Will, Emma (SEN)
From:	The Websters [wtrmnwebster@bigpond.com]
Sent:	Wednesday, 28 February 2001 10:51 AM
To:	eet.sen@aph.gov.au
Subject:	Education of Gifted and Talented Children
The Secretary
Senate Employment, Workplace Relations, Small Business and Education References Committee
Parliament House
Canberra

Submission from William and Toni Webster, 32 Rivers Street, Bellevue Hill, NSW, 2023 (02 93287700)

 
With relation to national government, policy in the area of the education of the nation's gifted and talented students impinges on a national resource.  These children have potential.
 
Experts making submissions will have shown to you that gifted students have special needs, just as slow learners do.  And they will have stated that inappropriate education more often than not sees them underachieving.  
 
We see this in our 9 year old son who is not profoundly gifted but is in the top 95th percentile.  He is frustrated, bored, unchallenged and can be disruptive to other students because of this.
 
Imagine having to sit through class when something you have picked up in seconds has to be gone over and over and over with slower students.  Wouldn't you be bored?  He could be doing so much, that is the frustration.
 
Some teachers are bright enough to see this and give them extra, more demanding work - these children love that.  Such teachers are a minority.  
 
As education is a state government matter, what can the federal government do?
 
All we can do is to beg you to listen to the submissions from the experts in gifted and talented education and to do what you can.  Neglect of these students is, if nothing else, a waste of a national resource.
 
Absolutely essential outcomes are:

•	education and re-education of teachers
•	identification of gifted and talented children
•	curriculum differentiation
•	acceleration within or above the age group.

Thank you for your attention.

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