Grade skipping, also known as academic acceleration, is the process of moving a student from one grade level to the next without completing the current one. While this may sound like a radical idea, research has shown that grade skipping can have a positive impact on a student's education and future success. Here are some of the key benefits of grade skipping:

Challenging Curriculum: Grade skipping allows students to move ahead to more challenging and stimulating coursework, which can help them develop their skills and knowledge at a faster pace. This can be especially beneficial for gifted and talented students who may be bored or unchallenged in their current grade level.

Social Development: Grade skipping can help students to develop stronger social skills by placing them in a more age-appropriate peer group. This can lead to better social integration and a more positive school experience.

Improved Self-Esteem: By successfully navigating more challenging coursework, students who have skipped a grade can develop a sense of confidence and competence. This can lead to improved self-esteem and a greater belief in their own abilities.

Preparation for College: By moving ahead academically, students who have skipped a grade are better prepared for the rigors of college. This can lead to more successful academic careers and improved prospects for the future.

Time Savings: By skipping a grade, students can complete their education more quickly, freeing up time for other pursuits, such as advanced study or internships.

It is important to note that grade skipping is not suitable for every student and should only be considered after careful evaluation. Factors such as a student's academic record, emotional and social maturity, and the opinions of teachers and parents should be taken into account when making this decision.

In conclusion, grade skipping can be a beneficial option for students who are academically advanced and seeking a more challenging educational experience. With the right support and guidance, students who have skipped a grade can achieve academic success and set themselves up for a bright future.  If you would like to learn more about Covington Latin School's approach to grade skipping, please contact us at admissions@covingtonlatin.org.

Classical education has been a fundamental part of Covington Latin School's philosophy for a century. It encompasses a comprehensive study of history, language, philosophy, mathematics, and the arts, providing individuals with a well-rounded understanding of the world and equipping them with critical thinking skills. In today's rapidly changing world, classical education is more important than ever as it provides a foundation for continued learning and personal growth. In this blog post, we will explore the importance of classical education and why it remains relevant in today's society.

Promotes Critical Thinking and Rationality

One of the most significant benefits of classical education is that it fosters critical thinking and rationality. By studying the classics, students are exposed to a wide range of perspectives, ideas, and worldviews, encouraging them to develop their own opinions and engage in meaningful discourse. This ability to think critically and logically is essential in today's complex and rapidly changing world, where individuals are faced with a plethora of information and must be able to analyze and evaluate it to make informed decisions.

Provides a Solid Foundation for Further Learning

Classical education provides a solid foundation for further learning and personal growth. By studying the classics, students gain a comprehensive understanding of history, language, and culture, which allows them to more deeply engage with the world around them. This foundation allows individuals to continue learning and exploring new topics with confidence, as they have a well-rounded understanding of the world and its history.

Encourages the Development of Virtues

Classical education is rooted in the idea that education is not just about gaining knowledge, but also about developing virtuous character. By studying the classics, students are exposed to the great thinkers and leaders of the past and learn about the virtues that they embodied, such as wisdom, courage, justice, and temperance. This exposure helps to cultivate these virtues in students, making them well-rounded individuals who are capable of contributing to society in meaningful ways.

Prepares Students for Success in Today's Global Society

In today's global society, it is essential to have a comprehensive understanding of different cultures, languages, and historical events. Classical education provides students with this understanding, as it covers a wide range of subjects and perspectives, including Western and non-Western cultures. This knowledge is essential for success in today's interconnected world, where individuals must be able to engage with people from diverse backgrounds and understand their perspectives.

In conclusion, classical education is a valuable and timeless form of education that provides individuals with a comprehensive understanding of the world and equips them with the skills and knowledge necessary to succeed in today's rapidly changing world. Its focus on critical thinking, rationality and virtuous character development makes it an ideal choice for anyone looking to invest in their personal growth and future success.  If you would like to learn more about how your child could benefit from a Covington Latin School classical education, please contact our admissions director. 

