Highly gifted: schools for summiteers - focus online

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Students with above-average IQ need special support. FOCUS-SCHULE shows where the smartest are encouraged and helps in choosing the right school.

Marie was able to read, write and calculate fluently in the hundreds already in kindergarten. She learned English there with ease. Now the highly talented six-year-old came to school from the Bamberg area. "We are afraid that she could get bored there," her grandmother wrote to FOCUS-SCHULE in the summer. "Which primary school in our area meets your needs?"

An interesting question that got the ball rolling with intensive research. Should the highly gifted be integrated into normal classes or should they be taught separately? What concepts are the federal states pursuing? Where can parents find schools that are more knowledgeable about the promotion of gifted people than others?

So much is anticipated: Happy the highly gifted child who goes to school in Saarland, Rhineland-Palatinate or Saxony, because there is a wide range of offers. Although all federal states have recognized that particularly gifted children also need special support. "You have to use the system to be intelligent," says Martin Korte, professor at the University of Braunschweig with a research focus on learning and memory. "Not the IQ, but knowledge makes you intelligent. A trained mathematician beats every gifted person after a few years. ”Untrained racehorses never become champions.

Around two percent of all children with their intelligence quotient of more than 130 are above the norm. 300,000 schoolchildren are thus highly gifted in Germany, so they can think faster than their classmates. But being able to use your brain more efficiently doesn’t mean being the best in class or universal genius per se. The gifted learn easily, loathe repetition and search constantly looking for new learning stimuli to satisfy their curiosity.

Such pupils pose problems for any regular school where there is a lot of repetition and practice. For example, Marie’s classmates have been writing letters in her notebook for weeks. Marie meanwhile explains to them that the question word "where" means "where" in English, the similar word "who" in German but "who". They had no "W" at all. Marie needs other tasks as well as a teacher who doesn’t let her paint letters, but allows her to tell stories write. Otherwise children like Marie sometimes develop into complete school failures, so-called "underachievers". The same thing happens to the racehorse when it trots in step with ponies for weeks: it loses the joy of running.

Creative school or boarding school?

Teacher Ursula Hellert calls for special offers for the highly gifted, high-performing people like underachievers, "otherwise the children experience that school means enduring things that do not concern them themselves". The overall director of the CJD Jugenddorf-Christophorusschule Braunschweig has been developing programs for the highly gifted for over 20 years. These are particularly important in primary school before a child refuses to use the system. "However, they must also be recognized by the teacher for targeted measures," warns Hellert. Then apply: As long as possible – separate if necessary. "For some it is enough to skip a class," says brain researcher Korte.

The promotion of gifted people in Germany is confusing. The Saarland is already implementing the expert council, Bremen lacks any concept, the school ministry in North Rhine-Westphalia does not even know the schools that deal intensively with talented people. There are successful integrative concepts in Berlin as well as pure gifted schools in Saxony (see boxes on the following pages).

Schoolgirl Juliane Helmhold opted for a highly gifted boarding school. At that time, however, she was not six years old like the story-writing Marie, but 15 years old. “At my old school, I had to support myself quality Justify grades, ”says the 19-year-old today. At the Pforta State School, on the other hand, the scholarship holder of the “Dornier Foundation for gifted students” is one of many. Languages are her hobby, she learns five in class, two she teaches herself. Although her free time next to playing the piano, choir, volleyball or American literature AG is scarce. Other boarding students delve into math or music, all have one thing in common: they love to learn. Juliane: "I’m no longer special here, and that’s nice!"

Highly gifted: schools for summiteers – focus online

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