by his overall science knowledge. Today, Leonardo would most likely be eligible for a program serving twice-exceptional students in science.

e = Exceptional (gifted)

2e = Twice-Exceptional (gifted with a learning difference) 3e = Thrice-Exceptional (twice- exceptional from a historically underserved racial, cultural, ethnic, and/or linguistic background) Today, the field of gifted education has come a long way in serving 2e students.

Empirical research is available, materials and programs for this unique population of students have been developed, professional growth and development is offered, and advocacy efforts have advanced tenfold. Despite these advances, there remain gaps in serving low-income, racially, culturally,

and linguistically diverse students who also struggle with a learning difference or disability. The tables below offer both big-picture (macro) and practical (micro) perspectives about how today’s educators can effectively identify and serve diverse gifted learners with exceptional conditions across multiple areas. In considering the macro, we explore governing boards (policy makers), superintendents (policy deliverers), directors of gifted education, special education, assessment, curriculum, instruction, equity, ESL/bilingual education, and other levels and departments typically found at the district- or central-office level. The micro level concerns teaching and learning at the site-specific and classroom level, where school administrators and classroom teachers deliver curriculum, instruction, and programming. In concert, these spheres wield substantial power in how these unique student groups are served. What follows are several guiding principles to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion for our 3e students.

Educating 2e and 3e Students Macro

Micro

1. Governing Board creates actionable policy goals in several areas:

1. School emphasizes inclusion, diversity, and equity in its mission, vision, practices, and signage

• A vision set for educating 2e and 3e students

3. Teachers, school administrators, and parents form a “web of support” for 2e and 3e students

• Equity, access, and opportunity drive guiding principles • Standards identified for educating 2e and 3e students

2. 2e and 3e students have access to all advanced academic programs

• Progress evaluated using data to identify strengths and areas of improvement • Personnel selection: teachers and administrators have the skill, ability, and desire to serve 2e and 3e students

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Identification of 2e and 3e Students Micro

Macro 1. Identification practices written in governing board policy 2. Expectations for professional growth and development written in governing board policy

3. Governing board deploys topic experts at the district level to inform, guide, and educate others

1. Classroom teachers and school administrators receive training on identifying 2e and 3e students that includes cultural competencies and multicultural education 2. Identification can occur at any time during the school year

4. Maintain routine collaboration, collegiality, and communication with parents, greater community, and central office (e.g., special education, gifted and talented education, ESOL/ESL/bilingual, professional development, assessment specialist, etc.)

5. Equity, access, and opportunity drives identification policy and is data-driven

Assessment of 2e and 3e Students Macro 1. Identification practices are written in governing board policy that includes:

1. Racial, cultural, and linguistic considerations dictate the type of tests to use and who administers them

• Flexibility in who administers assessments

• Areas to be assessed

• Flexibility in using assessment instruments

• Flexibility in norms used, e.g., local and/or national • Alternative sources of assessment (language-proficiency assessments, performancebased products/projects that may be technologybased, writing samples, interviews, etc.).

2. Equity, access, and opportunity drive assessment policy

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Micro

2. Comprehensive evaluation is conducted • Sources for obtaining assessment data • Who gathers the information

3. Assessment process includes teachers in ESL, bilingual education, special education, and regular education

Curriculum and Instruction for Educating 2e and 3e Students Macro

Micro

1. Specialists collaborate in gifted education, special education, assessment, curriculum, and instruction at the highest levels of leadership

1. Lessons accentuate the cognitive, academic, social, and emotional strength of students

3. Offer training across departments on culturally relevant pedagogy, relational pedagogy, instructional materials, etc.

3. Curriculum choices and instructional strategies make connections to the racial, cultural, and linguistic diversity of gifted, 2e, and 3e students

2. Consider financial investment into published programs serving e, 2e, and 3e students

4. Maintain district membership to national associations advocating for gifted, 2e, and 3e students

2. Lessons are rigorous and flexibility is offered in how students demonstrate what they know and are able to do

4. Technology is used to connect students to their interests, passions, and strengths

5. Learning strengths are used to advance growth in areas of challenge

Collaborating with Parents and Families of 2e and 3e Students Macro

Micro

1. Use interpreters when working with linguistically diverse parents

1. Use parents’ dominant language in automated messages and social media

3. Routinely seek input and feedback from parents

3. IEPs, 504 plans, and other auxiliary services account for cultural and linguistic backgrounds of students

2. Translate all documents into the dominant language of parents 4. Include parents in decision-making

5. Confirm that meeting agenda items are relevant/ contextual

2. Teachers routinely report progress of students to parents, principals, and gifted education specialists

6. Demonstrate cultural competency

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Conclusion The information provided serves as a toolbox of sorts, a practical resource for educators at any level who serve and advocate for gifted, 2e, and 3e students. There is clear evidence that more research needs to be conducted on both 2e and 3e students, with an emphasis on 3e students and the additional challenges they face as diverse gifted learners with exceptional conditions across multiple areas. Equity, access, and opportunity continues to be a conundrum for the field of gifted education, but it does not have to be in your own school, school district, or community. If anything, the information contained in this article and the resources included below can start a courageous conversation that moves us all forward. After all, it’s about what’s in the best interest of students. Don’t you agree?

Dr. Jaime A. Castellano is a nationally recognized and award-winning principal, author, scholar, and researcher. He is a published author with four books in the field of gifted education, plus dozens of articles and chapters written for multiple publications. His 2011 book, Special Populations in Gifted Education: Understanding Our Most Able Students from Diverse Backgrounds, was awarded the Legacy Award for Outstanding Scholarly Publication in Gifted Education.

Published in March 2014, his latest book is titled Talent Development for English Language Learners: Identifying and Developing Potential.

Jaime Castellano

Dr. Castellano is recognized as one of our nation’s leading authorities in the education of Hispanic/Latino students and in identifying and serving low-income, racially, culturally, and linguistically diverse gifted students, with particular expertise on identifying gifted Hispanic/Latino students, African American students, Native American students, gifted English language learners, students from poverty, and gifted preschoolers, ages 3-5.

Resources Online Resources

Tw(y)ce-Exceptional: Gifted Black Males in P-12 Education by Dr. Fred A. Bonner II https://diverseeducation.com/article/157846/

Triple Identity Theory: Conceptualizing the Lived Experiences of a Gifted Black Male with Dyslexia. Shawn A. Robinson: Journal of Research Initiatives Volume 3 | Number 1 Article 7 https://digitalcommons.uncfsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1108&context=jri

Print Resources

Being 3e, A New Look at Culturally Diverse Gifted Learners With Exceptional Conditions: An Examination of the Issues and Solutions for Educators and Families

By Lawson-Davis & Robinson, 2018: University Press The Orchid and the Dandelion: Why Some Children Struggle and How All Can Thrive

By W. Thomas Boyce, M.D. (2019).

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Culture Matters

RACE , GE N DE R , AND S CHO L AR ID E NT IT Y

by Gilman Whiting

WHAT IS CULTURE? SHOULD culture be considered a variable of learning?

My daughter Nona Gai wrote her first book at just eight years old. In 2019, her collection of poems, And What Would You Say If You Could, was published and for me it answered both of these questions. Often singularly viewed as customs or artifacts, culture also includes the intellectual achievements of a group, the triumphs despite the turmoil.

My job as a university professor allows me certain freedoms. The most important of these is flexibility with my time. From the day my youngest daughter came home, I vowed to take her to and from school every day I

could. Along the way I read somewhere that eating meals together was important. So, I made her breakfast every morning and we ate a family dinner every evening. For me, this was a way to stay connected to her and also let her know that she was not alone. I always told her, “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.”

Her primary school was a wonderful K-8 taught in the Waldorf culture. It provided an environment where outside learning (play and group activities) was as important as the classroom. However, she was the only African American child in her class, and for several years the only one in her school. I knew we had to be vigilant about the cultural foundation of the school and what habits, beliefs, and ideas they would, like breakfast, feed her every day. Some days I would

cook eggs, others it was pancakes; I even learned to make authentic French crepes. For some, it’s huevos rancheros, grits and eggs; for others it’s cereal and milk. Each day, my exceptional child was given a daily meal of culture. We begin the most important meal of the day with culture.

Culture matters. How families, teachers, and communities respect or disrespect others’ culture strengthens or weakens a child’s identity and self-esteem. My goal for the past 13 years was to do all that I could to make sure that my daughter’s identity as a scholar was resilient.

From my childhood, I recall my friend Charlie. He was possibly the most popular kid in the neighborhood, mostly because of his attention-seeking,

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hyperactive, and risky behaviors. He would take on any dare: ride a bike at full speed, put on full front brakes, and flip over the handlebars to land on his feet. Wow! He could also count and do math in his head better than our math teacher. But he was always in the hall, sitting just outside the classroom or heading toward the principal’s office to be sent home or disciplined. Charlie had undiagnosed ADHD, and back then it was just considered “wild” behavioral issues, or poor home training — all of which was something he should control.

Maya was also in our class and she, too, talked out of turn and would often ignore the teacher. She was never asked to leave. In fact, she was given the privilege of “clapping the erasers’’ (cleaning the blackboard erasers), which meant she could roam the halls and would always return happy. Maya was “wild” too. Oftentimes she would sneak a peek at the answers during a spelling tests and she talked all the time.

Somehow, we knew that because Maya was a white girl and Charlie was a Black boy, she could get away with things that he could not. Culture can be about race and often is; however, it is important to understand that a person’s assigned race does not reflect a monolithic culture.

Far too many educators, due to their own culture, value systems, opportunities, and educational training, do not share or understand children from other cultures and may view those students as troubled or uninterested in learning. Even when witnessing the advanced-level thinking, motivation, and writing of a Nona Gai or the mathematical prowess and leadership potential of a Charlie, teachers who do not understand students’ attitudes, behaviors — and, yes, even race and gender — may see deficits where deficits do not exist.

Today, as I reflect on my daughter’s educational journey and the thousands of Charlies and Mayas that I have come to know over the past 30 years, race, gender, culture, and family poverty all collide in the gifted 2e/3e world.

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Teachers who come from different cultural backgrounds from their students may find it difficult to assess what is cultural and what is ability or disability. In general, educationally speaking, Black and Brown children (especially males) are at the lowest rung of academic success. This, too, is a culture most schools have come to expect and accept. When these children, like Charlie or Nona Gai, exhibit gifts and talents, they are met with curiosity, suspicion, and disbelief. Meanwhile, the Mayas, who show little more than following most of the behavioral rules, are pushed to the front. Even when they do not follow the rules, the outcome is often more understanding and less punitive. I don’t advocate punishment for Maya or any of the children, but when we are concerned with seeing the gifts and talents in all children, no

Although many were high academic achievers, there was no gifted label required to be a part of the program.

