Gifted and talented education is a theme that in the recent years has been a common topic. For quite some time we have known that there are children who think quicker and in a different way. Unfortunately our society has neglected to provide adequate formative opportunities for these children. One assumes that these children have been smiled on by fate and should be happy to be one of the lucky ones, to be able to easily grasp concepts and perform in specialized ways. Few people know that underchallenged children suffer just as overchallenged children, and that the wait to receive suitable mental sustenance can make a child nearly ill. These children can grow up to be just fine, thanks to additional work from many different sources and a slow rise in the public conscious about these issues, but we are still a long way from the potential for these children.
In the meantime there are specialized locations and isolated offers at schools for older children and young people with special gifts, but sometimes talents manifest to the trained eye much earlier than one generally assumes. It is infrequent in these cases for the child to receive special training or to be allowed to skip a grade. It is also not sufficient to satisfy the child’s learning needs with additional worksheets to pacify them or to offer in a special course once a week an occasional mental delicacy. That is simply a plaster on the wounded child’s soul. What these children need is a learning environment in which specially trained adults, committed to allowing for the needs of these different children, can creatively and competently guide them in their sometimes unconventional development.
SPRUNGBRETT is such a place. The small mixed-age private school offers for a select group of children between the ages of 0-12 a familial learning environment in which the child can achieve his or her optimal development. To me as a directress it is important to develop the human potential as well as a natural desire for lifelong learning.