Beginning in the early stages of a child’s educational career, and for each subsequent year they are in school, children are intellectually tested in order for teachers and parents to have an understanding on how their students or children are currently performing, and speculate how they will perform in the future. One label that a child may be given is that of “Gifted and Talented”. With this label comes accelerated, and academically segregated, learning. This raises the question of: How does “Gifted and Talented” labeling affect a student’s academic performance and self perception? Jillian Gates, a doctoral student at Purdue University, tackles this question in her academic article “Children With Gifts and Talents: Looking Beyond Traditional Labels”. Along with this article, Robert Johnson, a member of the National Council of Teachers in English, writes on the subject in “Challenging the Cult of Excellence”. The two authors employ rhetorical devices, ethos, arrangement, and invention, to support their views on the subject.
The first rhetorical device I will be discussing is ethos. In her article, Jillian Gates advocates for a change in how gifted and talented children are labeled. As stated in the abstract, she believes that labeling can have both positive and negative effects on children. These effects pertain to a student’s self perception as well as the perception of them from their peers. Gates’s article is peer reviewed and she used many references to studies on the topic rather than just using her personal accounts. Gates’s article is well constructed, easy to read, and is heavily evidence based. She has credibility to speak on the topic due to her education. Robert Johnson’s piece is much shorter in comparison to Gates’s. Johnson relies heavily on his experience as a teacher to back up his claims against Gifted and Talented (G and T) labeling. He wants to show us how dangerous gifted and talented labeling is by discussing “excellence” in G an T programs. His piece is an excerpt from a symposium called “Being Special”, a publication by the Nation Council of Teachers of English. The source establishes Johnson’s credibility as being an English teacher. He discusses how he has seen labeling affect his and his colleagues’s students. Unlike Gate’s article, Johnson relies entirely on his experience and on informal data.
The second rhetorical device I will discuss is arrangement. Gates separates different ideas in her article by using bolded topic sentences prior to discussion of each. By putting each idea into its own section, the reader is able to follow exactly what she is trying to say. Her first section is labeled “Misuse of Labels in Gifted Education”. This immediately tells us that there is an issue, without directly stating what labels are being misused, and we anticipate that she will be explaining it in the paragraphs that follow. Each section is dedicated purely to the matter she introduces. Johnson does not have quite as much organization in his piece when it comes to his ideas. Instead of having bolded topic sentences, Johnson’s article has two bolded sentences for emphasis. One of them being “Excellence has come to mean never trying anything scary in case your grades should suffer.” This quote expresses how G and T students lack the confidence to challenge themselves due to a fear of failure or not living up to their perceived definition of excellence.
Lastly, I will be discussing each of the authors’ use of invention. As a form of invention, Gates uses examples from her experience with G and T children. In the section called “Shifting the Terminology”, Gates recalls a conversation she had with a child who did not get into a G and T program at her school, “I happened to mention in a conversation that giftedness was one of her many characteristics. The child stared at me and asked, “I’m gifted?” “Yes you are!” I replied. The look of intense relief on this child’s face was painful to see.” Gates explains that the child grew to have a false perception of her intelligence due to her not receiving a label, and that G and T became so intertwined with her identity, that having it ripped away damaged her self-esteem. This anecdote by itself doesn’t hold much weight, but we as readers can put ourselves in either her or the child’s shoes to understand this situation better in context. These references are mainly used to paint the reader a picture of the effects on labeling, rather than just telling or writing out data from experiments. Johnson uses invention by conducting an informal study with his students to see what they define excellence as. He uses this to further his argument that G and T labeling has the ability to shape a student’s idea of what good work is.
Both Gates and Johnson write compellingly on the subject of Gifted and Talented labeling. While Gates writes more scientifically, Johnson writes purely using his own experience. Though their methods for persuasion were different, Gates grounding her argument in science while Johnson uses his experience, there were still some similarities between the two. Both authors supported the claim that labeling children Gifted and Talented has the power to affect academic success as well as impact self-imagine, whether it be for the better or worse.
Works Cited
Gates, Jillian. “Children With Gifts and Talents: Looking Beyond Traditional Labels.” Off Campus Access @ Baruch College, web-p-ebscohost-com.remote.baruch.cuny.edu/ehost/detail/detail?vid=7&sid=55d57bc4-4342-49c0-afa7-6467358ad207%40redis&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3D%3D#AN=2010-15324-005&db=psyh. Accessed 5 Nov. 2023.
Johnson, Robert. A Symposium: Being Special – JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/820132. Accessed 5 Nov. 2023.