Citations:

"Classical Education: The Movement Sweeping America." The Heritage Foundation, 8 Mar. 2012, www.heritage.org/education/report/classical-education-the-movement-sweeping-america.

"The Benefits of a Classical Education." Great Hearts Academies, greatheartsamerica.org/the-benefits-of-a-classical-education/.

"The Importance of a Classical Education." The Claremont Institute, 14 Aug. 2015, www.claremont.org/crb/article/importance-classical-education/.

Gifted Children: Understanding and Nurturing Their Unique Talents

Gifted Children: Understanding and Nurturing Their Unique Talents

At Covington Latin, we often get asked about the term gifted and talented. Our child is doing well in their classes and seems to come by it naturally. How do we know if our child is gifted? The answer isn't always clear but by definition, gifted children are individuals who possess exceptional abilities or talents in one or more areas, including academics, creativity, leadership, and athletic skills. They often perform at a level significantly higher than their peers and require specialized educational and social support to reach their full potential. So how do you know if your child might be gifted?

Identifying Gifted Children:

Gifted children may demonstrate their exceptional abilities at an early age and continue to excel throughout their school years. However, not all gifted children are easy to identify, as their talents and abilities can take many forms. Some common characteristics of gifted children include:

• Advanced problem-solving skills

• Early development of language and communication skills

• A wide range of interests and intense curiosity about the world around them

• Advanced reasoning and abstract thinking abilities

• A tendency towards perfectionism and high standards for their own performance.

Nurturing the Talents of Gifted Children:

While gifted children have unique abilities, they also face unique challenges, including feelings of isolation and boredom in traditional classroom environments. To nurture their talents and support their overall development, it is important to provide them with:

• A challenging educational environment that fosters their intellectual and creative growth

• Opportunities to pursue their interests and passions

• Encouragement and support for taking risks and trying new things

• A supportive community of peers and mentors who understand and appreciate their unique abilities

Gifted children are unique and there is not a one size fits all approach to how best to fill their needs. As parents and educators, it is our responsibility to identify and support their talents. By providing them with the appropriate resources and opportunities, we can help them reach their full potential and make meaningful contributions to the world. This support might be in the form of acceleration either by subject or by grade skipping. It could also be by expanding their experiences beyond the classroom through enrichment classes.

In the coming weeks, we will be sharing information about giftedness, the challenges they may face, and the options that are available. Covington Latin School is committed to being a resource for your child at any age.

Now That's Funny

Sense of Humor in Gifted Children

One of the lesser-known identifiers for Giftedness is humor. While it may not be one of the biggest indicators like executive dysfunction, hyperfocus, or a large vocabulary, it is something to watch for. Typically, the jokes of children tend to mimic the jokes told by their parents. They may give nonsensical knock-knock jokes or repeat movie phrases to make you laugh. The gifted sense of humor; however, is quite different. 

The keen analytical and observational skills of the average gifted child create a plethora of opportunities for children to expand their thinking. A study published in The Journal for the Education of the Gifted Child states, “The results indicated that the gifted subjects performed significantly higher in spontaneous mirth response and comprehension than the general population group.” (Shade) Overall, gifted children could respond faster and with a more succinct answer than their peers. Because of their ability to react quickly and synthesize situations, gifted children are often seen as witty and as if they have a quip for everything. 

Along the same lines, sarcasm can be seen as a gifted indicator. When I was in one of my orientation meetings for teaching, the leader of the workshop stated emphatically that teachers cannot use sarcasm at all with their students. They worry that it will be interpreted incorrectly by our students. Teaching at a school for gifted and talented students, I’ve found that sarcasm is my personal greatest resource in my classroom. While my classroom is an anomaly, it seems as if it may be indicative of a larger trend in gifted education. 

Another trend in gifted education is disruptive behavior in the classroom. The “class clown” is a common role that students may take on simply because they are bored. In Sandra Manning’s article she explains, “Especially if left unidentified for an extended period, gifted students resort to class clown status out of boredom. This is not the fault of the child who is simply trying to cope with a sometimes torturous situation.” This so-called “tortuous situation” is often cited as the reason that students find themselves unable to focus on the task at hand. Many students with a hard time focusing are just labeled as “problem children” and are treated as such. 

