Lions, tigers and bunnies: exceptional children in America’s schools

Abstract

Exceptional students who struggle in school sometimes come into their own later in life. These late bloomers are frequently pigeonholed into specific ability groups during their academic career, often stifling their educational growth and perceived self-worth. Children can flourish in classrooms with peers who represent a spectrum of academic abilities, not just those like themselves. They should be given the chance to do so.

Keywords:

• Exceptionalities
• late bloomers
• mixed classrooms

What do individuals like Thomas Edison, Winston Churchill and Albert Einstein all have in common? They were so-called ‘late bloomers.’ Like many others, they were individuals with delays in speech or received poor grades in school. Every teacher encounters students in their classes who are diverse in ability. Exceptional individuals can represent both ends of the spectrum, those who are delayed or restricted in some way—physically, cognitively, or emotionally, and those who are gifted—typically cognitively or physically. Of those children with exceptionalities, most are not physically apparent, but tend to be academic, behavioral, emotional, or social (Hasselbring and Glaser 2000). Individuals with exceptionalities represent the world’s largest minority group, equaling 10% of the total world’s population. Being ‘exceptional’ crosses all lines—ethnic, economic, religious, gender—everything (Disabled World 2015).

This article presents a current and often overlooked angle to the education of exceptional children. Exceptional students who struggle in school sometimes come into their own later in life and these late bloomers are frequently pigeonholed into specific ability groups during their academic career, often stifling their educational growth and perceived self-worth.

It was two years ago when one of my students reported visiting a school and noted that a teacher had divided her class into three ability groups. This teacher had incredibly named her high group the ‘Lions,’ the middle group the ‘Tigers,’ and the remedial group… the ‘Bunnies!’ I really wish I could say that I am making this example up, but I am not. Since I did not know the teacher, I have no idea if this was an innocent oversight or not.

In the last two decades, the number of children with disabilities/exceptionalities in the United States has increased at a faster pace than school enrollment. In the U.S. about one in six, or 15% of children between the ages of three and seventeen, have a developmental disability due to a behavior, language, learning or physical restriction (Zablotsky et al. 2019). The degree or type of disability effects the child’s educational advancement (Hasselbring and Glaser 2000). The result being the exceptionality potentially mars the capability to completely partake in a standard educational program (Hasselbring and Glaser 2000). These exceptionalities may also impact daily routines and family life and typically last for an individual’s entire life (Child Trends Databank 2014). Society’s attitude toward individuals with disabilities has not always kept pace with legal rights. Social contacts in a family of a child with some sort of disability, may be very limited outside the immediate family group. Sometimes people completely shut off all outside contact after the birth of a child who is disabled or after an accident of some kind. The attitudes within the family are naturally going to come into play. When attitudes toward those with exceptionalities improves, so will respect.

Let us not forget another avenue of concern. “It is a lonely existence to be a child with a disability which no-one can see or understand, you exasperate your teachers, … and worst of all you know that you are not just stupid” (Hampshire 2016). Often in school and in public, “People are uncomfortable about disability, and so interactions can become unintentionally uncomfortable” (Young 2016). This uncomfortableness can lead to less socialization, leadership growth and for students with exceptionalities—hidden or visible, with any range of abilities—less participation in school activities.

These exceptional children, along with their classmates, are traditionally placed in ability groups very early in the academic year. This controversial practice is a tough issue for teachers, if in fact they even have a choice in the matter. Does the teacher prefer a homogeneous or heterogeneous grouping? It is clearly easier to teach when everyone is on the same level—a homogeneous grouping. The students might enjoy it also, because students with higher ability do not potentially feel held back by the kids with lower ability. They can soar to great heights! The children with lower ability may feel less pressure when the students with higher ability are out of the room, not feeling uncomfortable or intimidated if they cannot keep up.

The other approach, heterogeneous grouping, is quite different. Students benefit when they work with other children of varying abilities, as is the case in this type of mixture. When classes are divided in this manner, these divisions quite frequently occur along racial lines with higher ability groups often dominated by white and Asian students while black and Latino students frequently overrepresent the lower ability classes. This dividing of classes based on ability, often called ‘tracking,’ also cuts along social class and gender lines with lower ability groups statistically including a disproportionate percentage of children who are minority, male, and impoverished.