My belief then and now remains that all students can be successful and flourish if supported, nurtured, motivated, and believed in. How do we assist entire communities in creating a culture where the love for learning and academic success is nurtured, encouraged, and supported? How can a child who exhibits high potential be left out of the opportunity to excel?

matter what they ate for breakfast, we need to see them for who they are and build self-efficacy in them to assist them in having a greater sense of internal locus of control.

willingness to make sacrifices, internal locus of control, self-awareness, achievement being greater than affiliation, academic self-efficacy, race consciousness, and genderrelated issues. The four supporting pillars are family involvement, school relationships, community support, and mentoring/sponsorship.

The SIM works toward shifting the paradigm of low expectations and underachievement of children from certain cultural backgrounds to developing a scholar identity for all.

The SIM has nine constructs and four supporting pillars. The nine constructs are self-efficacy, future orientation,

Far too many educators, due to their own culture, value systems, opportunities, and educational training, do not share or understand children from other cultures and may view those students as troubled or uninterested in learning.

My work on the Scholar Identity Model™ (SIM) investigates the psycho-social behaviors of children. The foundational model (2005) moved from theory to practice with 100 boys in the fifth and sith grades. Originally conceived as an academic, year-long training initiative, it was reconfigured as a summer intensive academic, socio-emotional, and teambuilding camp.

The SIM was not conceived nor designed to view children from families in poverty or Black or Brown communities as less. It was not developed to fix a broken, problem child. There is a system of inequity replete with policies and practices that

maintain those inequities. The Scholar Identity Model has been used to work with a single child or an entire school district. It has been successful with gifted Black boys and gifted children locally, nationally, and internationally.

When I think about all those mornings making breakfast and driving my daughter to school knowing that she was talented, beautiful, and motivated, I also knew that, like Charlie, it was very possible that her culture (race, gender, and family income) could very easily play a role in her future outcomes.

So, I was diligent, and she is now an NAGC Dr. Martin D. Jenkins award winner, Nashville Youth Poet Laureate, Southeast Region Poet Laureate, U.S. Poet Laureate Ambassador, and starting in fall 2021, a first-year college student. Maya also attended college.

Unfortunately, my childhood friend, Charlie, opted to leave school. He died at 43 years old.

Gilman W. Whiting

Dr. Gilman W. Whiting is the director of the Scholar Identity Institute and chairs the Achievement Gap Consortium.

He also directs graduate studies in the department of African American and Diaspora Studies at Vanderbilt University. His published research includes topics such as psychological and social behaviors of underperformance and disparity with students in special and gifted education; sociology of race; qualitative research methods; and young fatherhood initiatives. Lecturing on four continents, his research has been adopted in Australia, Belize, Brazil, India, and South Africa. Dr. Whiting consults with school districts and programs nationally and internationally and co-chairs the National Association for Gifted Children’s (NAGC) Diversity and Equity Committee.

He is the 2021 recipient of the Palmarium Gifted Education Visionary Award.

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Over Here!

SEEING TWICE-EXCEPTIONAL YOUTH IN A NEUROBLIND SOCIETY

by Kate Bachtel

DURING COVID TIMES,

many educators have been focused on the instruction of core academic skills, inadvertently neglecting the needs of gifted and twice-exceptional (2e) students. As toxic stress rises, opportunities to engage in deep and relevant learning challenges diminish.

Biases perpetuate misconceptions that gifted and 2e children will be “just fine” without specialized services and supports.

Those of us who teach or parent twiceexceptional children know nothing could be further from the truth. Denying access to a meaningful education can cause systemic trauma with long34

lasting health impacts that may include disabilities, addictions, and increased incidences of heart, liver, and lung diseases (Harris, 2014).

Signs of trauma may include, but are not limited to: hyper-arousal and/or hyper-vigilance; irritable, aggressive, and or disruptive behavior; shaking or trembling; regressive behavior; drop in grades or performance; loss of interest in previously enjoyed activities; confusion and lack of attention to details; suicidal thoughts; a variety of physical ailments and illnesses; feelings of fear and anxiety; sleep disturbance; difficulty concentrating; self-destructive or reckless behavior; nightmares and/or

flashbacks; headaches, depression, guilt, and/or self-blame; feeling emotionally numb; organizational challenges; elevated blood pressure; distorted selfconcept; challenges in mood regulation; increased resting heart rate; emotional breakdowns; eating disorders; truancy/ high absenteeism; and social isolation (Devereux, 2016).

Even prior to the pandemic, there was a body of research illustrating that gifted and 2e youth are frequently oppressed in schools (Chu & Myers, 2015), vulnerable to medical misdiagnosis (Webb et al., 2016), and bullied at rates significantly higher than same-age peers (Peters, 2012).

Coping behaviors can range from underachievement to, in extreme cases, suicide (Cross, 2011). Affording twiceexceptional youth access to equitable growth opportunities in school not only supports achievement, but more importantly, is requisite to mental health and well-being. Seeing each twice-exceptional youth for all their layers of exquisite complexity is an important first step.

How Schools May Cause Harm As trauma masks giftedness and negatively impacts achievement and health, understanding why and how gifted and twice-exceptional youth can be vulnerable to psychological injuries in school settings becomes an even greater moral imperative. Risks are greater for low-income, Black, Latino, and Native American students who are underrepresented in gifted programs and systemically denied equitable access to opportunities and resources.

Development and environment are inextricably intertwined. When schools do not consciously support cultural pluralism, they likely perpetuate systems of white supremacy. Racist behaviors can cause trauma-related injuries too. Even when the educational oppression, neglect, and/or racism that caused the injuries was unintentional, the resulting tragic harm to children is the same.

Federal and state legislation influence local education practices.

At the national level, the lack of legal protections for neurodiverse gifted youth contributes to the perpetuation of violence. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) excludes neurodiverse gifted students who can be as cognitively unique as students with other dis/different abilities. Equally problematic is IDEA’s deficit orientation that pathologizes differences. Deficit perspectives can be internalized and can negatively influence self-conception. If the nation is neuroblind and treats people the same regardless of neurodivergence, how can states hold schools accountable in regard to affording gifted and 2e students a free and appropriate education (FAPE)? States oversee teacher preparation programs, but most

do not require significant coursework in giftedness, neurodiversity, or trauma.

State legislation specific to giftedness and twice-exceptionality can help, but without sufficient professional learning or funding, progress will be stunted.

Without adequate supports, schools and districts can commit educational malpractice. They can cause harm when holding cognitive outliers to standards designed to support the neuro-majority; when turning a blind eye to bullying behavior, including microaggressions perpetrated by faculty; when engaging in shaming and marginalizing “discipline” practices (actual punishments); and when failing to monitor student progress and denying access to needed specialized services and supports.

Schools contribute to suffering when they encourage assimilation and have narrow definitions of achievement and success.

Trauma both masks and amplifies exceptionalities, making it difficult even for a keen clinical eye to see a child’s true self.

Importantly, when schools injure, there are few, if any, legal safeguards to protect gifted and 2e children.

Emotional maltreatment of youth is typically defined in terms of interfamilial relations, so educational oppression, neglect, and abuse can occur with impunity.

Trauma’s Invisible Wounds Diagnostic shortcomings contribute to a failure to understand root causes. A gifted or 2e student presenting with anxiety, depression, ADHD, or conduct or emotional disorders may in fact have a trauma-related injury (Devereux, 2016). To support healing, society must

recognize that these health challenges are caused by socio-political contexts.

Shaming and blaming victims can exacerbate symptoms and cause health to further deteriorate. Trauma both masks and amplifies exceptionalities, making it difficult even for a keen clinical eye to see a child’s true self.

To add to the complexity, responses to trauma can be immediate or delayed.

Many factors influence the type of response a person has to trauma. In a flight response, a person flees from danger. This may present as school avoidance. In a freeze response, one mobilizes and waits for the trauma to pass, like a speechless 2e student called on when their hand wasn’t raised. Fight responses attempt to overcome the danger by making oneself appear bigger or more threatening, or through actual battle. This may look like defiance and include yelling or physical violence.

In an appease (or fawn) response, a person does the opposite and attempts to make themselves appear smaller or less threatening to pacify the aggressor.

People-pleasing behavior may be a fawn response.

Finally, dissociation is a way to leave without leaving, to numb oneself to feeling (Haines, 2019). The student who appears to be daydreaming may be escaping the pain of instruction paced too slowly or focused on skills already mastered. Many experts hypothesize that empathic gifted and 2e youth are more likely to exhibit an appease or dissociation response, making recognition of their trauma particularly challenging. For more information on specific signs of trauma, please see the references and resources section below.

Barriers to Advocacy Neuroblindness is arguably the greatest barrier to effective activism. Until educators have adequate training in giftedness, twice-exceptionality, neurodiversity, and trauma, gifted and 2e youth will be at risk of injury.

When people state they don’t see color, it dismisses painful racial realities, realities we must have the courage to look squarely in the eyes if there is any hope of creating positive change.

Similarly, when communities fail to

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recognize neurodiversity, it blinds education systems to imbalances in power and privilege. Until these imbalances are seen, they cannot be dismantled.

Another obstacle in advocacy efforts is the term gifted. Language that implies superiority alienates and marginalizes. The words we use matter.

Perceptions matter. If the language used in advocacy conversations causes shutdown, no growth will occur.

Neurodiversity is a more inclusive term that facilitates dialogue where it wasn’t possible before. Addressing entitled parent behaviors is also critical to deconstructing stereotypes and strengthening relationships. Advocacy for gifted and twice-exceptional youth is the opposite of privilege hoarding, and responsive programming is often lifesaving.

Toward Sustainable Change Relational pedagogy and compassionate practices are paramount to preventing injury. Both indigenous education practices and neuroscience teach to begin with belonging. Nearly every measure of well-being improves in trusting relationships (Beckes & Coan, 2011). Creating environments mindful of sensory sensitivities and nervous system differences also provides a foundation for feelings of safety. In addition, creative practices accelerate both physical and psychological healing (Barron & Barron, 2013). Furthermore, imagining engages the portion of the brain critical for retaining new learning and being able to apply it in new contexts (Immordino-Yang, 2016).

Prioritizing connection, designing nourishing spaces, and providing ample opportunities to make and create are a launching-off point.