With a focus on the sense of humor, quick wit, and sarcasm of the individual student, educators can more effectively identify gifted and talented students. When students are identified, they are more likely to be challenged in school and enjoy the process of learning, so keep on laughing it up! 

Our January Blog was written by Samantha Darpel, Director of ExploreMore! and teacher at Covington Latin School in Covington, Kentucky.

 

The Superpower of Hyperfocus

As a teacher, the beginning of the new year brings fresh school supplies and organization.  As the Director of ExploreMore!, Covington Latin School’s enrichment program for gifted and talented students, I recently found myself going through our ExploreMore! storage so that we may start our next session off fresh. Upon finishing the summer camp, we end up with boxes of discarded materials like pipe cleaners, cardboard boxes, and household science materials. The chaos of neurodivergent organization can no longer be ignored. I, like many of our explorers, have boxes and boxes of old interests and hobbies. ExploreMore! storage is no exception. Our offerings of diverse classes for the Gifted and Talented community in our area lead to quite the eclectic grouping of materials. 

First, I stumbled upon old sewing patterns, denim, and knitting needles: the official storage of Fashion and Design. Another box contained Indiana Jones-style artifacts and sand: Dino-dig’s remnants. The third box of the day contained beakers, lab coats, and enough borax to do laundry for a year. That could be from any number of classes. 

All of these classes were requested by our students. Most of our classes are. These seemingly bottomless boxes contain the hobbies of ExploreMore! past that have long been forgotten. The stacks of stored interests reminded me of just how quickly trends can change. What is even more striking is how intensely our kids care for their interests, as if they had created Minecraft or Harry Potter themselves. These interests become more. They are all-consuming. Our obsession means we learn EVERYTHING about it. We leave no stone unturned. 

Originally, this behavior may seem endearing. Many parents find that it makes holiday shopping a bit easier. Grandparents know exactly how to talk to their grandchildren. If you want to know anything about the presidents, they have an answer and a ten-minute monologue prepared. But it seems as if as soon as you’ve gotten used to hearing about which of our founding fathers had the most cats (Explorer, John, tells me that it is Washington), the interest shifts. Now the cycle has started all over again. You’re left with $400 in merchandise and a case of whiplash. 

This occurrence is known as hyperfocus and is most common in neurodivergent populations. While many may see this as an intellectual superpower, it can be frustrating to parents, teachers, and even the kids. 

Last year, I had a student say, “Ms. Darpel, I love history, but I don’t love what we are studying in class. Can we learn more about the fashion of Ancient Rome?” As someone who has often felt this way, I knew I needed to allow him to explore that option. Our Gifted superheroes throughout the classroom can now pick one aspect of the unit and become expert on it. They then present these topics to the class. Not only are they gaining confidence through their exploration of their passion, but they are also gaining public speaking skills. 

Not everyone has the ability to adopt this method. So how can you implement and engage with your hyper-focused kid at home? 

One way to make your child feel special while also connected with the family is to have theme nights. Give your child a budget for supplies, a list of ingredients, or other parameters so that they can create a night for the whole family. Not only will they get to share their passion with the family, but they will learn valuable money, social, and practical skills. 

Another option to control hyperfocus is to set a timer. I do this in many of my own relationships. Often I will say, “Give me ten minutes to talk to you about the craft I made. Then I will turn it off.” Not only does this make me more cognizant of my own focus, but it is a good cue for others around me. The same can work for your child. Give them ten minutes on their activity then twenty minutes of homework or chores. When this method is first implemented, it can seem daunting, but eventually, it will become a lifelong habit that they are sure to thank you for. 

Finally, and possibly the simplest implementation is setting a timer or alarm. The minute that blaring noise is heard, the synapses in the brain snap to attention. Your child will be pulled out of the trance they’ve been in. Within those few minutes, your child could have traveled to the Jurassic period and learned about thirteen new plant species while the world around her completely faded away. That buzzer is her signal that it is time to get back to algebra. Sometimes the simplest solutions are the best solutions. 

