WATG Mission: To educate about and advocate for the needs of gifted in Wisconsin. |
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From the Board - Behind the Curtain |
Have you ever in your life wondered what was “behind the curtain?” Perhaps you were at a theater production, or a concert, and have wondered “what’s really going on behind that curtain? I can’t wait for it to open.” Perhaps you’ve looked at a completed project and wondered, “What’s “behind the curtain?” How was that accomplished so well? Who was responsible? How did they make it happen?” If you are a person who wonders about what is “behind the curtain,” then this article is for you. |
(WATG extiende un sentido de gratitud al Dr. German Diaz de las Escuelas Públicas de Milwaukee por ayudarnos con la traducción de este artículo en Español para nuestras familias de habla hispana y nuestros educadores. Esta traducción también se puede encontrar en nuestra página web). |
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(WATG extiende un sentido de gratitud al Dr. Martha Lopez de las Escuelas Públicas de Milwaukee por ayudarnos con la traducción de este artículo en Español para nuestras familias de habla hispana y nuestros educadores. Esta traducción también se puede encontrar en nuestra página web). |
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Gifted in Perspective - Gifted Girls: Confidence and Risk-Taking
Jackie Drummer, WATG Advisory Board Member and Past President
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On March 17, WATG held a Townhall Meeting to discuss the joys and challenges of being gifted and being a girl. Many questions and thoughtful comments were shared during this event, and all of them raised further questions for me. I began to wonder why girls’ confidence often starts out strong, and then seems to diminish during the preteen and teenage years. Sometimes it revives, and sometimes it does not (see Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls by Mary Pipher).
In this article, Girls' Confidence Plummets Starting at About Age 8: Here's How to Keep Her Confidence Strongauthors Katty Kay and Claire Shipman share their quest to “help tween girls keep their confidence so that they can be resilient, empowered adult women.” Kay and Shipman worked with a polling company and were shocked to find that girls’ confidence was on par with boys’ confidence until about age 12, and that during the tween years, roughly ages 8-14, girls’ confidence typically plunges about 30%.
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Ask the Doctor - Test Taking |
Dr. Wanda Routier, Past WATG Board Member
A few young gifted adults were talking with me recently, and the topic wandered to taking tests. These young adults compared notes from high school and college and shared how they disliked tests in school because the tests frequently required memorization of information that didn’t seem to relate to the topic or the real world. Once the test was over, they had little application of the memorized information and quickly forgot it. However, classes in which they did projects and applied information in the depth and breadth they desired were a different story. They could remember all of the details of those projects even though high school was years ago.
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GT Meanderings - Do You Remember? |
Ruth Robinson, WATG Past President
The quest to collect, archive, and document the evolution of advocacy groups for gifted education has been ongoing for decades. This month the urgency is reinforced by the loss of another of Wisconsin’s pioneers in the field. On March 18, 2021 Dr. Donna Rae Clasen, Processor Emeritus from the University of Wisconsin - Whitewater, passed away peacefully in her home at the age of 89.
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On February 25, the Wisconsin Association for Talented and Gifted hosted a Townhall meeting on the topic of leadership. Hosted by Sarah Kasprowicz and Nicole Meier, WATG Board members, this Townhall generated a lot of really great discussion. Many participants shared that although we in Wisconsin are required to identify and program for gifted students in the five mandated areas - intellectual, academic, creativity, visual and performing arts, and leadership - the area of leadership needs much more work. Participants were looking for help in identification and in programming for our leaders at all levels. |
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(WATG desea extender un gran agradecimiento al Dr. German Díaz de las escuelas de Milwaukee por traducir este artículo al español para nuestras familias y educadores de habla hispana. La traducción también se puede encontrar en nuestros blogs de sitio web.)
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(WATG desea extender un gran agradecimiento al Dr. German Díaz de las escuelas de Milwaukee por traducir este artículo al español para nuestras familias y educadores de habla hispana. La traducción también se puede encontrar en nuestros blogs de sitio web.) |
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Dr, Uzeyir Ogurlu, WATG Board Member
Cognitive intelligence (IQ) refers to the ability to learn, apply knowledge, and solve problems, whereas emotional intelligence (EQ) is viewed as the ability to understand and manage your own emotions. Even though there have been debates about which one is more important in real life, we could easily agree that we need both to be successful in life.
There is an additional ongoing debate on this topic related to gifted individuals, and IQ and EQ: “Are gifted individuals more emotionally intelligent than their non-gifted counterparts?”
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Hillarie Roth, Government Action Committee Chair; WATG President=Elect
The Wisconsin State Superintendent race will conclude on Tuesday, April 6th. In an effort to provide information on the two candidates (Dr. Jill Underly and Dr. Deborah Kerr), we posed the same set of questions to both of them. Here are their unedited answers in their entirety. Dr. Jill Underly’s answers are listed first as determined by a coin toss. WATG does not endorse or support any political candidate, and the responses to these questions is not a representation of WATG’s views or opinions.
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Please Contact Your Legislators! |
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WATG’s Government Action Committee is fully entrenched in the biennial budget process and we are so excited to see what comes next! We are advocating for an increase in state funding for gifted education and we are dreaming big! It is exciting to imagine what it would look like to have gifted funding in every single school district across the state. Maybe we won’t get all the way there this year, but we can guarantee that we are closer than ever before.
So, how can you help? We are so glad that you asked! First and foremost, contact your legislator! How? Here’s the step by step process, right down to what you can say. To find your state legislators, go to the legislature home page https://legis.wisconsin.gov/; find the section called "Who Are My Legislators?" and enter your HOME address. Your state Senator and Assembly Representative and their contact information will pop up.
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Remembering Donna Rae Clasen |
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A pioneer in gifted education in Wisconsin passed away in mid-March. Prof. Donna Rae Clasen was active for decades at UW-Whitewater supporting programming for gifted children and providing professional development for educators. She also brought the first federal Javits grants to Wisconsin: Project STREAM worked with underrepresented gifted youth in several Wisconsin cities and also brought students to the UW-Whitewater campus for challenging summer programs. Donna Rae's late husband Bob (Prof. Robert E. Clasen) was similarly active in gifted education at UW-Madison. More information is available at Donna Rae Clasen Obituary.
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