While compassion cannot be legislated, advocates can initiate and/or amplify related educational campaigns to grow understanding. They can also champion laws and policies that: • Prioritize student feelings of psychological safety

• Prevent marginalizing and shaming discipline practices 36

• Require schools and educators to stop practices that medical and educational professionals state cause harm

• Facilitate non-financial restorative practices among students, educators, and parents as needed

Seeing neurodiversity is where the important work of meaningful and individualized programming responsive to developmental and cultural complexities begins.

Kate Bachtel

Dr. Kate Bachtel is the founder of SoulSpark Learning, a nonprofit dedicated to optimizing the development and well-being of youth and the educators who care for them. Kate earned a doctorate in education with an emphasis in gifted from University of Denver and a masters from University of Colorado at Boulder (educational equity and cultural diversity). Kate continues to teach simultaneous to collaborating with and coaching educators, practitioners and parents across the country. Prior she co-led the opening of a K-8 school for gifted youth.

Kate also served two terms on the board of directors for Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted and was president from 2016-17.

References and Resources References and Resources Bachtel, K. (2016). Trauma: A Call for Collaboration. SENGVine Newsletter, May 2016.

Retrieved June 1, 2016 from: http://sengifted.org/archives/articles/ trauma-a-call-for-collaboration Barron, C., & Barron, A. (2013). The Creativity Cure: How to Build Happiness with Your Own Two Hands. New York: Scribner.

Beckes, L., & Coan, J. (2011). Social Baseline Theory: The Role of Social Proximity in Emotion and Economy of Action. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 5(12), 976-988.

Chu, Y., & Myers, B. (2015). A Social Work Perspective on the Treatment of Gifted and Talented Students in American Public Schools. School Social Work Journal, 40(1), 42- 57.

Cross, T. (2011). On the Social and Emotional Lives of Gifted Children. Waco: PrufrockPress.

Delisle, J. (2014). Dumbing Down America: The War on Our Nation’s Brightest Young Minds (And What We Can Do to Fight Back). Waco: Prufrock Press, Inc.

Devereux Colorado (2016). TraumaInformed Care: A Developmentally Sensitive Approach [PowerPoint slides].

Lecture presented January 2016 in Denver, CO. Hanies, S. (2019). Somatics, Healing and Social Justice: The Politics of Trauma.

Signs of trauma may include, but are not Berkley: limited to: North Atlantic Books.

Harris, hyper-arousal N. (September and/or 2014). hyper-vigilance; How Childhood irritable, aggressive, Trauma Affects and/or Health disruptive Across abehavior; Lifetime shaking [video file]. or trembling; Retrieved from: https://youtube/95ovIJ3dsNk regressive behavior; drop in grades or performance; loss of interest in Immordino-Yang, previously enjoyed M.activities; (2016). Emotions, confusion Learning and lack of and attention The Brain. to details; New York: suicidal W.W. Norton thoughts; & Company, a variety of Inc. physical ailments and illnesses; feelings of fear and Kaufman, anxiety; sleep S. B. (2018). disturbance; Twicedifficulty Exceptional: concentrating; Supporting self-destructive and Educating or Bright reckless and behavior; Creativenightmares and/or Students flashbacks; with headaches, Learning depression, Difficulties. guilt, New York, and/or NY:self-blame; Oxford University feeling emotionally Press. numb; organizational challenges; Morgan, elevatedA., blood Pendergast, pressure;D.,distorted Brown, R. self& Heck, concept; D. (2015) Relational challenges in mood ways regulation; of being an increased educator: resting trauma-informed heart rate; emotional practice supporting breakdowns; disenfranchised eating disorders; young truancy/ people, International high absenteeism; and Journal social of isolation Inclusive Education, 19:10, 1037 (Devereux, 2016).

1051 (Note: Ideally the text highlighted in yellow above would be eliminated and a Peters, text boxD.would (2012). beGifted embedded and Bullied. within the Gifted articleEducation adjacent to Communicator, that section with Spring the 2012. signs of trauma listed above.)

Porges, Bachtel,S.K.(2017).

(2016).The Trauma: PocketA Call for Guide Collaboration. to the Polyvagal SENGVine Theory: Newsletter, The Transformative May 2016.

Power Retrieved of Feeling June 1,Safe.

2016 New from: York: http:// W.W Norton and sengifted.org/archives/ Company. articles/trauma-a-call-forWebb, J., collaboration Amend, E., Webb, N., Goerss, J., Beljan, P. and Olenchak, F. R. (2016).

Misdiagnosis Barron, C., & and Barron, DualA.Diagnosis (2013). The of Gifted Creativity Children Cure:and HowAdults. to Build Scottsdale: Happiness Great with Potential Press.

Your Own Two Hands. New York: Scribner.

Beckes, L., & Coan, J. (2011). Social Baseline Theory: The Role of Social Proximity in Emotion and Economy of Action. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 5(12), 976-988.

Chu, Y., & Myers, B. (2015). A Social Work Perspective on the Treatment of Gifted and Talented Students in American Public

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Shifting the Narrative

ADDRESSING SYSTEMIC RACIAL DISPARITIES OF GIFTED STUDENTS OF COLOR

by Erinn Fears Floyd

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DESPITE THE INTENSE

worldwide focus on the lives and experiences of Black people in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement, the racial demographics of gifted and talented education (GATE) programs across the United States still reveal systemic racism. Organizations, school districts, and agencies have joined the movement to script and publicly share anti-racist statements. However, what remains to be seen is the active and intentional reform of GATE programs to seek and equitably identify Black children.

Decades of research and history have shown a staggering disparity in the representation of Black students and white students in GATE programs across the country. There are glaring inequities in gifted and talented programs as Black students are not referred to, assessed, or offered entry at the same rate as white students. While there is the rallying cry that Black Lives Matter, the reality of the lack of minority students in GATE programs begs the question, “Do Black minds matter?”

An overwhelming number of classrooms are led by white educators with perspectives and experiences that are traditionally and significantly different from those of their racially and culturally diverse students. These differences can create challenges for teachers to appropriately understand and support their students. For educators to successfully do so requires a deep understanding of and appreciation for the cultural, linguistic, and racial differences that separate their students’ lived experiences from their own. Among these student groups are many whose intellect and creativity are often masked by behaviors seen by classroom teachers as a deficit or in need of correction. As a result, these students’ gifts are seldom given any attention and thus go under-developed.

Black students, minoritized by inequitable gifted identification practices, substandard schooling experiences, and income and health disparities, among other prevailing

issues, often attend poorly resourced and staffed schools. Inadequately trained teachers, with little to no professional learning experiences or certification in gifted education, are charged with the “gatekeeper” role of deciding the students’ fate for GATE program participation. Black students have also historically been labeled inferior and described as having problematic behavior. The disproportionate and disparaging discipline and suspension rates of Black students, especially for those from impoverished backgrounds, further exacerbate the negative stereotypes that prevail over fair and equitable consideration of Black students for GATE programs. Unfortunately, these sweeping negative generalizations and labels have made it easier for educators to overlook Black students when making GATE program placement considerations.

pedagogy based on the fundamental belief that educators respect and value all cultural student groups and their traditions, values, and legacies (LadsonBillings, 2014) while affirming their dignity and worth. Culturally responsive pedagogy celebrates students from diverse cultures while valuing their lived experiences, interests, and needs.

This student-centered approach requires educators to develop and practice cultural competence, view students’ respective cultural differences as strengths, and nurture their students’ cultural place in the world. Within this ideology and practice, teachers are required to maintain an acute awareness of and appreciation for their students’ cultural beliefs and practices.

The diversity in classrooms across the nation demands that educators learn more about themselves from a cultural perspective while doing the same with and for their students.

The systemic exclusion of Black students from gifted identification and advanced level programs requires a significant shift in the programming, policies, and practices in schools and districts to ensure access and equity for all students. The shift requires educators to refrain from a commonplace “colorblind” ideology, which teaches that everyone is the same and discounts, rather than recognizes, the individual’s personal traits and characteristics. A colorblind perspective maintains racial stratification in schools, thereby perpetuating racial disparities and GATE program inequality.

Culturally responsive school leadership (CRSL) positively impacts school culture and tasks school and district leaders with ensuring that teachers are culturally competent while supporting and examining their instructional practices (Khalifa et al., 2016). Successful culturally responsive leaders enact and enforce policies that demonstrate an awareness of and appropriate response to the critical need to repel patterns of inequities that lead to the disenfranchisement of Black gifted students. Furthermore, culturally responsive leaders are charged with ensuring that the adopted curriculum and instruction provided to students are culturally relevant and inclusive of all cultures and backgrounds. Within the culturally responsive leadership

Culturally responsive leaders are charged with ensuring that the adopted curriculum and instruction provided to students are culturally relevant and inclusive of all cultures and backgrounds.

Traditional, mainstream education falls short of the tenets of culturally responsive education, an educational

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framework, teachers are responsible for providing authentic multicultural content across all content areas. As a result and positive by-product of CRSL implementation, minoritized students will see themselves positively mirrored in print materials provided in the classroom and school library that are reflective of their cultural, racial, and linguistic background and heritage.

Addressing the systemic racial disparities of Black, gifted students requires sustainable change. In order to build equitable and culturally responsive programs, pre-service teacher programs and state and local school leaders must require culturally responsive and anti-racist, professional learning experiences for all teachers to earn and sustain educator certification.

Establishing collaborative networks of equity-minded practitioners, GATE advocates, school and state administrators, GATE researchers and scholars, parents, and community leaders willing to fight systemic racism in gifted education programs is but a first step in eradicating GATE program inequities. Black students deserve to have educational experiences that validate who they are and support their cultural diversity as an endowment, rather than impediment, to their learning.

Educational leaders and policymakers must answer the call to shift the narrative for Black gifted and talented students by enacting federally funded mandates for GATE program support and equitable services to Black gifted students. Their active and intentional engagement is critical in promoting inclusive, equitable, and anti-racist policies, practices, and legislation that challenge ignorance and racial injustices that are commonplace in education, and specifically GATE. It is imperative that culturally relevant, equity-based professional learning opportunities and research that empower Black gifted students are put at the forefront of teacher preparation programs and educational practice.

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We are living in unprecedented times with the dual pandemics of racism and COVID-19, when generational disparities of race and poverty among Blacks have been pushed to the forefront. Educators have an important duty to confront the racial discrimination that impacts gifted Black students to ensure they are provided the emotional support they need to thrive in America’s classrooms.

Educators of all backgrounds must join ranks to dismantle the historic and systemic realities of racism to nurture and sustain Black students whose lives and minds matter.

References Floyd, E. F. (in press). Poverty and the (Mis)Education of Black and Hispanic Gifted Students. In M. Fugate, W. Behrens, C. Boswell, & J. Davis (Eds.).