Creating consistent and meaningful plans for the control and management of hyperfocus will allow your Gifted and Talented children to flourish. If, and when, we look at hyperfocus as yet another superpower of our children, they will find that they are capable of much more because they are able to remain on task. Look not at what they are missing through hyper-focusing, but look at what they are able to achieve and overcome because of it. 

About the Author: 

Samantha Darpel is the Executive Director of ExploreMore! Gifted. She has been with the program for six years as a teacher, Assistant Director, and Executive Director. Samantha is working toward a Gifted and Talented endorsement to add to her Masters of Middle School and Secondary Education from the University of the Cumberlands. She has also been teaching the gifted and talented community for six years. 

Reading: It's a gift that keeps on giving

I see a love of reading as one of the greatest gifts we can give our children and students. A person who reads for pleasure will never be bored. There can always be a magazine, book, or cereal box around for the moments of downtime. In recent times, parents are more likely to hand a child a screen rather than a book when there is a need for a distraction. But there is a much greater benefit when the printed word serves as the time filler during those unfilled moments.

Research shows that a habit of regular reading – twenty minutes a day – yields significant benefits, particularly for preschool and school age children who are expanding their vocabularies.  The difference between students scoring in the 90^th percentile in reading and the 10^th percentile is literally how many minutes a day that child spends reading. This mastery exceeds by far the vocabulary gain from any direct vocabulary instruction like a vocabulary workbook.

 

Creativity and the world of imagination is also enhanced more through reading than through viewing stories on a screen. When we create our own pictures in our brains, the imagery if far more developed than that of seeing someone else’s imagination on a screen. Every good writer was first an avid reader. The two skills are linked which is supported by a 2005 National Center for Education Statistics study.

Students who read a lot often seek books written at a higher level that might contain more mature content.  Librarians have long explained that in a book, a child will comprehend information based on prior experiences. If the child has not cognitive or experiential basis for a description, he or she will often pass over it unawares to get to the next adventure. Many adult readers have told me tales of rereading a book first encountered in middle or high school.  With more life experiences, they marvel that they missed the intent or additional messages aimed at a more mature reader. The same is not true when these stories and scenes are viewed on a screen.

The gift of reading has never been more timely choice.  Americans are reading less.  The National Endowment for the Arts report To Read or Not to Read (2001) reported the following facts:

• Less than one-third of the thirteen-year-olds are daily readers, a 14% decline from twenty years earlier.
• The percentage of thirteen-year-olds who read for fun on a daily basis declined from 35% to 30%, and for seventeen-year-olds the decline was from 33% to 22%.
• On average, Americans ages fifteen to twenty-four spend almost two hours a day watching television, and only seven minutes of their leisure time on reading (that was in 2007- with the increase in the number of smart phones, the amount of screen time has certainly increased).

And the saddest of these findings:

• Nearly half of all Americans ages fifteen to twenty-four do not read books for pleasure. 

Turning such trends around can have a significant positive impact on the overall language skills of our youth. Students who engage in free voluntary reading on a regular basis improved test scores in reading comprehension, writing style, vocabulary, spelling, and also have a lifelong gift of entertainment, fascination, and discovery that comes with losing ones' self in the printed word.  Let's all give the screen a break for a little while and go enjoy a good book!

Emotional Intelligence..... It Does Exist!

