By Lacy Elwood

What or who inspired you to become a teacher?

I was one of those lucky ones—from the time I was a kid, I knew this was what I wanted to do. When I first entered school, I realized that this was a place that I liked. Even when I was a little kid I knew I wanted to work with kids who weren’t your typical learners. We didn’t even have special education back then, but I just knew I wanted to work with kids who struggled.

Was there any certain experience that caused you to want to teach gifted students?

I was a special education teacher and I had a kid in my class who was labeled as emotionally disturbed. I could deal with that, but I couldn’t deal with his intellect. Most of the kids I’d worked with were either average or below average. I had this student, Matt, for 3 years, and for the first year and a half we never clicked. Then, one day during our second year together, Matt came to school smelling like skunk. When I asked him what happened, he talked about this business that he ran, a maple sugar business. He had purchase orders, he had signs made up selling his products, and he had built a stove in his basement with his dad. He was in his backyard that morning checking on the business and checking on his neighbor’s maple trees. He was sprayed by skunks because it was also mating season at the same time that it was maple sugar season. So, out of desperation, as nothing else I had done for a year and a half had worked, I basically said to Matt, “Let’s make maple sugar your curriculum for the rest of the year.” And, that changed everything. I left this school after 3 years to study gifted kids, because I saw what happened when somebody finally looked at education from Matt’s perspective, the smart kid’s point of view. When I originally went into gifted education, I did so with the hope of helping the kids who had abilities, but chose not to use them. That one kid basically focused my whole career in gifted education. From that point on, I knew I needed to work with and know more about kids like him.

You teach middle school gifted students in the Twinsburg, OH, area. Why did you choose to teach the middle grades? What is it about this population that you enjoy?

I never thought I wanted to teach middle school, because I had the same perceptions that so many people have: that it’s just a crazy time, that these kids are interested in everything except learning. Then I started teaching middle school kids, and I found that they’re just really cool people. They are inquisitive, they are fun, they are definitely task-oriented, if the task at hand is worth doing. What I like is that if it’s not, they’ll let you know. I’ve never seen adolescence as a turbulent period, and I think those who see it like that maybe haven’t tried to see education from a kid’s point of view. It’s turbulent to me in a good way. It’s an exciting developmental time and it can really guide where the kid goes from there.

In addition to teaching middle school students, you also teach college students at Kent State University. Why do you think it’s important for people who take part in the academic field of gifted education (such as university professors) to also continue teaching or working with students at the elementary and secondary level?

Credibility. I do a lot of teacher workshops and when I go in and say “Here’s a lesson I did with my students last week,” all of a sudden people sit up, because I don’t think they’re used to college professors doing that. I’m there every week, for the parent conferences, the e-mails from irate students and parents. That’s the reality of teaching. That is the greatest decision I’ve made as an educator—removing myself from the ivy walls of higher education and getting down and dirty within the regular public school. It’s the best thing I’ve ever done, not only in terms of my credibility, but also my professional growth. I can write how I write because of the kids I work with on a regular basis.

Not only are you a teacher of gifted children, you’re also a parent of a gifted child. Have you taken some of your experiences and lessons you’ve had in the classroom and used them as a parent? Have you used what you’ve learned as a parent in the classroom?

I think it’s hard not to. When you’re raising a kid and you are a teacher, I think you make the connection of why kids are interested or not in learning. I think as a parent you’re just able to see things so much more differently than if you’ve never been a parent and you’re trying to have, for example, a parent conference. I used to say that a prerequisite for being a teacher should be to be a parent simultaneously. I don’t know if I’d go that far, but it certainly helps. You see things from a more universal perspective than if you were just a parent or just a teacher.

If you could share one piece of advice with other parents of gifted kids, what would it be?

I think the best advice I ever received from my son, even though he never told me directly, was to follow his lead. When you have kids who are really bright, they have a lot of directions they want to go in, usually simultaneously. I think the more we, as parents, try to pigeonhole our kids to go a certain route because they’re smart or because they’re strong in a certain area, that’s when it becomes an artificial fit. I’d rather ask my son or my students, “What are you interested in and how can I help you get there?” And, that’s really what we’ve done with our son. His major in college was creative writing and film studies, and I can’t tell you how many adults would kind of look at us and say or think, “What’s he ever going to do with a degree in that? How’s he going to earn a living?” And, that is certainly the wrong question to ask. If you’re passionate about what you want to do, you will find a way to make it work. There are too many parents who make the mistake of trying to take that away. You have to give them that freedom. It’s their life to live, not ours.

In your new book, Parenting Gifted Kids, you speak to parents in a very casual, conversational tone, and you’re often very frank about what you’ve learned about gifted kids. Why did you decide to write this book in this style?

I didn’t even want to write this book in the first place, and the reason I didn’t is because I looked around at the other books out there directed toward parents and they seemed to be more like cookbooks—do this and your kid will be a star—and I thought, “How lame.” I didn’t want to write another lame book. So, what I thought I’d do was just make believe I was having a conversation with a parent of a kid I know. Hopefully, parents will read my writing and not feel like they’re listening to Dr. Delisle, but listening to Jim Delisle just talk about stuff he’s learned from working with kids. I wanted a good medium—and that medium was having a conversation with the reader.

You discuss a lot of issues that parents of gifted kids are genuinely worried about, such as perfectionism and stress. What do you think is the most important issue affecting gifted kids today? What can parents do to help address this issue?

It’s very easy to see our kids in the future tense, rather than the present tense. With gifted kids, it’s easy to lose sight of who they are today, because they have so much that’s future-oriented in their lives. I want parents to get to know their kids and appreciate them for who they are right now. Losing sight of that can bring on some of the stress and pressures gifted kids face. The best way we can prepare our kids for the future is to enjoy who they are today and appreciate what they bring to every morning when they wake up.

With more than 30 years of experience as a teacher, counselor, college professor, and parent of gifted students, Dr. James R. Delisle combines his professional and personal experience with gifted students into a new guidebook for parents. Delisle’s up-front, insightful, and personal approach to the education and guidance of gifted children and adolescents has led him to become America’s favorite expert on the topic. Delisle has penned more than 14 books on gifted education, including The Gifted Kids’ Survival Guide: A Teen Handbook, and continues to serve this population as a professor of gifted education at Kent State University and as a middle school teacher in the Twinsburg, OH, school district.

Parenting Gifted Kids: Tips for Raising Happy and Successful Children provides a humorous, engaging, and encouraging look at raising gifted children today. In his latest book, Dr. Jim Delisle offers practical, down-to-earth advice that will cause any parent to reexamine the ways they perceive and relate to their children.

To read more about Parenting Gifted Kids or to order the book, click here.