Culturally responsive teaching in gifted education: Building cultural competence and serving diverse student populations. Prufrock Press [Fall 2021].

Khalifa, M.A., Gooden, M.A., Davis, J. E. (2016). Culturally responsive school leadership: A synthesis of the literature.

Review of Educational Research, 20(10), 1272-1311. https://doi. org/10.3102/0034654316630383 Ladson-Billings, G. (2014). Culturally relevant pedagogy 2.0: a.k.a. the remix.

Harvard Educational Review, 84(1), 74–84.

Erinn Fears Floyd

Dr. Erinn Fears Floyd, a gifted education, diversity, equity, and inclusion scholar, is director of training and partnership development for The Consortium for Inclusion of Underrepresented Racial Groups in Gifted Education. She is former director of professional learning for the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) and gifted education director for the Alabama Department of Education. She has over twenty-eight years of experience as a classroom teacher, gifted and school improvement specialist, literacy coach, district gifted coordinator, and school administrator.

She is an inaugural recipient of the National Association for Gifted Children’s Dr. Mary Frasier Teacher Scholarship for Diverse Talent Development. Dr. Floyd has published several articles and book chapters and is founder of Equity and Excellence in Education, LLC, which provides professional learning and academic support to educators and students.

The Cultural and Linguistic Barriers to 2e Identification WHY LATINO STUDENTS ARE BEING LEFT OUT

by Stuart Matranga

IDENTIFYING GIFTEDNESS

or twice-exceptionality is always challenging. A language and cultural barrier makes it more so. Conversations about neurodiversity can overlook additional barriers to gifted services that exist for ethnically diverse students. According to a 2016 New York Times article, white students are twice as likely to be identified for giftedness (or twice-exceptionality) as Black and Latino students.

However, when non-verbal IQ tests were administered to Latino children in Broward County, Florida, between

2005-2010, the percentage of those students identified as gifted tripled.

But this program was discontinued due to budget cuts. In 2012, officials implemented a modified version relying more on verbal ability but failed to produce the same results.

One reason the non-verbal tests were effective in discovering the hidden gifts of Latino children, according to the Times, is that they tried to neutralize the cultural and language discrepancies.

These tests also do not rely on teachers’ expectations of those children, which tend to be low.

“Many schools will wait for students to be English proficient before they test for giftedness,” said Dr. Joy Esquierdo, a professor of bilingual literacy and giftedness at the University of Texas— Rio Grande Valley. While some schools may test in Spanish, that approach has its own complications. “Unless the child is getting educated in their native language, that may not be the best source. That child will have social skills in their first language, but if they’re getting educated in English, they may not have the academic language development in Spanish. Giving them an achievement test in Spanish is not

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giving them an accurate test of their academic knowledge.”

Esquierdo advocates for dual-language testing but warns that even this wouldn’t address all of the issues relating to identifying giftedness in bilingual children.

“It’s difficult to remove cultural biases from these evaluation tests,” said Esquierdo, noting that even with nonverbal assessments, directions may be given in English, which “automatically makes them more difficult for Spanishlanguage dominant students.”

Indeed, the overall focus on bringing English language learners up to speed can be detrimental to efforts to identify them as gifted or twice-exceptional.

“Many times, schools get so focused on teaching students English that they don’t allow the students to demonstrate all their potential or they don’t recognize other learning challenges or disabilities,” Esquierdo said. “Overly focusing on English language skills can mask a student’s twice-exceptionality.”

For the Latino population, potential obstacles exist beyond the possibility that some students aren’t native English speakers. Resources such as accurate test-giving and teacher support are not as available for many Latino students due to socio-economic barriers as well.

According to a report from the National Task Force on Early Childhood Education for Hispanics, “linguistically disadvantaged students typically have families with low socioeconomic status, parents with low levels of education, less access to educational resources and activities at home, bigger schools with higher concentrations of minority students, and teachers with lower levels of credentials, qualifications, and experiences.” This creates multiple disadvantages that puts students “at substantial risk for school failure.”

When Rene Islas, former head of the National Association for Gifted Children, was growing up in Tucson, Arizona, 42

he was labeled an English language learner. “That meant a watered-down curriculum and I was not exposed to learning opportunities,” he told NPR. “It wasn’t until my mother moved me to a more affluent, white neighborhood school that educators recognized that I had more potential than people at my previous school recognized.

“Many times, schools get so focused on teaching students English that they don’t allow the students to demonstrate all their potential or they don’t recognize other learning challenges or disabilities.

Overly focusing on English language skills can mask a student’s twiceexceptionality.”

“The consensus out there is that you need multiple measures [verbal and non-verbal] to identify gifted students with language disadvantages,” Islas said.

Islas benefited, in a sense, from his mother’s intervention. Indeed, parent advocacy is seen as one of the most important elements of gifted and 2e children being properly identified and supported. But advocacy can be

challenging. For some Latinos, the language and cultural hurdles are as steep for children as they are for parents, who need to “understand the system” in order to effectively advocate for their children, Esquierdo said.

“When a child doesn’t get identified as gifted or as 2e the traditional way, through teacher nomination, parents have the option to appeal, but very few Latino parents ever appeal,” she said.

“That’s a huge challenge. When you look at first-generation parents, they just don’t understand the process. What are the first steps? It’s the responsibility of the school to build relationships with the community and to inform the parents in a way that makes sense to them. Parents want to know, but they don’t know how to ask.

“Giving parents more information empowers them to ask more questions.

Unfortunately, there aren’t a lot of schools doing that kind of work.”

The problem is compounded for undocumented residents. Although schools are not supposed to be looking at whether a child is documented or not documented, the fear of severe consequences is strong in many Latino communities.

“If a child comes from a family that is not documented, then the family tends not to make too many waves at school,” Esquierdo said. “The chance of those parents attending parent meetings or advocating for their child to be put in a gifted or special ed class are very slim.

The school may tell them that they don’t check status, but they still feel they are in a very vulnerable situation.”

Esquierdo is working on a better screening processes specifically for bilingual students to determine giftedness and twice-exceptionality — which may start with further recognizing that some standard methods are ineffective for these populations. For example, questioning authority and rushing through work are sometimes seen as predictors of giftedness in white, middle class

societies. But in other communities, according to Esquierdo’s research, there is more value put on collaboration and deliberation. In this context, some students could feel that being gifted is at odds with their cultural values.

This is an unfortunate perspective.

Esquierdo, a fifth-generation American of Mexican heritage, is raising her two sons in a bilingual household and community. She is making a conscious effort to revive her Spanish language skills and preserve her rich MexicanAmerican culture. In identifying and supporting gifted students, schools would be well served to apply such deliberate attention to the importance of multiculturalism.

that schools provide and make sure they are culturally relevant. Culture is very intertwined with language.

When there’s not a conscious effort to preserve it, it definitely fades out over the generations.”

“The field of giftedness has some work to do when it comes to cultural relevance,” she said. “We need to look at curriculum and the services

2eNews.com 2e News is produced by Bridges 2e Media. All rights reserved.

2e News provides information, research, tools, and perspectives to promote understanding of neurodiversity and twice-exceptional education. Our mission is to foster and maintain a fruitful conversation among educators, parents, researchers, and other industry experts to help improve the lives of gifted students with learning differences.

2e News covers a broad range of topics, including instructional strategies, talent development, social-emotional development, research, policy, and parenting.

Membership is free. Go to 2eNews.com to join.

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Neither Could He Breathe

EXCEPTIONALITY, VICTIMIZATION, AND THE DEATH OF ELIJAH MCCLAIN Editor’s Note: The following piece originally appeared on the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) blog in August 2020 and is reprinted here with permission. Edits for clarity and style have been made.

“I AM JUST DIFFERENT,” HE

said, and then Elijah McClain apologized and asked for forgiveness.

In Aurora, Colorado, in 2019, police stopped Elijah McClain for “suspicious behavior.” Elijah had committed no crime, but a struggle ensued. Police used a carotid hold to subdue him, handcuff him face down, and hold him for fifteen minutes until the paramedics arrived. Paramedics injected the 23year old Black man with ketamine. On 44

by Mark Hess with Kristina H. Collins the way to the hospital, Elijah suffered a heart attack. He died two days later, declared brain dead, never emerging from a coma. In the last minutes before he lost consciousness, Elijah apologized four times and asked for forgiveness twice. That night a tragic convergence of exceptionalities claimed a precious life.

Elijah’s mother, Sheneen McClain, understood early on that her son was intellectually gifted, taking his own learning seriously. By the time he was a teenager, Elijah had taught himself to play guitar, piano, and violin. On lunch breaks from his job as a massage therapist, he often walked to a nearby animal shelter to play his violin for abandoned cats in hopes that his music would soothe them and ease their

loneliness. Friends described Elijah as the gentlest of souls — tolerant, accepting, and in search of higher knowledge. He described himself as an introvert. At the end of interactions with others, Elijah typically bowed warmly — his gratitude bow. April Young, a friend, described Elijah as having a child-like spirit and not conditioned to societal norms: “He was never into ... fitting in. He just was who he was.”

Many of our gifted learners experience the world in a unique, richly textured way, intuitively making connections others do not, thinking in abstractions, and carrying a strong sense of justice.

Not fitting in — being who he was — likely led to Elijah’s death. The night he died, Elijah had gone to a neighborhood

convenience store to purchase tea. He wore a face mask he often wore — first as a runner to wick away moisture and provide warmth, and then more frequently because he was anemic and always cold, even on hot summer nights.

Those who knew him best speculate that the mask helped Elijah feel more comfortable because of social anxiety — a protection and security that helped his confidence. That night, police received a report of someone exhibiting suspicious behavior, wearing a mask, and waving his hands. Friends believe that Elijah — a highly energetic person who sometimes did handstands to pass the time — may have been listening to music and dancing. Twenty minutes after his encounter with Aurora police, his heart would stop beating as he was transported to a nearby hospital.

It must be noted that McClain’s family has never specifically stated that he was neurologically diverse. His friends’ descriptions and his final words lead many to infer, however, that Elijah may have been on the autism spectrum. Jackie Spinner, the parent of a neurologically diverse son and associate professor at Columbia College in Chicago, wrote in an opinion piece for the Washington Post, “I only knew that being different and Black in America means that my son is vulnerable if stopped by police. A 2016 report, analyzing incidents from 2013 to 2015, found that nearly half the people killed by police had some sort of disability. A 2019 study of police-involved deaths found 1 in every 1,000 Black men is at risk of being killed by law enforcement.”

