President Raab Establishes Center For Gifted
Studies at Hunter College
By Dorothy Davis
“Children need to know that it’s okay to be smart,” said
Hunter President Jennifer J. Raab recently. “Special
classes, schools and curricula are also required to meet the
special needs of the gifted child, who is often bored and uninspired
in a regularly paced classroom.” She spoke at the official
launching of the Hunter College Center for Gifted Studies and
Education at which she introduced its Director, Dr. Dona Matthews.
The Center, established
by Raab in 2003, is part of the new graduate program in gifted
education at Hunter. Teacher training, curriculum development
and research are its focus, and it has already helped write
the new state test that new G&T teachers
must take.
Director Matthews, who taught at The University of Toronto
and authored Being Smart about Gifted Children said
the Center’s activities include teaching educators the
skills needed to be state certified, developing a think tank
with other city colleges, a parent support network, working
with city schools to create programs, listing resources on
the web, informing the public, and studying how best to discover
and support the G&T, who may be gifted in one area but
not in others.
President
Raab cited the need for gifted programs in all boroughs for
all racial and ethnic groups as a motivation to create the
Center. “Last
week,” she said, “we had the heartbreaking task
of sending rejection letters to some 2,800 sixth graders
telling them that they will not have the opportunity to attend
Hunter High School. Each one of those kids had scores in
the top percentile of their 5th grade Math and Reading Tests.” There
are only 228 places at the School, a top public school for
the gifted.
President
Raab’s concern
was echoed by New York City Council members, including Eva
Moskowitz, Education Committee Chair, who called the Center “incredibly
needed.” A mother said her daughter spent more time
helping other children than learning from teachers and couldn’t
get more advanced books to read even though she was reading
beyond her grade level.
“These are the people
who will be the leaders of tomorrow,” said Carmen Farina,
Deputy Chancellor for Teaching and Learning, in her keynote
speech. “We need to make them the best leaders they
can be.” The Department of Education, she said, is
working on a standard admissions test for children entering
kindergarten and first grade to try and determine if they
are gifted.
Judy
Horne, Director of Strategic Outreach at the DOE, told EU
afterwards that the new test should be ready in September
2007. It will only be given to children whose parents ask
for it. She pointed out that not all parents want their children
to attend G&T
classes. “I am a public school parent of a G&T
child,” she said. “I would never put my child
personally in the G&T program. I do not like that model.”#
