Lived Experience, Mixed Messages, and Stigma

This chapter looks at what is known about the personal experience of being a student with gifts and talents (SWGT) in schools today. Understanding the lived experience of being gifted in school requires comprehending school itself and the meaning of lived experience. It focuses on the SWGT's notion of experience in school and in life, not the adult's idea of how gifted children experience the world The chapter begins by defining personal experience and continues by discussing the social messages surrounding schooling and growing up in American society. Although there are no studies of children's awareness of giftedness before being labeled, there is a retrospective study of lived experience from elementary school children attending a magnet school. Children have trouble making sense of their high ability in situations where adults do not recognize it. In many classes, the child is ready to move on to more advanced learning but is inhibited by school practices.