Little Boy with the "Train"

Today Block A classes met for a two hour session and we talked about the ins and out of the two talent development models. I specifically focused on the talent development model of Talent Development Perspective. This model talks about the differences in the way of thinking. Traditionally, society thinks about giftedness and talent development in terms of Traditional Child Development. This is the thought that children are either born with giftedness or they are not, and general education should focus on aiding student in their general abilities. The Talent Development Perspective challenges that thought and says that, yes giftedness is a trait that only some students have, however, schools need to provide programs for specific niches/domains that help identify and support the growth in those students’ specified areas.

For the last part of class, we were asked to sit and observe some people in the nearby park and think about how talent development and giftedness relates to the individuals we were observing. As I say down to observe, I came across a little boy sitting on a toy train. If I had to guess, he was around the age of four. I decided to not take a picture, because I figured it would be inappropriate and if I were a parent I would not appreciate that. He was sitting and moving the train all around the park and making noises such as; “choo-choo” and “all aboard” to make it known that he was the train conductor and wanted to take people on a ride.. In fact, he picked up (who I am assuming was his brother) to take him on a ride and drop him off at his desired destination. The boy’s ability to have such a wide imagination shows that he was thinking beyond the fact that he is in a park sitting on a toy train. He was making up his own story in his head and imagining that he was a real-life conductor. He was going to take people on a ride and get them to the place they wanted to go around the park.

After watching him a little longer, I recognized something else that he was doing. He began to show his brother different tasks they could do around the jungle gym. His brother seemed to be a bit younger, especially because I noticed the dad was following the brother around making sure he was okay. The little boy ran up to his brother and pointed to have him watch, while he climbed up the pegged ladder. His brother watched him and begun to follow in his footsteps. As time went on, the boy moved onto the next obstacle and had his brother watch him again. His brother followed and when he completed the task, he applauded him for doing so. It was very apparent that this little boy had a gift for helping and teaching others. When the father began to realize what was happening, he stepped away and let the brothers do their thing. He watched in amazement and smiled while he watched his sons learn from one another.

At four years old, you could already tell that he had an act for educating others.The fact that he knew to give his little brother praise after completing a task, was inspiring to me. He had to have learned that from someone in his life and applied it to the situation with his brother. He knew that his little brother would feel like he did a good job, if he has some sort of reinforcement. If we think about the Talent Development Perspective, we can see that this little boy was given the opportunity to excel in his domain. His father stepping back and letting him teach the brother, allowed him to use his gift of teaching to the best of his ability. In the future, I am hopeful that this little boy will have the opportunity to continue to grow upon his gift of instructing. Having such early exposure through his parents and brother, will hopefully be able to translate over to the schooling environment. Possibly, he will be given the chance to help others in the future. This would be an excellent way to continue the expansion of his talent development and allow him to strive in his passion and gift for teaching others.