[SENco-forum] Gifted and Talented (labelling)

It is a no-win situation. Without the labels no one knows about her

Sharon wrote,

> It is a no-win situation.  Without the labels no one knows about her
> 'learning differences' and with them she can be lumped and categorised
with
> things that she does not feel should be the first things that people know
> about her.  As she said she does not introduce herself by saying "Hi am
> Charlotte. I have severe dyslexia and am a member of MENSA".

I can understand where Charlotte is coming from.

While she is in school, the staff characterise and describe her as a
'learning machine' -  this part works very well, this other part not so
well.  Quite rightly, Charlotte recognises herself as a whole person who
doesn't need to be categorised.

It's interesting that once she leaves school, in FE and HE the question
might be 'what do you need to help you complete the course?', where the
school perspective was, 'which bits shall we fix?'  And thereafter, the only
real question will be, 'can you do this?', rather than, 'why can't you do
everything?'  (I suspect that whatever it is, she'll do it rather well.)

It would indeed be embarrassing if we were all routinely introduced by
having our learning profile and 'difficulties' explained.

How would Charlotte suggest that her 'learning differences' could / should
be most usefully explained to staff?

Regards

Biff

----- Original Message -----
From: <SEN at tringham.net>
To: "Becta Senco" <senco-forum at lists.becta.org.uk>
Sent: Sunday, June 10, 2007 10:44 AM
Subject: RE: [SENco-forum] Gifted and Talented (labelling)

> Just been looking at the minefield of politically correct labelling for
> SEN/AEN for college.  Some of it said positive style labelling - 'more
able'
> has negative overtones for the rest of the class.  Not sure if this is
akin
> to the 'no more competition in school' brigade or something that needs to
be
> looked by all of us.
>
> My daughter does not like being labelled - gifted (high IQ) as she says it
> was just a quirk of birth and nothing to her credit, talented (feels
> embarrassed when people draw attention to it for its own sake) or
disabled.
> The 'disability' here is dyslexia and she is not keen to have people make
a
> fuss about that either.  She is non-plussed about the 'child with
dyslexia'
> or 'dyslexic' debate.  The 'dual exceptionalities' label at least
indicates
> that she is many-faceted, but again would not be her choice. One of the
> first things she said when learning about her dyslexia was "Will I still
be
> me?"
>
> It is a no-win situation.  Without the labels no one knows about her
> 'learning differences' and with them she can be lumped and categorised
with
> things that she does not feel should be the first things that people know
> about her.  As she said she does not introduce herself by saying "Hi am
> Charlotte. I have severe dyslexia and am a member of MENSA".
>
> In the book 'Bad Mouthing' it discusses changing terminology in education
> and society surrounding SEN.  In 1996 it found the term 'Special'
offensive
> and so some use AEN.  So here we are full circle with the more
> able/able/disabled debate.  My friend uses 'differently abled' instead of
> disabled, and I like that, although others (with disabilities) don't.
>
> How do we divide what we need to know in school to help remove barriers to
> education (and believe me being 'gifted' is a barrier) from causing
offence
> to somebody?
>
> Sharon
>
>
>
> Subject: [senco-forum] Gifted and Talented
>
>
> Like many SENCos I am also G and T coordinator or "More Able" as we have
> chosen to call it. The staff are not exactly brimming with practical
> ideas of things to do in their classrooms to stretch the MoreAble and
> allow others to surface. Can anyone recommend any books/websites to
> inspre them
> thanks
> Kate
>
>
>
>
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