Gifted Students and the Inclusive Classroom

Gifted Students and the Inclusive Classroom

In recent years the dilemma of educating intellectually gifted students has moved to the forefront. There have been many heated debates on whether to separate gifted students for their education, or to include them in the regular classroom with accommodations to meet their needs. The most effective way to educate intellectually gifted students is through the use of inclusion with programs designed to challenge their higher level thinking skills within that inclusion environment.

My definition of inclusion is to educate students of mixed abilities within the same setting, while including accommodations to meet those different abilities. This means that students of average intelligence are mixed with students who have above average and below average intelligence. It also means that students who have varying degrees of learning disabilities are educated with the students who do not have learning disabilities.

I believe inclusion is absolutely necessary for the effective and most optimal education of students today. I believe there is more to education then pencil and paper abilities and to remove the inclusion concept from the schools would be to promote a "class" system that would be detrimental for the community at large in the long run.

I believe that inclusion promotes many things. I believe every student has something valuable to offer and with an inclusion setting the intellectual can learn from the more simplistic mind, and the more simplistic mind can strive to understand the intellectual student's thinking. I believe the use of inclusion with programs designed to meet the diverse needs of the students prepares students for the world when they become college students and adults.