Partnership Educators,
Scott sat gazing out the window within his ninth-grade resource class waiting for the period to begin when in strolled the teacher for the day. It seems that a substitute was going to be working with the kids that day. Scott prepared himself for another day of school like all the others that he had experienced since before he could remember.
From a very early age, Scott had been identified with a Central Auditory Processing Disorder and so he had experienced all of his school career in special programs. The first three years of Scott's young life had been spent dealing with twenty-one different ear infections and having a difficult time hearing things around him. Most would say he was virtually deaf. As Scott describes it, "I mostly just would hear a whooshing sound." You can imagine that this caused a multitude of issues and so the processing issue was identified and special education programs were the solution.
The elementary years were filled with feelings of sadness at the comments and laughter from peers. Scott just knew that students thought he was dumb, his teachers thought he was dumb and for sure he thought he was dumb. Many teachers wrote "a slow learner" on his work and reports. His identity became learning disabled and it was a label that he carried with him everywhere he went.
As class began that day, Scott got to work and the substitute teacher started to work with him along with the other students in the class. He was often cheeky. Being funny and causing laughter in his peers was his way to cope. It was a usual day but then it happened. It was a transformative moment for Scott that he will never forget. The teacher said to him, "I see you and I see your frustration. Why are you still in this class and Special Education? You are better than this." Scott realized that he had no answer to her question. Why was he in there? She inspired him to see what he was capable of, and man, that set off this big spark. He says, "I quit special ed overnight." That moment was when he vowed to move forward for himself.
The rest of high school for Scott was filled with college prep classes and straight A's but challenges were still abundant. His stated goal was to become a Psychologist.
After graduation, Scott applied to Carnegie Mellon to the Psychology Department but was rejected because his SAT scores were too low. Not to be deterred, he applied to the music department in Opera at Carnegie Mellon, auditioned and was accepted with a partial scholarship. After a year of dancing and singing, he applied to move to the Psychology Department and was accepted.
Dr. Scott Barry Kaufman is a cognitive psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania with degrees from Carnegie Mellon and Yale Universities. His Doctoral Dissertation is called, "Ungifted: Intelligence Redefined"
Ellis Paul Torrance - (Creativity Researcher University of Georgia) - Found that the best predictor of lifelong creative achievement was the extent to which children in elementary school fell in love with a dream when they were young.
Scott Kaufman - "A lot of people think of creativity as only existing amongst the geniuses or some high-level thing that is only accessible to certain people when the reality is that creativity is something that we carry with us everywhere we go. The key is finding the one thing that will make them shine the most."
Definition: Intelligence is the dynamic interplay of engagement and ability in pursuit of personal goals.
Thanks for the outstanding work with supporting our students to reach for the stars and encouraging them to dream and learn to achieve those dreams.
Have a great weekend,
Rob
Superintendent
Redding Elementary School District
New Millennium Partnership
5885 East Bonnyview Rd.
Redding, Ca 96001