We have come to know the term twiceexceptional (2e) to describe students who are both gifted and also challenged with a learning disability. What if, however, we consider the impact of an additional influence — cultural exceptionality? Dr. Kristina Henry Collins in her article, “Parenting for High Potential,” stated that Elijah’s story of victimization began long before his encounter with Aurora police. For Elijah McClain, cultural exceptionality — “uncommon underrepresented, and/or perceived deficit-based social

and cultural differences” — can be a source of systemic and institutional victimization, especially for gifted Black students. Collins contends that in such cases, students with cultural differences are “marginalized, othered, and approached, oftentimes, as a cultural conflict.”

For Black gifted students, George Floyd’s words, I can’t breathe, are a poignant echo and metaphor. Eric Garner was heard saying I can’t breathe eleven times while his face was held down against the sidewalk. Elijah McClain began to cry before he spoke his final words, “Oh, I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to do that. I just can’t breathe correctly.”

Dr. Collins and her colleagues — many of whom include gifted education’s most renowned scholars — have formed The Consortium for Inclusion of Underrepresented Racial Groups in Gifted Education (I-URGGE). I-URGGE echoes I can’t breathe in a refrain which forms a poignant statement against the victimization of gifted Black students:

• I can’t breathe because educators won’t allow me to be in advanced programs.

• I can’t breathe when I, as a Black parent/caregiver, have to worry about my child’s socio-emotional and physical well-being, health, and safety in GATE classes.

• I can’t breathe because I am an educator in GATE trying to share culturally responsive practices to support gifted and talented Black students, but audiences prefer a traditional curriculum.

• I can’t breathe because I am a GATE expert, and talking about scientific racism makes me “an antagonist” in the field, which threatens my scholarly opportunities.

We can’t know what Elijah McClain thought during those last traumatic moments. At one point, he calls out, “Teamwork makes the dream work.”

“I only knew that being different and Black in America means that my son is vulnerable if stopped by police. ...

Nearly half the people killed by police had some sort of disability.”

• I can’t breathe because of biased, unfair tests that prevent me from being identified as gifted.

• I can’t breathe because of how predominantly white programs and curricular materials marginalize and minimize my experiences.

• I can’t breathe because I do not see teachers in gifted and talented programs who look like me.

• I can’t breathe because I feel alone and isolated in predominantly white gifted and talented classes.

Was his gifted mind, in this moment, leaping to the root cause of his ordeal?

Was Elijah bringing the vast capacity of gifted individuals for empathy and compassion to a situation in which he was the victim? Was he, even as police officers pinned him to the ground for being different, calling for unity and understanding? I-URGGE calls for “bystanders to stop watching and, instead, advocate and compel others to join in the fight for racial justice in gifted and talented education for ALL.” Many groups have followed suit with strong vision statements — including NAGC and many of their state affiliates.

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In a move toward these ends, NAGC has established next steps in their equity and social justice initiative.

Systems do not move without the individuals who, collectively, move them. But where do we start? Kimberly Smith, executive director of the League of Innovative Schools at Digital Promise, has begun a campaign for individuals’ calls to action. In her webinar, Smith urged white allies to combat racism in schools. “Use some of your privilege,” she suggested. “You’re not going to run out of it. You’ll still have it tomorrow.”

In her article for the NAGC blog, Jessica Stargardter outlines steps she is taking as a white gifted educator.

Her suggestions follow the Culturally Responsive Equity-Based Bill of Rights for Gifted Students of Color. Dr. Gloria Taradash suggests that we must begin by becoming aware of our own biases: “When you know better, do better.”

Furthermore, as individual actions grow to institutional and systemic changes, Dr. Ken Dickson urges us to engage in the uncomfortable conversations about race using Glenn E. Singleton’s tools set forth in Courageous Conversations About Race, and then follow up with courageous, deliberate action.

Part of the cruelty of victimization is a paradox in which victims internalize blame and apologize for being themselves. It happens to gifted kids who face bullies on the playground or whose bullies broadcast cruelty to social media, people at their jobs and in their chosen fields of study, and systemically across the globe. Four times Elijah McClain apologized while he was held in a chokehold. Twice he asked for forgiveness. Just minutes before, surveillance footage from the night his heart stopped beating shows Elijah McClain in the gas station standing in line, waiting to buy tea. Other people in line appear to be laughing and chatting with him. Before he departs, Elijah turns and offers his gratitude bow to others in the store. For his grace, his compassion, his willingness to be who he is, we might understand that we have important lessons to learn from the Elijah McClains in this world.

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Kristina Collins

Dr. Kristina Henry Collins is a graduate of the University of Georgia, where she earned a Ph.D. in educational psychology.

She also holds an Ed.S. in educational psychology from the The University of Georgia, a M.S.Ed. in mathematics from Jacksonville State University, a B.S. in engineering from the University of Alabama, and a military science diploma in cryptology from the United States Navy. Dr. Collins has many years of experience with STEM teaching and leading in Title I middle schools and high schools. Her professional certifications include technology education, AP computer science, and educational leadership/administration. At Texas State University, she teaches courses related to talent development and gifted education.

Mark Hess

Mark Hess is a board member for SENG (Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted), editor for the SENG Library, and president-elect of the Colorado Association for Gifted Students. He is the gifted programs specialist in a large, urban school district in Colorado Springs.

Hess’s articles often appear in the NAGC (National Association for Gifted Children) blog, and he is an advisory committee member for NAGC’s Teaching for High Potential. His third-, fourth-, and fifthgrade gifted social-emotional curriculum books are available from Prufrock Press.

At Portable Gifted and Talented, Mark has shared over 24,000 free resources for teachers and parents of gifted children.

You can visit his website at www. giftedlearners.org.

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A Call to Action

PRACTICE ALLYSHIP IN OUR EVERYDAY LIVES

by Stephanie Coxon

IN HER 2015 COMMENCEMENT

speech at Scripps College, spoken word poet Sarah Kay urged her audience to “comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable” in order to build a more just and equitable society. In the face of social injustice, “it is our job to disturb the comfortable,” she said. “To

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force those who consider themselves blissfully unaffected to engage, acknowledge, learn, witness, and act.

To challenge spaces that need to be challenged.

“And it is also our job to seek ways to comfort those who have been disturbed.

To provide for those who have been

victimized by unnatural violence and tragedy.”

From living through a global pandemic that has disproportionately affected BIPOC populations to witnessing racial justice movements such as Black Lives Matter and Stop AAPI Hate that have arisen in response to centuries of

systemic oppression, there has never been a more pressing time for us to comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable. In producing this issue of Variations2e, our editorial team recognizes our responsibility to listen to and amplify the marginalized voices of the neurodiverse community.

We also recognize that for those not oppressed by racial injustice, it can be easy to discuss and consume these stories as though they exist in a vacuum.

Thus, it is our hope that these stories not only spread awareness about the intersections of racial injustice and neurodiversity, but more importantly, go beyond the page and inspire our readers to take action in fighting for racial justice.

To help us all take steps toward accountability, we have researched and compiled a list of action items on how we can practice allyship in our everyday lives. It must be noted that we at Bridges 2e Media are not experts in this field, and we cannot take credit for the ideas in this list. They are the ideas of those listed in our resources and references, and ultimately of BIPOC and activists of marginalized communities.

We are particularly grateful for the work of our colleagues at Inclusion of Underrepresented Groups in Gifted Education (I-URGGE) — many of whose work is included in this issue — and encourage you to continue learning from them.

It must also be noted that antiracist work cannot and should not be reduced to a mere checklist. Our responsibility in building a more just, inclusive, and equitable society lies in our relationships with one another and the choices we make every day.

Whether you are a teacher, therapist, administrator, researcher, parent, or student, there are actionable steps we can all take in the fight for racial justice.

The following list is a good place for us to start.

Know What It Means to Practice Allyship The Oregon Coalition Against Domestic & Sexual Violence defines allyship as “an

active, consistent, and arduous practice of unlearning and re-evaluating, in which a person holding systemic power seeks to end oppressions in solidarity with a group of people who are systemically disempowered. Since everyone holds systemic power in some areas and lacks it in others, everyone has areas in which they can practice allyship.”

Reflect on Your Personal Biases and Recognize Your Privilege This perhaps is the most important component of allyship. More specifically, as Tsedale M. Melaku, Angie Beeman, David G. Smith, and W. Brad Johnson state in their article “Be a Better Ally,” published in Harvard Business Review, “Recognize the advantages, opportunities, resources, and power you have automatically accorded while others have been overtly or subtly denied them. This can be painful because it often means admitting that you haven’t entirely earned your success. But it’s necessary. It’s also important to understand that privilege is a resource that can be deployed for good.”

Educate, Listen, and Amplify Read books, watch films, listen to podcasts, and attend events created by people facing the issues firsthand to educate yourself about the injustices they face. Make space, decenter yourself, and diversify the voices you listen to.

Know that marginalized people do not owe you their stories.

“When you do talk to others about the obstacles they’ve faced, start by requesting their permission,” Melaku et al. wrote in the Harvard Business Review. “If it’s granted, approach with humility and a learning mindset.” Most importantly, as noted in the Oregon Coalition’s “Working Definition of Allyship” handout, “Don’t try to speak for people in the group you mean to ally with. Instead, help boost the visibility of their own work. For example, instead of making a documentary about their experiences, figure out if they have already done work to document and share their own experiences, and offer

to publicize that work more.” Your voice should never be louder than those you are uplifting.

Contribute Funds and Resources Whether it is time, resources, or money, consider what you can contribute.

Support your local BIPOC-owned businesses. If you are financially able to do so, commit to making a monthly donation to an organization that helps drive racial justice. Ask if your company will match donations. Start a fundraiser.

While throwing money at things by no means solves root causes of systemic oppression, it can help redistribute and provide resources to those who are most vulnerable.

Advocate and Speak Out From civic engagement to volunteering, there are many ways to advocate for racial justice in your community. Call and write your representatives to hold them accountable to fighting for antiracist bills and policies. Get involved with your local mutual aid networks.

Sign petitions. Attend anti-racist rallies and protests. Speak out against racist behavior and offer your support in the moment.

We urge you to bring the same energy and sustained commitment you have for advocating for gifted, 2e, and neurodiverse students to your allyship with BIPOC. Justice for BIPOC means justice for the neurodiverse community.

It is imperative that we all commit ourselves to building a world where the marginalized are liberated from systemic oppression. The time to do the work is now.

RESOURCES Harvard Business Review, “Be a Better Ally”

Oregon Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, “Working Definition of Allyship: The Handout”

Everyday Feminism, “So You Call Yourself an Ally: 10 Things All ‘Allies’ Need to Know” 49

Just Bagatelles ...

