Gifted Student Reflections about Fighting Societal Expectations of a Gifted Student's Academic Interests and Learning Style

Paper

In this session I will share three experiences that I have had as a gifted student. The first relates to discovering your unique learning style and setting yourself up for success in an industrial age schooling environment. By definition, the Industrial age schooling environment follows a one-size-fits-all model to educating students, packing us in classrooms with over thirty other peers, and expecting us to all effortlessly absorb the content our professors are sharing with us for six hours of the day. On the contrary, I have found that during online learning many of these systems were challenged, even broken, and through discussions with peers and mentors have come to the conclusion that our old system has not ever properly served us. Thus, holding some of us back. In my opinion, when the expectation is for us to fit inside this box, there is no room to excel. Therefore, my second experience relates to redefining the image of a ‘Gifted Student’. Many students have diverse and dynamic learning styles. The system that we currently follow allows for one specific archetype of student to be labeled as a ‘Gifted Student’. This system praises STEM courses and defunds The Arts. As a gifted student whose areas of special interests are English and The Arts I have found that throughout my schooling I have always felt like I was doing something wrong, and that myself, and people like me, did not belong with the other Gifted Students. With this feeling of estrangement comes a much clearer lens to societal expectations; my third experience relates to overcoming said societal and familial pressures and pursuing your passions regardless. I aspire to one day become a screenwriter and share my stories through characters and artwork. By doing so, I hope to open doors for those who will come after me and break stigmas around who a Gifted Student should or should not be.