Research and our experience indicate that gifted students need fewer repetitions to master material and that they are
quickly ready to delve deeper than the level presented in most classrooms. While some gifted students
appear to thrive in the regular classroom, many become frustrated with the slow pace of instruction.
Some turn off to education entirely. At the very least, opportunities for deeper learning are missed
by forcing gifted students to proceed in lock step with their age and grade-level peers.
Former Secretary of Education Richard Riley stated, in the forward to National Excellence: A Case
for Developing America’s Talent (1993), “our neglect for these students makes it impossible to compete
in a global economy demanding their skills”. However, the U.S. government has no mandate requiring
programs for gifted students. The lack of state funding in California exacerbates the problem, resulting
in our state offering less to it’s population of academically talented students than nearly any other
in the nation. The need for specialized educational programming for these students was the motivation
behind the founding of Dunham Academy.
Is your child gifted? Dunham Academy’s Co-founder and Director of Curriculum can test your child
for a modest fee (see Application process).
Links to checklists of characteristics
of gifted children and related information are provided below to help you decide whether to pursue additional testing. Studies
have indicated that parental judgment is more accurate in identifying gifted students than teacher referrals.
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