A bagatelle can be a board game, a pastry, or a short piece of music. In any of its uses, the term usually refers to something amusing, on the small side, light, and mellow in character. Music dictionaries define bagatelle as a “short, unpretentious, instrumental composition of a light style with no specific form,” with the term dating back to 1717 and baroque composer François Couperin. Beethoven probably wrote more bagatelles than anyone else. We can’t compete with Beethoven, but we at Variations2e are pleased to bring you a few bagatelles of our own. Enjoy … but only a little. They’re just bagatelles!

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bagatelles

It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! It’s ...

With nineteen world championship and Olympic gold medals, Simone Biles is one of the most decorated gymnasts of our time. She won four gold medals and one bronze at the 2016 Rio Olympics alone! Also in 2016, hackers published the confidential medical records of several athletes, including Biles, who has ADHD. While the hackers accused Biles of cheating, calling her use of Ritalin an “illicit psycho-stimulant,” USA Gymnastics had approved Biles’s use of the medicine. “Having ADHD and taking medication for it is nothing to be ashamed of and nothing that I’m afraid to let people know,” she said.

Neurodiversity — Not Just for Muggles

Tables and Cabinets and Sofas, Oh My! IKEA is famously practical and sensible, except when it comes to names. Docksta tables, Ektorp sofas, Poäng armchairs, Kallax shelving units?!

This quirk, however, arose as a result of the company’s founder, Ingvar Kamprad. Kamprad chose to use place names and words to identify furniture rather than numerical codes due to his dyslexia. There is a method to the madness, though! Beds and wardrobes are named after places in Norway, while Swedish islands lend their names to garden furniture. This system allowed Kamprad to memorize and visualize every item in stock, and customers have come to love the strange yet charming idiosyncrasies.

From playing Quidditch to defeating Voldemort, Harry Potter is a hero to many who grew up reading the books.

But perhaps just as heroic is actor Daniel Radcliffe, who played Harry in the film adaptations. Though he has flown on broomsticks and hippogriffs, he struggles with tasks like tying his shoes and writing things by hand due to his dyspraxia. He has become an advocate for others with this condition. “Do not let it stop you,” he says.

“It has never held me back, and some of the smartest people I know are people who have learning disabilities.

The fact that some things are more of a struggle will only make you more determined, harder working, and more imaginative in the solutions you find to problems.”

Neurodiversity is for wizards, too!

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An EGOT Queen Whoopi Goldberg is one of only sixteen people to have won the EGOT — an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony!

She has also been diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia, which made school difficult for her as a child. She grew up in New York City with her brother and mother who, she says, “understood after a while that there was something different about the way I learned.” While some thought she was lazy and she had difficulty concentrating, Goldberg was able to use her memory to get through elementary school. She always loved acting and would pretend to be Queen of Mars or Daniel Boone. Goldberg dropped out of high school, but her dyslexia was not diagnosed until adulthood. Still, she developed tricks to help her, such as memorizing scripts read out loud to her. She says, “[Dyslexia] made me slightly slower in how I do things because it takes me a minute sometimes to figure things out. But ultimately I think perhaps it has made me more introspective and thoughtful.”

On Air! Lisa Ling began her journalism career at age 16 as a host of Scratch, a TV news magazine for teens. She then covered global events for Channel One, a news organization geared toward school-aged children, before becoming a correspondent for ABC News, producing documentaries for PBS, and co-hosting The View. She was a special correspondent for The Oprah Winfrey Show before hosting her own show, Our America with Lisa Ling. It was there she reported on ADHD and discussed her own difficulties focusing growing up. After undergoing an evaluation, she was diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 40. Ling has gone on to advocate for ADHD, becoming a member of Understood’s Board of Advocates. “I do things that help me focus. I have a quiet time every day. I have learned when my mind has gone off in every direction that I need to focus. I also exercise regularly, which helps,” she said. Ling encourages families to seek expert help if they think their child might have ADHD.

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bagatelles

Swish!

Earvin “Magic” Johnson led the L.A. Lakers to five NBA championships during his career and helped the U.S. win a gold medal in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

Johnson was awarded Most Valuable Player three times and played in twelve All-Star Games. After leaving the NBA, Johnson founded businesses and non-profit philanthropic organizations, including one to fight HIV/AIDS; Johnson announced he was HIV positive in 1991. As a young boy growing up in Lansing, Michigan, however, Johnson also struggled with dyslexia. “The looks, the stares, the giggles ... I wanted to show everybody that I could do better and also that I could read,” he said. His determination and grit, however, helped him overcome his reading difficulties. “I am not the only one that has a problem.

But I didn’t let my ego or peer pressure get in my way, “ he said. As a student at Everett High School, Johnson encountered racism but still shone on the basketball court. He led his school to victory in the state championship game in 1976 and eventually won the nickname “Magic.”

One of the Sharks

PURPOSE, MENTORS, AND COMMITMENT

Daymond John founded FUBU, a line of casual clothing, back in 1992. Today, it’s worth $8 billion, and John is one of the sharks on ABC’s hit show Shark Tank. While he struggled in school due to dyslexia, John now sees it as a positive. “I see the world in a different way than most people and for me that’s been a positive thing,” he said. John only received a general diagnosis of a learning disability when he was going to school in the 1970s. Though he excelled in math and science, he found reading and writing difficult. John’s highly visual mind, however, allows him to make business plans in his head. His drive and determination to effectively translate his insights into entrepreneurship, marketing, and branding led him to become an in-demand motivational speaker as well as the author of two successful books, Display of Power and The Brand Within.

Although Johanna Mansfield Sullivan Macy, better known as Anne Sullivan, grew up in exceptionally difficult circumstances, her fierce determination drove her to graduate at the top of her class at Perkins School for the Blind. Having learned how to fingerspell from Laura Bridgman, the first person with deafblindness to receive a formal education, Sullivan was particularly well positioned to tutor Helen Keller. Her teaching methods were guided by Keller’s interests, which helped Keller quickly expand her vocabulary and capacity for language. Sullivan went on to mentor and tutor Keller for the next 39 years of her life, helping Keller earn a bachelor’s degree and publish 12 books. Together they worked for the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) to advocate for the blind and deafblind populations. Their relationship is a prime example of what is possible when a student has a passionate and dedicated mentor.

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Black Brains Matter INTERVIEW WITH COLIN SEALE

by Stuart Matranga

IN THE EFFORT TO BRING

diversity into educating neurodiverse populations, we often advocate for greater opportunities for all students.

Colin Seale suggests we shift our thinking into how we can best serve not all students, but each student.

“Equity,” he said, “means unlocking the excellence in everyone.” His biggest fear is that we’re “leaving genius on the table” by not broadening our definition of gifted.

“We don’t do enough to promote excellence,” Seale said from his home in Glendale, Arizona — where he runs his burgeoning educational support company thinkLaw — between fielding questions from his own two kids by asking them questions about their questions.

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If there’s any one simple way to capsulize what Seale does, it may be that he helps kids learn how to figure things out themselves. Americans often “stay on the low floor in terms of our expectations for our kids instead of reaching for the high ceiling,” he said.

“I want us to allow for each student to excel.”

To understand Seale’s mission, we must start with his parents. His mother and father emigrated to America from Barbados before he was born, and they brought a specific Bajan ethic with them.

“Barbados is an island where good students are treated like rock stars,” Seale said. “Educational accomplishments make the papers. So I grew up with the expectation that I

would do very well in school. And I did, but it was expected.”

He was identified as gifted at six years old and tracked into several gifted programs, eventually bussing ninety minutes from his home in Brooklyn to the prestigious Bronx High School of Science, where he was one of the few Black students. His would be considered a success story for any twice-exceptional student (he was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in adulthood), becoming a math teacher while getting degrees in computer science, public administration, and law.

Seale became emotional recalling how during his top-of-the-class graduation from law school, his mother told him how proud she was of him.

“She always told me she loved me,” he said, “but never that she was proud of me before.”

Seale was earning a six-figure salary at a “white shoe” law firm in Las Vegas with celebrity clients and was on a fast track to become a partner. However, with all his success, it didn’t take long for him to realize that something was very wrong.

It was that third “e,” the exceptionality of being a Black person in America, that made his story atypical.

“One day I was staring out the window of my law office and saw a public school across the street that was mostly Black and mostly failing its kids,” he said. “I knew I had to do something.”

Before becoming a lawyer, Seale had developed innovative lesson plans that he knew would work not just to develop math skills, but to increase the criticalthinking abilities of young people. Six years ago, he left that firm and started thinkLaw to bring these techniques to schools across the country.

“I want kids to learn how to think the way lawyers think,” he said, “to ask why something is this way and not that way.”

One of his lessons centers on math-reluctant kids in low-income neighborhoods creating food desert maps, finding the radius of their home to the nearest supermarket and comparing it to the circumference of food choices in more affluent neighborhoods. It woke up kids, and later other teachers, to the power of math in the fight for social justice.

The need to include the social justice piece has always been a reality for Black Americans. Seale learned that lesson at 16, when he was randomly stopped by police near his house, thrown against a brick wall, and roughly frisked. He had been taught by his immigrant parents that he was free.

“Yet,” he said, “I had to justify my movements to angry men as the only way out of the shamefully deadly crime of ‘walking while Black.’”

This was the moment when the promise of America “that lit up my family’s eyes” was betrayed, he said.

“This moment permanently stripped me of my full humanity, the firm belief that American children are entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and that all will be well if you just do the right thing, that was shattered.”

Today this country is trying to put the pieces back together, fulfilling those promises. Seale’s work with thinkLaw is his attempt to “change the world.”

He believes more, not fewer, gifted programs are needed to reach each student who can benefit from them.

Attempts to label the term “giftedness” as “implicitly biased,” as evidenced in a recent law case against the state of New York by Integrate NYC, are wellintentioned but ill-conceived.

“I agree that the system in place to determine giftedness does not include places for Black and Brown children,” Seale said, “but it seems New York City wants to throw that bad system out and replace it with a worse one, making giftedness determined by teacher recommendations, which is bound to have more problems. The Seattle system eliminated their gifted program altogether. This is not equity.”

Seale believes equity can be achieved within a racial justice agenda that includes more effective means of identifying the gifts of each student.

“The same racial injustices that treat Black lives as unworthy also treat our minds as inferior,” he said. “My existence in advanced academic programs was inseparable from the broader conversation about equity and access in gifted education. The glaring underrepresentation of Black students in gifted education means that we need critical thinkers more than ever.