       Understanding emotions may be similar to trying to find other life forms on Mars, but the reality is they exist! Before I dive into why emotional awareness is important, let me address what emotions are. This may seem like a simple phenomenon, but is it? Think about this for a moment; when a person asks you, “how are you doing today?” and your automatic response is fine, what does that mean? What is ‘fine’ in relation to how you are actually feeling. That answer comes automatically for various reasons, but it isn’t the truth. The Miriam-Webster dictionary defines emotion as “a conscious mental reaction (as anger or fear) subjectively experienced as strong feeling usually directed toward a specific object and typically accompanied by physiological and behavioral changes in the body” (An Encyclopædia Britannica Company). This definition is loaded with complex terms. If we break it down emotions are the reactions we have to a certain event. The movie “Inside Out” by Disney Pixar is a fairly accurate picture of emotions. The movie presents the concept of basic emotions which can be dated back to the first-century (Burton, 2016). Paul Ekman, Professor Emeritus in Psychology at UCSF and leader in psychology, identifies six-basic emotions; joy, sadness, fear, disgust, anger, and surprise. My graduate professor went as far as to eliminate surprise and disgust stating that those fell under fear and anger. These four or six emotions are the control center of our mental state and behaviors.

            Now that we understand that there are four or six basic emotions, we can look at why it is importance to have emotional awareness. As a school counselor, I am teaching emotional understanding and awareness to my students. Emotional awareness is the first step in emotional regulation. A high school teenager has a lot of emotions they are dealing with due to their biology and psychology. Neuroscience studies show that the adolescent brain doesn’t look like that of an adult’s until early 20s. Teenagers are constantly reacting to their emotions instead of regulating them. There are many risk factors during this age, because they have not developed the ability to control impulses or plan ahead (National Institute of Mental Health, 2011). You add hormones to the mix and there’s bound to be a lot of emotions! I believe that our thinking (Rational) controls our emotions (Emotive) and our emotions control our (Behaviors). This is the reason I teach emotional awareness and regulation to my student. Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy is the theory that I use in educating students. Once a student can identify their emotion then they can identify the thought associated with that emotion. Then we can use a variety of techniques to help them regulate their emotions. Mindfulness is a great tool to use as well, because it forces the student to stop thinking about the future and focus on the moment. What does this look like in action? For example, when a student is worried about a test or assignment I have them go through the following steps:

Step 1. Identify the emotion

Emotion: worry = fear.

 Step 2. Identify the thought that is causing that emotion.

Thought: “I won’t do well, I’m going to fail, and if I fail I won’t graduate…” these thoughts continue to make the student feel worse and distract them from focusing on studying.

Step 3. Refocus, Mindfulness Technique

I have the student take a moment to refocus by breathing and “clear his head” by mentally wiping away his thoughts. That way we can start with new thoughts to negate the previous ones.

Step 4. Making Irrational Thoughts Rational, Role Play

During the last step, I would have the student write down thoughts that would make his irrational thought, “I’m going to fail”, rational. The student could come up with a variety up thoughts that would lessen his/her anxiety. They don’t have to be positive, but they have to be neutral. For example, “I have studied and prepared for this test. I’m going to do my best! Even if I do not get the grade I want, I will not be a failure”. This would be an example of making an irrational thought rational. This isn’t a Band-Aid technique or approach. It takes time to teach the student to do this on their own.

Our adolescents and pre-teens have a lot of anxiety in this high pressure filled society. They are expected to excel in every area of their life. As social beings, we naturally compare ourselves to one another and idolize people who have achieved greatness. The need to measure up, work harder, and be better puts a strain on our student’s mental health. They need to have the proper tools to be able to endure this mental stress. This article hasn’t taken into consideration student’s who have a mental illness. The mental health of our students is vital! That is why it’s importance to understand, have awareness, and advocate for Emotional Intelligence.

For more articles regarding Emotional Intelligence, check out Hoagies Gifted page!

References

An Encyclopædia Britannica Company. (n.d.). Emotion. Retrieved October 11, 2016, from Marrian-Webster Dictionary: marriam-webster.com/dictionary/emotion

Burton, N. (2016, January 7). What are Basic Emotions? Retrieved October 11, 2016, from Psychology Today: psychologytoday.com

Ekman, P. (n.d.). About. Retrieved October 11, 2016, from Paul Ekman: paulekman.com

National Institute of Mental Health. (2011). The Teen Brain: Still Under Construction. Retrieved October 11, 2016, from National Institute of Mental Health: https://www.nimh.nih.gov