Inclusive education also means caring for the gifted

They are less talked about because it is assumed that they do not have problems at school, but this is not always the case, nor does the fact that they can get good marks mean that they do not have special needs. They are the gifted, a group that is little talked about and that, as we explain today in the dossier, has a problem that sometimes, for fear of social rejection, makes them conceal or hide the fact that they are more intelligent than the average.

Today we focus both on people with high abilities, that is, with an IQ of 120 points, about 10 points above the average, as well as on the gifted, who already exceed 130 points. And we begin with the experience of four adults who did not know they were gifted until they were older. This brought them problems, including school failure in some cases -despite the fact that in others it was the opposite-, and in several cases socialisation problems that they could not face until they had the diagnosis of what was wrong with them. They recognise that until now they did not explain much about how they were to avoid the rejection of an environment that often penalises those who go outside the norm, even if it is to be more creative or intelligent than the rest.

Some suffered it at school, where they were almost always bored, and now it is still suffered by many children who have not been diagnosed and who do not understand what is happening to them, in an environment in which they sometimes demand more of themselves than is necessary and are seen as nerds or weirdos or have difficulty attending a class they are not interested in, which leads to poor performance and continuous failures. In Catalonia, in fact, according to data from the Department of Education, there are now 3,745 pupils who have been identified as highly gifted, but there are many more. It is estimated that 2% of the population is gifted in Catalonia, and this means that there are still some 18,000 pupils, from infants to baccalaureate, who have not been detected.

Families and experts are calling for more reinforcement and attention in the classroom to prevent them from dropping out, failing at school or other problems very often linked to difficulties in socialising. There are options to help them, experts point out, such as accelerating the course, training more teachers or using methodologies that stimulate them.

When we talk about inclusive schools, sometimes we only focus on pupils who have difficulties because they do not reach the average, either due to learning disorders, disadvantaged social situations or because they have joined the education system late. There are some 130,000 children in this situation in the Catalan education system. But although they logically concentrate most of the efforts, this should not make us forget these other students, with sometimes hidden talent, who also need special support and accompaniment. Helping those who stand out at the top also benefits the whole.