Diane Scanlon
Helping the Highly Gifted Achieve Their Dreams
I spent several years of
my early life in the Retail Management
circus. It wasn't until the birth of my only child that I would
become interested in Highly Gifted Children. I became an expert in
raising an exceptionally gifted child with a learning disability the
hard way - by doing it! So, you might say I went to the school of
hard knocks for my degree. And now that my son is full grown,
I'm still here fighting for all of those precious little minds
that continue to be ignored in our classrooms each and every year.
From the first moment I realized my toddler could read at an adult level, I felt as if I was lost in a maze. And of course I did everything wrong in the beginning. But after a rapid education on the different levels of giftedness, I learned that my son was "Exceptionally Gifted" and needed specialized education in a school district where statistics showed we'd be lucky to find one or two more at his level. I started to fight for my child in the school district and before long I was treated with pure distain by the teachers because "God forbid" I wanted my child to learn "something". And before too long I was advocating for the whole district. I soon learned that it wasn't enough for me to have to fight the school system. I also had to fight friends and relatives who all thought they knew more than me what was best for my own son. I listened to everyone but myself in the first years of formal education. But ultimately, I founded the first gifted advocacy group in the West Warwick, RI school district. I worked with politicians, administrators and teachers to attempt to help these children. And many were helped with enrichment and acceleration. But it was evident that my own son didn't fit their model. And the situation was horrible for him.
