Can you guess what these people have in common? Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, Michael Faraday, Charles Schwab, Nelson Rockefeller, George Washington, John F. Kennedy, Nolan Ryan, Magic Johnson, Mohammed Ali, Walt Disney, Pablo Picasso, Ansel Adams and Steven Spielberg. The answer is that these notable figures were twice exceptional, known in the industry as 2e.
Nothing about education is easy or clean; students do not fit into tidy boxes with clear directives about how best to help them achieve their potential. Nowhere is this more evident than with the 2e student, who can confound parents and teachers alike. Twice-exceptional students are those who are gifted and talented who also have a learning disability/difficulty including dyslexia, ADHD, Asperger’s Syndrome, sensory disorders or others.
Despite their enormous potential, they rarely achieve better than average grades in average-level classes. The majority of 2e students remain unidentified because their intelligence allows them to compensate for their disability enough to get by. Because they appear to be getting along “just fine,” their disability is never identified, addressed or remediated. Similarly, because of their disability, their gifts remain unrecognized and unsupported. This can be an exceedingly frustrating place to be stuck for a 2e student! The 2e student receives no help for either exceptionality, wasting the full potential of a bright and promising mind. While many of these students may not be failing, neither are they excelling. As educators, our goal should not be to merely prevent our students from failing; we should strive to maximize the potential of every student. This means shoring up weaknesses, but also accelerating and invigorating students in their areas of strength.
Once 2e students are identified, the question remains about how best to educate them. Providing optimal instruction for 2e students is exceedingly difficult in traditional programs, leaving students and families frustrated. For example, a 2e fourth-grader who is gifted and dyslexic may understand the skills and concepts presented in a math or science class after a single lesson. While his teacher provides important opportunities for practice and reinforcement for the rest of the class, he grows disinterested, bored and frustrated at not being challenged, and by not stimulating his curiosities at the rapid pace his mind craves. Even though he may be able to understand complex and challenging math concepts, his teacher insists that he memorize his math facts before he is able to engage with gifted-level material. Unfortunately, many 2e students struggle with memorization, and it is highly probable that they may never be able to successfully master math facts. Is this reason enough to prevent a clearly gifted mathematical mind from progressing and developing as quickly as it is able? Conversely, in other classes, he is struggling to read and write, leaving him woefully behind his peers. His classmates are reading to learn, while he still needs to learn to read! He struggles to complete assignments, and homework can take two or three times as long to finish.
One can understand the conundrum facing large schools when tasked with educating 2e children. One can hopefully also understand how many 2e students can lose their love of learning and have their self-confidence erode. All too often, students are identified by their deficiency alone. While addressing a learning disability such as dyslexia is imperative, it cannot come at the expense of a child’s confidence and self-esteem; strengths must be simultaneously honored and developed in order to maintain a positive attitude about learning and their place in the world.
Twice-exceptional children can thrive in a flexible educational program that provides consistent, intensive support for their learning differences, as well as a clear focus on the development of their gift. These children especially benefit from working in an environment that values individual differences and nurtures student awareness of their strengths and weaknesses. As head of The Liberty School, I interact regularly with parents of 2e children. The best advice I can give is for them to become tenacious advocates for their children and to read as much as possible on the subject. Additionally, obtaining a psychological-educational evaluation will provide vital information about what issues they are facing and strategies that can help. These evaluations are also an essential part of helping students get the accommodations they need in the classroom.
Twice-exceptional students do not need to remain invisible. We cannot settle for mediocrity when these diamonds in the rough are among us going unnoticed and underserved. Together, and with the right education, we can uncover the next Disney, Tesla or Schwab.
Christian Holmen is head of The Liberty School in Durango. Reach him at cholmen@thelibertyschool.org.
