Teach-Secondary-Issue-14.5

TWICE EXCEPTIONAL Alice Guile writes of the considerations to bear in mind when supporting gifted students with SEND S ome of the world’s greatest geniuses passed through school with their talent largely, or entirely unnoticed. In his book The Element , Sir Ken Robinson recounted a conversation with Sir Paul McCartney, during which the songwriter described how he’d hated music at school, and how his teacher failed to notice the talent he possessed. He went on to note that the same teacher had also taught George Harrison. This music teacher had half of the Beatles as his students , and yet failed recognise that both were anything out of the ordinary. Robinson uses McCartney’s experience to argue his point that exceptional talent is often deeply buried, and that you have to go looking for it. Aminimumstandard What’s interesting is how often there seems to be a correlation between genius and what we might class as SEN. Indeed, many people widely considered to be geniuses – including Sir Issac Newton, Albert Einstein, Pablo Picasso and Leonardo Da Vinci – are recorded as having possessed traits that modern psychologists would consider indicative of neurodiversity. One could reasonably argue that some neurodiverse traits, such as autism, ADHD and dyslexia, are overrepresented among the world’s most gifted people. This could be because neurodiverse people think differently – something usually seen as fairly important for the ‘genius’ description to apply. Having a learning difference or some form of SEN, while also being evidently gifted could therefore perhaps be described as being ‘twice exceptional’. One reason as to why some exceptionally talented people may go unnoticed by their teachers is that the mainstream education system is currently set up to get as many students as possible reaching a minimum standard – one generally geared towards the needs of neurotypical young people. Yes, all schools are required to provide for educationally underachieving SEN children – but if the purpose of education is to help young people to reach their full potential, then students whose educational achievement is average or slightly above average, while being gifted in certain areas, are still effectively underachieving. If, on the other hand, the purpose of education is to pass exams , then these students’ progress will be seen as adequate. For schools that see their purpose as being to help young people reach their full potential, it’s imperative that gifted students are appropriately supported – and that the abilities of twice exceptional students be supported equally. Be direct I myself am twice exceptional. When I was in Y12, my sixth formwas given the opportunity to set its students a Mensa exam. I scored 157 and was duly admitted to Mensa. This was around the time I was diagnosed with ADHD, and I’ve long been fairly certain that I am autistic, based on certain traits that I possess, and the views of a number of people, including colleagues. The correlation between ADHD and autism is notably high. When one of your 12-year-old pupils sits beside you, and discreetly asks you if you are autistic – as once happened to me – it does make you think. “It’s ineverybody’s interest forourmost promisingyoungpeople tobeably supported” 70 teachwire.net/secondary