All too often a child tracked at “below grade level” in the early elementary school years, carries that same tracked status through middle school and beyond. Has it really become, ‘once a below grade-level student, always a below grade-level student?’ How dare we as teachers assume that children never grow and change in their academic abilities? It would be ludicrous to declare children don’t mature physically or emotionally over time, but why is that assumption harder to dispel when it comes to academic labeling? And what about those late bloomers like the previously noted Churchill and Edison? How many children have schools left stranded and questioning themselves because they were trapped in early labeling? If schools are going to track students, then tracking adjustments need to be the norm. Amend, modify, revise—just look at them again in a few months, or even a year! Please don’t leave children stagnant in a previously classified slot.

In the classroom it is actually quite interesting to observe teachers give names to these ability groups. They would rarely give names that might identify ability—like ‘Eagles, Blue Jays, and Buzzards.’ Educators even get tricky and assign names like the ‘Red, Blue, and Green’ groups for higher, medium, and lower ability, but the simple truth is, this ‘code’ is easily broken by children. After all, Lexi is the best reader in the class, she’s in the ‘Red’ group, so ‘They are the smart kids.’ Jason is in the ‘Green’ group and he can just read, so the ‘Greens are the dumb kids!’

Labeling, although quite common, is a rather precarious matter. Some educators are quick to administer a test and slap a label on children who do not learn at a certain pace at which students are ‘supposed’ to learn. It was in fact Einstein who once talked about the assessments and how they often do not even measure anything meaningful. “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid” (Kelly 2004).

Perhaps it is just a matter of finding one’s niche. Elton John found his passion, pursued it and ended up being a world-famous rock star. Sandy Koufax became a huge baseball star because he realized his special skill and went after his dream. One can come up with example after example. There are many, many people who live ordinary lives instead of extraordinary lives, simply because they are not able to discover their special ability or perhaps, more likely, they lack the self-confidence to explore a career they love. Open up to the possibilities that these talents may not surface as young children, but blossom and flourish as pre-teens, teenagers or young adults. That’s why they are ‘late bloomers.’

Howard Gardner is known for his theory of ‘multiple intelligences.’ Rather than asking the question, “How smart are you?”—He asks, “How are you smart?” He believes everyone has an area of special talent. It could be math or verbal ability, in other words, the sort of aptitude that is valued in school. It also could be something more like athletic, musical or artistic ability. Maybe it is something along the lines of having an ability to understand others and give wise counsel. Gardner believes everyone is gifted in some way, although sadly many people never discover where their special talent lies. Schools reward math ability, for example, a lot more than musical ability. Not surprisingly, after individuals graduate, this will not often be the case. For instance, playing the piano will be more appreciated at a party than the ability to recite the multiplication tables!

It is however unfortunate when great painters, athletes, musicians or political leaders fail to achieve the notoriety that could have been theirs if only they had discovered their special skill. There is of course nothing wrong with leading an average or ordinary life. One can live a long life and never achieve any spectacular results but still be very satisfied with their time on this planet. What is important is that people are valued for who and what they are.

Could geography come into play when it comes to exceptional students? Yes. One could be considered disabled based on location. A student in a school district could be labeled in one way, but if the family moves to a different school district, that same child may no longer qualify for exceptional education because admittance cutoff scores are different. This might seem rather far-fetched until one considers how common it is for a star quarterback on one team to be a bench warmer on another district’s team. It’s really all just a matter of how his style might fit or what the team’s needs might be.

Equally intriguing is the viewpoint of parents. Many parents feel quite strongly about exceptional student services and this is true both ways—positive or negative feelings. There might be one parent who comes to school and becomes angry, pushing very hard to get their child into an exceptional education program. They desperately want their son or daughter to have the extra assistance and attention that will likely come from admittance into this program. However, there may be another set of parents who express just as much passion the other way. They will come over to school and fight to have their child kept out of exceptional student services. Perhaps they feel there is a certain stigma attached to being in an exceptional education program. They are self-conscious their child needs some sort of remediation or they feel it is a reflection of their abilities as a parent and therefore resist a placement in exceptional programs.

In the end, it may well come down to an example of a simple pair of shoes. If one hands an entire class pairs of size six shoes and says, “Here, put these on.” For some, they will fit perfectly, but for many, they will be too large or too small. It will not serve a very large percentage of the students in the class because providing every student with the same shoes or provisions will promote equality, but it won’t promote equity or fairness. Fair is not always equal. Every student has different needs, so different students should get different things to help them succeed. That’s what makes a classroom fair for everyone! In order for that to occur the needs of individual students must be considered and met.

The point is diversity CAN co-exist in the same classroom, without segregation. This mixed class can recognize and value every difference. There is a grand range of abilities in a typical classroom. Children at both ends of the spectrum need something. They need assistance or they need to be challenged. Everyone deserves attention—without being called lions, tigers … or bunnies!

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.