Douglas Parker's Blog
Posted by Douglas Parker
Future Studies, or Futurology is a study that attempts to hypothesize what will be taking place in the future by studying current and past trends in what has been taking place in the world. Gifted students are particularly good at thinking about the future and are motivated to help things go the right way.
Framing Future Studies for Gifted Students
Begin a classroom literary discussion using any apocalyptic story the students know about and enjoy. There have been any number of movies recently about asteroids blasting into the planet, and books about nasty viruses that enslave humankind. Even if the title is less than scholarly, it helps set the table for the next focusing discussion.
Next, ask the gifted students to think about the long-term consequences of the disaster, even if people were to survive the threat. What would the world’s drinking water supply be like? What would have happened to the animals, and more importantly, what happened to the animals that people eat to survive?
And, what would have happened to the crops?
Real Futurology Comes Alive
Explain to the students that people tend to think about systems as whole entities, so if everyone survives the fictional big tsunami from the underwater volcano, all will be well. In complex, interdependent systems, however, that is not always the case. So, if some disaster came along that threatened humankind, and we all somehow dodge the big bullet, the smallest of details like dead crops could spell disaster down the road.
Would the students agree that somebody should have thought about that ahead of time and done something about it? Fortunately, somebody did. Futurologists in Norway built a frozen vault to safeguard millions of seeds from disasters and wars.
That should kick start a healthy discussion.
Posted by Douglas Parker
I have written some articles on Future Studies and Futurism for Suite101 under the premise that this kind of emotional and intellectual stimulating can be extremely beneficial for gifted students. While I touched on the topic briefly, the other side of the coin is just as important in my mind.
What Happens in the Future?
The leadership of today can really become myopic in dealing with current issues, much less addressing those of the future. When it comes to gifted education, providing the resources and protection to nurture the country’s greatest intellectual ‘gifts,’ practically everything is left to the states and localities. In doing this, one of the victims of budgets that have been realigned down to zero dollars this year is gifted education and the thousands of boys and girls who have the potential within them to get our world back on track.
How is this possible? In a world that values instant success and achievement, it seems that our leaders are impatient with waiting for children to develop and are seeking all the answers now with the adults we already have. What other possible explanation could there be for a society that pays such little time and attention to the development of its young. Think back to the excitement of the early 1960s when there was such a fervent push for more math and science teachers when national resources were being poured liberally into education.
I have said repeatedly that gifted students are our greatest natural resource, and as such, what group is better prepared to think about the future and make plans that will benefit all humankind?
Posted by Douglas Parker
For many years before television became the staple of family entertainment, the radio played a pivotal role as the source for news and amusement. There is a big difference between television and radio, however. On television and in many cases in theatre and even in illustrated books the author’s ideas and interpretations about a character or a situation are depicted visually and the reader or viewer simply has to accept that visual image as the ‘correct’ likeness. However, in storytelling the listener needs a lot of imagination to be able to create the images of the people and the events in his or her mind. This takes a little more work, but if the story is told well the listener can have an extremely vivid experience.
Theater of the Mind
In radio, the expression was ‘theater of the mind,’ meaning that each listener was free to build the stage and actors any way imaginable as they listened to the words and sound effects coming from the big wooden box using only one sense - hearing. There were also numerous radio programs that told continuing stories much the same way that a television series would today.
As a focusing exercise, teachers should tell their gifted students about an evening in 1939 when CBS radio played an adaptation of H.G. Well’s science fiction classic The War of the Worlds. Instead of telling a traditional story, the director and narrator Orson Welles decided to present the tale by using news flashes that sounded real. So real, in fact that many, many people were fooled by the story and panicked because they were terrified!
The power of the spoken word is real, and stories are a great way to both entertain and to make a point for gifted students.
Posted by Douglas Parker
On Dec. 4, 1970 a new kind of politics was born in Washington, D.C. when William Ruckelshaus became the first Director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, setting the stage for what has been come to be known as the Green Movement. While none of the gifted children in schools today were alive when that happened (and I suspect that neither were many of their teachers) the significance of the event can be brought to life through storytelling.
While this particular assignment helps form students who respect our environment and take positive steps to care for our planet, any good cause can be explored through storytelling as a vivid method for not only having the students use their advanced language arts skills, but also employing their creative intelligences to develop awareness about important issues in the world today.
Green Storytelling!
The objectives for this lesson are to have students explore the Green movement (a topic that will appeal to gifted students on several levels of interest) and to write a story that will introduce a character who has encountered an environmental issue and has used his or her abilities or earth-friendly resources to correct the situation.
There is no end to the possible list of environmental issues today. For example, students could choose to explore how building Green works to reduce or eliminate the negative influence of construction on the ecosystem and human health. For research on this topic, students can visit the U.S. Green Building Council as it strives to make green buildings available to everyone within a generation.
Posted by Douglas Parker
In storytelling the listener needs a lot of imagination to be able to create the images of the people and the events in his or her mind. This takes a little more work, but if the story is told well the listener can have an extremely vivid experience. For the gifted storyteller, it takes even more effort to find the words and sounds, the tone and articulation of voice, and sometimes the expressions and body language necessary to create the images in the listeners’ minds.
The Multiple Intelligences Used in Storytelling
The Multiple Intelligence Theory indicates that children can be intelligent in ways other than what can be measured on IQ tests, and several kinds of multiple intelligences are used when telling a story. The most common intelligence used would be Linguistic Intelligence, where written or spoken words are this child’s strength. These children like to read, talk, and write stories, and like to learn by verbal memory, hearing and reading, all of which would be a good fit with storytelling.
Another likely intelligence would be Interpersonal Intelligence, since storytelling is an interactive activity unlike acting. Working and socializing with other people and supporting the work of groups in accomplishing tasks, and communicating with others typifies this kind of intelligence in students.
While a case could be made for almost all of the multiple intelligences, children displaying Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence who enjoy sports and dancing and acting could stand out during storytelling enhanced with action, and students who learn through Spatial Intelligence by thinking things through, visual memory, engineering and wondering can create some imaginative tales for the class!