“We still treat critical thinking as a luxury good. We have an underclass of students who get taught what to think while the most ‘elite’ students in the most ‘elite’ schools learn how to think.”

Seale said that as a boy, he watched United Negro College Fund commercials and took their message that “a mind is a terrible thing to waste” to heart. He started thinkLaw to “bring the funk,” meaning to explore troublesome, ambiguous gray areas.

“I learned that law school isn’t about the law, it’s about how to get around the law,” he said.

“You take a course in contracts, and it’s not about how to write one, it’s about how to get out of one.”

Seale’s goal is to help students learn to think critically and by thinking critically ask the tough questions about why things are the way they are and how they could be better.

Bringing the funk is a policy Seale brings home with him to his family.

“When people come over to my house we have a rule: Never answer questions,” he said. “When my kids ask something, I don’t want them to get the answer. I want them to figure it out.”

Even when it comes to plumbing and the mess of a stuffed toilet.

“The other day my young daughter clogged up the toilet and it was a disgusting mess,” he said. “She wanted to fix it on her own and didn’t tell us.

She didn’t know how, but figured she would try to plunge it, but she didn’t know what the plunger was, so she used the toilet brush instead. It didn’t work.

It made it even worse. But I was proud of her because she took the initiative to learn from that experience, and now she knows more than she did before.”

Black lives matter, of course, but, as Seale says, Black brains matter, too.

“I cannot ever be content with simply having permission to exist. The reality is that access to critical thinking matters now more than ever. We need to unlock brilliance any and everywhere it exists.

The survival of our world depends on it.”

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Furthering a Shift in the Twice-Exceptional Paradigm UNDERSTANDING THE SOCIOCULTURAL MILIEU OF GIFTED STUDENT DEVELOPMENT

by Kristina H. Collins and Joslyn S. Johnson

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT,

identity development, and academic development represent a complex, composite system when encountered in educational applications and viewed in terms of their interconnected convergence.

Complex exchange processes of ecological, cultural, and social constructs can impact the quality of education for gifted students with learning and other deficit-perceived exceptionalities. This, we contend, can lead to issues of equity and access as these gifted students are 56

underidentified, underrepresented, and underserved. As such, a shift and expanded view for the traditional twice-exceptional (2e) paradigm is warranted.

Twice-exceptionality considers the intersectionality of giftedness and other learning exceptionalities, including but not limited to Dabrowski’s overexcitabilities, attention hyperactivity deficit disorder (ADHD), dyslexia, dysgraphia, and so on (Montgomery, 2017). Typically, the learning

exceptionalities are addressed through an individual education plan (IEP) developed for students’ academic success per special education regulations. However, for accountability’s sake, schools must address exceptionalities through a broader, more inclusive and culturally responsive lens ­— one that first recognizes all exceptionalities, including giftedness, as social constructs, which are termed by unobjective, comparative human interaction. Utilizing a multicultural lens, Collins (in-press) introduced

a thrice-exceptional (3e) model that illustrates the intersectionality of giftedness, other learning exceptionalities, and cultural exceptionalities. Here we will share the theoretical frameworks in this area of development that informed Collins’ conceptualized 3e model.

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Human Development Bronfenbrenner’s (2005) Bioecological Theory of Human Development reflects his most evolved theory for contextual human development (Bronfenbrenner, 2005; Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006). Taking into consideration the interrelatedness of the individual and the environment, Figure 1 illustrates the five interrelated systems as context for human development.

The microsystem includes the direct interactions of the student within their immediate surroundings. The mesosystem represents the settings within which development occurs.

The exosystem includes the social structures that indirectly impact individual development. Social systems (e.g., laws, resources, etc.) and [sub] cultural attitudes, values, and beliefs are represented by the macrosystem (see Coleman et al., 2021).

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Culture and Development United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund’s (UNICEF, 2019) Early Childhood Development Index (ECDI) operationalizes early child development into four developmental domains: literacy-numeracy, physical, learning, and social-emotional. Overall, a child is considered developmentally on track if at least three of the four domains are considered on track (UNICEF & Cappa, 2019). Exceptionalities, then, would be domains where children are either above track or below track compared to their same-age peers. In K–12 schooling, exceptionalities refer to both disabilities (below track) and giftedness (above track). Many child development theorists maintain that environmental contexts in child development play a critical role, including all physical and social conditions surrounding any event, making student development culturally bound (Slee & Shute, 2015).

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Figure 1: Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological Model These systems operate within the chronosystem, which reflects historical context and proximal timing (specific real-time occurrences, consistency of interaction, and general changes) as a function of human development.

Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological theory offers a framework to examine exceptionalities within the environmental context, which takes into consideration the individual and their unique relationship (positionality) within American society and the educational setting. Johnson (2017) suggested that the factors that contribute to an individual’s gifted identity and talent development are highly interconnected across all levels of Bronfenbrenner’s model. She asserted that learning, due to its intersections, is continuously impacting the human development of the individual, and vice versa across the life course.

Academic and Identity Development Varelas et al.’s (2013) Content Learning and Identity Construction (CLIC) theoretical framework views identity as lenses through which people make sense of themselves, position themselves, and understand how they are positioned by others in a particular setting. They posited that as individuals become more (or less) central members of a disciplinary community (e.g., STEM or gifted classrooms) and engage (or not) in various cultural practices, changes in knowledge (content learning) and identity occur. Collins (2018) further contended that Black students’ STEM identity (BSSI) is constructed and developed as students continually evaluate their genderbased, racialized sense of belonging (reflective STEM identity) and STEM interest (cultural STEM value), along with perceptions regarding their own STEM potential (competence/ability)

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and necessary investment (risk/benefit of cultural assimilation) to learn STEM. Supported by the CLIC and BSSI theoretical frameworks, Collins (2019) offered an even more comprehensive explanation of the intersecting nature of human, identity, and academic development. She insisted that not only are Bronfenbrenner’s interrelated systems not mutually exclusive, but they represent, minimally, 15 different ecological intersections at play at any given time, heavily impacted by the dominant culture’s societal norms (macrosystem). Figure 2 illuminates the complex exchange processes, or intersections (∩), of a gifted student with learning and other deficitperceived exceptionalities within the context of direct interactions (microsystem), the environmental setting (mesosystem), indirect social structures (exosystems), and social systems (macrosystems), which can

positively (i.e., harmonizing exchanges) or negatively (i.e., conflicting exchanges) impact the quality of their education.

For example, Collins (2020) noted that gifted Black students with disabilities occupy a space in gifted education where non-Black teachers and peers may find it hard to understand their positionality and experiences in American society, compelling them to “combat racial microaggression from peers, teachers, and so on, who maintain stereotypes about their disability and racial identity” (Collins, 2020, p. 5). When any gifted individual with other learning exceptionalities is regarded with a deficit perspective or negative stereotype, the interaction creates overlapping, interdependent systems of discrimination. This is especially true for historically marginalized populations and/or those with socio-economic barriers, where the dominant attitudes and ideologies

perpetuate the stereotype of white, middle-class students as gifted, and marginalized students as academically “at risk.”

Reframing Learning and Other Exceptionalities Traditionally, when gifted students exhibit perceived disabilities, an additional learning exceptionality is present. When a represented culture is not common, valued, or is in conflict with dominant social norms within a certain environment, then that culture is marginalized and cultural differences become cultural exceptionalities (Collins, in-press), adding to the complexity of development.

Collins’s thrice-exceptional (3e) model illustrates the intersectionality of giftedness, disabilities, and marginalized social categories (Fig. 3).

Figure 2: Complex Exchange Processes for Contextual Development

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References

Learning Exceptionality: [Dis]Ability

Cultural Exceptionality: Other Social Categories

Figure 3: The Intersectionality of Gifted, Disabilities, and Other Social Categories This model illuminates a socially expanded view of 2e that is situated and assimilated, for the most part, fully within the overarching macroculture of the larger society. Based on this model, every gifted student from a culturally underrepresented group is inherently a 2e learner as well, and therefore, appropriate accommodations and additional support services should be provided. When all three exceptionalities are present, they should more accurately be referred to as 3e.

Conclusion Recruitment and identification are only the first steps in adequately serving all gifted students (Ford et al., 2018).

The environment and support services provided to develop students must be appropriate, effective, and responsive.

Self-efficacy, our belief in our ability to successfully accomplish a given task, is derived from three things: our self-

concept, our past experiences, and our observations of others engaged in similar tasks (Bandura, 1982). Strategic coordination that fosters this contextual development in positive ways is essential to success for students who are 2e and 3e.

Bandura, Albert (1982). “Self-efficacy mechanism in human agency”. American Psychologist. 37 (2): 122–147. https:// content.apa.org/doi/10.1037/0003066X.37.2.122 Bronfenbrenner, U. (2005). Making human beings human: Bioecological perspectives on human development.

Sage Publications.

Bronfenbrenner, U., & Morris, P. A. (2006). The bioecological model of human development. Handbook of Child Psychology. John Wiley & Sons.

Coleman, M.R., Collins, K.H., Grantham, T.C, & Biddle, W.H. (2021). Recognizing and responding to strengths: Underrepresented students within gifted and talented education. In T. Farmer & E. Talbott (Eds). Handbook of special education research: Theory, methods, and leveraging developmental processes (accepted). Routledge.

Collins, K.H. (2018). Confronting colorblind STEM talent development: Toward a contextual model for Black student STEM identity.

Journal of Advanced Academics, 29(2), 143-168. https://doi. org/10.1177/1932202X18757958

Collins, K. H. (2019). Intersectionality of the social, emotional, and cultural contexts of student development.

[Unpublished resource for CI 5324 Systems for Advanced Academics and Talent Development (CI 5324)]. Texas State University.

Collins, K.H. (2020). Talking about racism in America and in education: The reflections of gifted Black scholar and mother of a gifted Black young adult.

Parenting for High Potential, 9(3), 3, 5-9.

Collins, K.H. (In-press). Gifted and bullied: Understanding the institutionalized victimization of identified, unidentified, and underserved gifted students In F.H.R. Piske & Collins, K.H. (Eds.). Bullying

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in gifted education. Information Age Publishing.

Ford, D.Y., Grantham, T.C., & Collins, K H. (2018). Giftedness, racial identity, and social-emotional learning: Challenges and recommendations for culturally responsive practice In F.H.R. Piske (Ed.) Emoção E Criatividade Na Educação De Superdotados E Talentosos (Emotion and Creativity in Gifted Education) (pp. 87102). Jurua Editor.

Guy-Evans, O. (2020, Nov 09). Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory. Simply Psychology. https://www.simplypsychology.org/ Bronfenbrenner.html

Johnson, J. (2017). When purpose calls: A grounded study on the life wide learning experiences of high potential young adults [Unpublished Dissertation]. Texas State University.

