When Julie Bishop was the minister for education in 2007, I convinced her that the federal government should support gifted education - a state responsibility.
To add firepower to my arguments, I invited the feisty Professor Miraca Gross, a world authority on gifted education, to meet Bishop. The starting point of federal support was Gross's world-class Gifted Education Research Resources and Information Centre (GERRIC), at the University of NSW.
Following this success, we approached the Coalition before the NSW election in 2011. We met with the shadow minister for education, Adrian Piccoli. High on the meeting agenda was what the new Coalition government would be doing to improve gifted children's education in NSW schools. We were aware that former ALP premier Bob Carr was highly supportive. Under his government, gifted education in our state made some progress, including accelerated learning programs in non-selective schools.
We came away from the meeting with Piccoli shell-shocked. The future NSW education minister had little interest in gifted education. It appears his views have not changed. Recently, Honorary Professor Piccoli suggested that NSW should phase out its selective school system for the gifted. "We cannot continue to further crowd advantaged students into some schools".
If the former minister believes natural intelligence gives such children a head start in the education stakes, he is only partly correct. The reality is often our schools fail to help many of gifted children achieve their potential.
I realised this problem first-hand when I was appointed as a young teacher without training in gifted education to the academically selective Sydney Boys High School. During my teacher training, the words "gifted pupils" did not pass any of my lecturers' lips. Not much seems to have changed since, except for a few university teacher training courses, for example, the GERRIC gifted education courses at the University of NSW.
I continued my interest in this area of education during my subsequent political career. In 2001, the Senate Employment, Education and Training Standing Committee, which I chaired, established the second National Inquiry into Gifted Education. We received 279 submissions, visited nine locations, made 20 recommendations to the government which were agreed across party lines - no easy feat. What we read and heard during that inquiry was truly eye-opening.
One parent wrote the following about her gifted child: "Our daughter has been treading water for too long, can see the education system for what it is, has lost complete faith in it, lost interest in achieving and lost the love of learning".
Research shows that 40 per cent of gifted children become so frustrated with schooling, that their needs have not been met, they drop out either physically or mentally or become troublesome in class because they are so bored. Many complete the set work in quick-time, and then if there are no extension activities provided, they idle away the rest of the lesson.
The inquiry found many of their teachers felt they lacked expertise, confidence, and the resources to meet their gifted pupils' needs. For children who have the potential to become the future leaders of our community, whether it be in research, science, business or the arts, this is a tremendous blow - not just for the child and their families, but for our economy and society.
So why isn't the public clamouring for a better deal for Australia's gifted students? Government resources broadly follow the concerns of the community. The senate inquiry found a shared ethos in Australia that you were already privileged if you were academically gifted.
In contrast, we certainly see many special programs designed for sport where giftedness and talent are widely admired. We laud the achievements of our youth on the sporting fields. However, we do not hear the same level of praise for young people's accomplishments; academically, in the sciences, the arts or other creative areas.
But during their lives, the gifted will provide far more then they will consume. They are Australia's greatest resource. Without the talent of the gifted, Australia would have a lower standard of living. There are thousands of gifted people who have made a considerable difference in the quality of people's lives, for example, through medical research and brilliance in the arts. Without their contribution, we are a lesser nation in every sense.
In contrast to Australia, in the British education paradigm, the gifted are seen as having a role in driving economic development. This is not seen as being mutually exclusive to a socially inclusive agenda.
Gifted children are the bright stars that are crucial to igniting our post-pandemic economy and its supporting culture. Australia will be a duller star in the firmament of nations if our little stars are not provided with the right conditions for them to shine.
