"A Dialogue with He Shuman" was published by Guangming
Daily on October 26. He Shuman is the director of the
Committee of Supernormal Talents under China Talents Research
Institute. She has also been involved in gifted education research
and practical studies with teenagers at the University of Science
and Technology of China (USTC).
The following are key excerpts of the interview:
Reporter: We frequently hear stories of child
prodigies and their education has been a hot topic of discussion.
What's the current status of education for gifted talents in
China?
He Shuman: First of all, not all gifted
children can become gifted talents even with education. The "gifted
talents" we refer to here are those who have made outstanding
contributions to society. Most child prodigies are usually the
result of appropriate education given at an early age. They form
only a small part of education of gifted talents. In the past, some
people used to define gifted education as education for children
with a high intelligence quotient, above 130. However, such a
definition discounts many talented people like Albert Einstein,
Thomas Edison, Chinese mathematician Hua Luogeng. It also discounts
the majority of rural students who account for 80 percent of the
population. With the development of society, the era of large
numbers of "child prodigies" who benefit from early education is
coming to the fore.?
China's gifted talents education has also changed with the
times. It's no longer a privilege given to gifted children. It also
explores the potential of students with above-medium intelligence.
Gifted education does not contradict the regular education system.
It focuses more on teaching students according to their aptitude,
diversified curricula. It also focuses on one-to-one teaching,
which is important for exploring a student's potential. According
to China's fifth census in 2000, there were 313 million children
under 14 years (children in the cities accounting for 14.7
percent). If gifted children account for one percent of them, there
will be at least 3 million gifted children in China and at least
200 million students who are of above-medium intelligence.
Therefore the gifted education should be made more widely
available.
R: Some very gifted children finally become
only mediocre people. Why is this?
He: Using Ning Bo as an example (Ning Bo
became a household name in China in the early 1980s. By the time he
was two, he could recite 30 poems and was enrolled at USTC when he
was 14. But a few years ago, he decided to become a monk.), I
talked with him in 1987. He told me he didn't know what to do in
the face of all the media hype. He wanted to achieve what the media
had said he would achieve, but he felt that he couldn't perform as
well as was expected of him, he felt hopeless. Second, pursuing a
personal interest is critical. He said he chose the wrong major. He
felt that he could have done better had he chosen traditional
Chinese medicine or weiqi (go).
In addition, some gifted children's physical development is not
synchronized with their psychological development?-- their
intelligence development is not synchronized with their
non-intelligent development; their studies are not synchronized
with social development, which are also key reasons why some gifted
children eventually become what others might consider to be
mediocre people.
Many parents of gifted children accompany their children
everywhere, even to college. These children then become unwilling
to stay in college dormitories and therefore don't really
assimilate into the real college life. They fail to develop a sense
of responsibility, either to themselves or anyone else. If they
don't learn to socialize, it will be very hard for them to adapt to
society, or the "real world", and therefore won't have the
opportunity to use their talents.
A special system needs to be set up to serve special talents.
Society should have special policies for people with special
talents and should be more tolerant with those "unique" talents.
Don't judge them only by their scores at school. Be open to the
development of children who might be gifted in other ways. Of
course, all science and innovation are results of experiments, so
we can't guarantee a 100 percent success rate. But if there is no
experiment, there can be no success at all. Education is no
exception. We can't stop gifted education just because of a few
failures.
Currently, more relaxed policies should be made in relation to
schools that already offer a gifted education program including
Beijing Eighth Middle School, The High School Affiliated to Renmin University of
China, Tianjin Yaohua Middle School, and Beijing Yumin Primary
School. In addition, gifted education programs should pay more
attention to talents in literature, the arts and sports, and not
focus only on the sciences.
R: Is gifted education expensive? If so, how
can children from poor families, whether in the cities or rural
areas, get access to such education?
He: The investment is not directly proportional
to the rewards. Some parents carry out prenatal conditioning of the
fetus, engage home tutors, and enroll their children in expensive
schools. Some even ignore their children's natural talents and
design their education according to what THEY, that is, the
parents, want.
Children from the rural areas are a disadvantaged group due to
the great inherent disparity in education resources between the
urban and the rural, the rich and the poor. Gifted education should
be made accessible to rural children, too. My suggestions are to
carry out gifted education in middle and primary schools. Actually,
there are already such examples in China. Tianyi Middle School in
Jiangsu Province for one has had a gifted education program for
rural children for the last 20 years. The Tianyi model should be
promoted and popularized.
(China.org.cn translated by Wang Qian, November 1, 2005)