Montgomery, D. (2017, June 17). Dual and multiple exceptionalities. Special World. http://www.specialworld. net/2017/06/07/dual-and-multipleexceptionality/

Slee, P. T., & Shute, R. H. (2015). Child development: Theories and critical perspectives (2nd ed.). Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.

UNICEF & Cappa C. (2019). The formative years: UNICEF’s work on measuring early childhood development.

Division of Data, Analytics, Planning and Monitoring (DAPM), UNICEF. Varelas, M., Martin, D.B., & Kane, J.M. (2013). Content learning and identity construction: A framework to strengthen African American students’ mathematics and science learning in urban elementary schools. Human Development, 55(5–6), 319–339. https://doi-org/10.1159/000345324

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Kristina Collins

Dr. Kristina Henry Collins is a graduate of the University of Georgia, where she earned a Ph.D. in educational psychology.

She also holds an Ed.S. in educational psychology from the The University of Georgia, a M.S.Ed. in mathematics from Jacksonville State University, a B.S. in engineering from the University of Alabama, and a military science diploma in cryptology from the United States Navy. Dr. Collins has many years of experience with STEM teaching and leading in Title I middle schools and high schools. Her professional certifications include technology education, AP computer science, and educational leadership/administration. At Texas State University, she teaches courses related to talent development and gifted education.

Joslyn Johnson

Joslyn Johnson, Ph.D., is an associate dean for career education and director of career catalysts at Stanford University.

In this role, she pioneers and leads initiatives at the intersection of identity and career. One of her primary focuses includes removing barriers and creating bridges that enable students to explore widely, think about their identity in the context of work, and gain access to opportunities. Dr. Johnson also serves as a lecturer for the School of Humanities and Sciences, an instructor for Stanford Continuing Studies, and a fellow for The Career Leadership Collective. She leads a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion research initiative for the field of career education. Dr. Johnson earned her Ph.D. in adult, professional, and community education from Texas State University.

Her research focus was on how lifewide learning experiences served as shaping factors in the career success of gifted and high-potential individuals in early adulthood. She is the current chair for Diversity and Scholarship Committee for SENG (Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted).

SMA RT BO O KS FO R S MART KID S

D IVERSI T Y THRO U G H B O OKS A BOOKLIST

by Bob Seney

In keeping with the theme of this issue of Variations2e, I am taking a slightly different approach for this review and offering a short list of books that address diversity. We live in a diverse world, but that diversity is unfortunately often neglected in media representation and school curricula.

It is important for readers from all cultural and ethnic backgrounds to have access to books and stories where they see themselves represented. So too, all readers should develop understandings of identities, experiences, and perspectives that might be different from their own. Social identities such as race, gender, culture, ethnicity, handicaps and challenges, and sexual orientation must be reflected in the books our students read both inside and outside the classroom.

Our task as teachers and parents is to build empathy and understanding of this world. We must help our learners realize what it is like to walk in someone else’s shoes

and acknowledge that sometimes you can’t completely understand what it is like. These are just two factors that we must consider when cultivating an understanding and appreciation of diversity in our schools, in our cities, in our nation. What books we read are part of this context, as well as our subsequent discussions with children about those books.

For twice-exceptional students — whose neurological profiles can manifest as heightened sensitivity, hyper-empathy, challenges navigating social dynamics, difficulty accepting differences, or some combination of these attributes and others — these discussions can be nuanced and complex.

Since reading is a strength generally shared among gifted learners, literature provides a great way to celebrate the world and its diversity.

Below is a list that encompasses only a small sampling of the growing number of books that involve themes and characters that pertain to justice, equity, inclusion, and diversity:

Celebrating Our Differences and How We Are Alike!

Happy in Our Skin by Fran Manushkin Illustrated by Lauren Tobia (2015, Candlewick Press)

“It’s wonderful to be who you are!” The two center pages depict the wonderful diversity found in a community. A great picture book to start positive discussions on diversity. How many examples of diversity can you find in this illustration?

It’s Okay to be Different by Todd Parr (2009, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)

Parr celebrates that it is okay to be different with bright colors and child-like drawings. A favorite!

One Family by George Shannon Illustrated by Blanc Gomez (2015, Farrar, Straus and Giroux) This book celebrates families in all their diversities.

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Global Village If the World Were a Village by David Smith.

Illustrated by Shelagh Armstrong (2002, Kids Can Press)

“… tells us who we are, where we live, how fast we are growing, what languages we speak, what religions we practice and more.” Great facts and details. I promise you, your readers will keep coming back to this one to check on facts. It has been updated in subsequent editions.

Accepting of Differences We’re All Wonders by R.J. Palacio (2017, Knopf Books for Young Readers)

Features a young Augie from Wonder. A longing to be seen for who we are!

Each Kindness by JacquelinWoodson (2012, Nancy Paulsen Books)

Told from Chloe’s point of view, who was not accepting of the differences of others and the resulting personal impact because she rejects Maya.

Different Cultures Lost and Found Cat: The True Story of Kunkush’s Incredible Journey

by Doug Kuntz and Amy Shrodes Illustrated by Sue Cornelison (2017 Crown Books for Young Readers)

The true story of a lost pet as her family fled from Iraq and the resulting international/intercultural response. Great resources to help students become involved.

Mosque by David Macaulay (2008, HMH Books for Young Readers)

In his trademark architectural style, Macaulay describes the building of a fictional mosque, adding cultural and religious notes throughout. This book can do much to help introduce and understand the Muslim faith.

Knots on a Counting Rope by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault Illustrated by Ted Rand (1997, Square Fish)

Native American. An amazing tale of intergenerational love and respect, the counting rope is a metaphor for the passage of time and for a boy’s emerging confidence in facing his greatest challenge: blindness.

The Arrival by Shaun Tan (2007, Arthur A. Levine Books)

A textless book that vividly tells the reaction of a man who must leave his home and family to come to the United States. The story unfolds pictorially as we see this new world from his point-of-view, which may be an eye-opener for many of us. An amazing adventure.

The Homeless Fly Away Home by Eve Bunting.

Illustrated by Ronald Himler (1993, Clarion Books) A homeless father and his son live in the airport and, like a bird caught inside, the boy wishes to fly away home. Very touching.

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Learning Differences El Deafo by Cece Bell (2014, Harry N. Abrams)

The author tells her own story about her childhood and her hearing loss. Told with humor and sensitivity, another favorite.

Thank You, Mr. Falker by Patricia Polacco (2012, Philomel Books)

The author tells her story of how one teacher made a difference in her life. She was able to hide her dyslexia until the fourth grade, and then Mr. Falker saves her from a downward spiral both academically and emotionally. She is now a successful author and illustrator.

Clara and David: The True Story of Young Clara Barton, Founder of the American Red Cross by Patricia Polacco (2014 Scholastic) The true story of how Clara’s older brother helped her overcome her dyslexia.

Barton is also an ancestor of Polacco.

Biographies There are many biographies in picture book format that provide a rich resource for investigating diversity. Dr. Ann Robinson of University of Arkansas–Little Rock has an impressive list.

The following are additional books about marginalized identities and social justice via SocialJusticeBooks.org, The Conscious Kid, and other sources.

Disabilities Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper (2012, Atheneum Books for Young Readers) A story about Melody Brooks, a gifted fifth grader who has cerebral palsy. Though Melody cannot speak or walk, she finds her voice and shows her family, peers, and teachers just how brilliant her mind is. Heartwarming, emotional, and moving.

Social Justice A is for Activist by Innosanto Nagara (2013, Triangle Square) An ABC board book perfect for changemakers of all ages. Great tool for introducing and discussing the ideas of equality, human rights, and social justice with kids.

Racial and Ethnic Identities Eyes that Kiss in the Corners by Joanna Ho (2021 HarperCollins)

Western beauty standards have convinced millions that “Asian eyes” are ugly, but in Eyes that Kiss in the Corners, they are anything but. Instead, the narrator reflects that “My eyes that kiss in the corners and glow like warm tea are a revolution.”

Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story by Kevin Noble Maillard.

(2019, Roaring Brook Press)

Fry bread became a staple of many Native Americans’ diets after the United States government stole their land and provided limited rations. While Maillard celebrates the role of fry bread in many Native American groups.

Little Legends: Exceptional Men in Black History by Vashti Harrison (2019, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)

Harrison’s biographies of black men include James Baldwin, Aaron Douglas, Oscar Devereaux Micheaux, Bass Reeves, John Lewis, Alvin Ailey, and Prince.

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Drawn Together by Minh Lê (2018, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)

Despite differences in age, language, and interests, a young boy and his Thai grandfather find a way to communicate. Lê, who was born in the U.S. and raised in Connecticut, based the story on his own experience with his grandfather.

Your Name is a Song by Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow (2020, The Innovation Press)

Teachers and classmates mispronouncing one’s name can easily destroy a child’s sense of worth and self-confidence, let alone their desire to go to school. In this story, a little girl learns about the beauty and musicality behind her name.

Immigrant Identities Alma and How She Got Her Name by Juana Martinez-Neal (2018, Candlewick Press)

This is the story about a little girl named Alma who has a very long name— too long! Go with Alma on a journey to discover how she got her name and how she grew into it.

Dreamers by Yuyi Morales (2017, Holiday House publishers)

This beautifully illustrated book carries you along on the dream-like adventures of a mother and child immigrating to the United States from Juarez, Mexico.

A Different Pond by Boa Phi (2017, Capstone Publishers)

Wake up before the sun and experience a day in the life of a little boy whose family has immigrated from Vietnam. This little boy’s unique perspective is one you will want to see.

Women’s Empowerment Little Dreamers: Visionary Women Around the World by Vashti Harrison (2018, LittleBrown Books for Young Readers)

Find a she-ro! Learn the detailed stories of women throughout history who have had great impact on their diverse communities around the globe.

LGBTQ I am Jazz by Jessica Herthel, Jazz Jennings, and Shelagh McNicholas (Illustrator) (2014, Penguin)

The story of a transgender child based on the real-life experience of Jazz Jennings, who has become a spokesperson for transkids everywhere. An essential tool for parents and teachers to share with children whether those kids identify as trans or not.

Celebrating diversity is not only important: it is a must!

Literature provides a vehicle for exploring diversity in all its forms. By using reading, a strength of many gifted learners, we can bring the world with all its diversity and richness into the classroom (or home) through literature. Through books, we can build empathy and understanding in a world enriched by our diversity.

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Happy Reading!

BRIDGES ACADEMY ONLINE 2

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