Customer Reviews

A Love for Learning: Motivation and the Gifted Child

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Carol Strip Whitney and Gretchen Hirsch have done an exceptional job at outlining major and minor impediments to motivation in their book, A Love For Learning Motivation and the Gifted Child. A key line in the preface is, "Gifted children can and do learn everywhere; the trick is to maintain their motivation to learn in school." Gifted underachievement is a widespread problem. Too few gifted children are adequately challenged and taught how to strive and work toward appropriate goals. This is a guidebook that all teachers and parents should read. There are many reasons that children may lose their desire to succeed. This book makes sense of motivational roadblocks and includes techniques for stimulating gifted minds. Any school should be able to put a few of these ideas into place with a modest amount of effort.

A Love for Learning is not light reading. While it is written in language any lay person can understand, topics are explored in depth. A total of 15 chapters focus on themes such as physical reasons for loss of motivation (vision or hearing problems, learning disabilities, etc.), emotional reasons for loss of motivation, creating challenge, and the classroom that works. Each chapter ends in a brief summary.

According to the authors, there are approximately three million gifted children in the United States. Sadly, we have very few educators trained to work with this population. The advent of No Child Left Behind legislation has pushed the interests of gifted children to the back burner. Teachers and administrators are required to do all that they can to ensure that the students at the lower end of the spectrum achieve a minimum level of competency. Federal funding is tied to raised test scores. Students who are already at or above the minimum standards are often forced to sit through repetitive drills and test preparation. Obviously, this is not the best educational situation for a child who is academically gifted. Such a poor fit with classroom activities is one reason that a child may lose motivation. I encourage you to read A Love for Learning to discover other root causes and find practical methods to reestablish a commitment to learning.

I just finished reading A Love for Learning and feel it would definitely be a valuable addition to anyone's library on issues with parenting and teaching gifted children. It is one of the best written and well organized books aimed at the caretakers of gifted kids that I've come across. I appreciate the chapter summaries, the carefully selected anecdotes, and the breadth and depth of its content. My one turn-off is the use of the word motivation in the title and the chapter headings. My first impression as a parent was that this would be more clinical, a dry read. But it wasn't at all like that. It rings true to what turns GT kids on or off (yes, that is Motivation or lack of!) and how we can foster a physical, intellectual, social and emotional environment that is naturally exciting and comforting for them. Other books have addressed this topic, but I think this is a winner!

I read this book as a somewhat desperate parent who has struggled with an underachiever for several years. Dr. Whitney clarified, confirmed and put words around some things that I had observed but could not have verbalized, and she identified some keys to motivation of which I was unaware. The book helped me to identify some specific elements in my son's schooling that had led to, and were perpetuating his low motivation, and gave me the words and tools to deal with those elements in the school setting. And I came to appreciate just how different my son is from the norm. I can't claim to completely understand the differences and how they play out in his life, but I can accept them and appreciate that the traits he displays are not altogether unusual among the gifted.

Reading this book helped me recommit to advocating for my son in the classroom. Just because he's happy, doesn't mean he's getting what he needs out of school. As a mom of an HG+ child, I now understand where he lost some of his self-driven motivation and how to help him get it back. I realized reading this wonderful book that probably as early as preschool, the low expectations of the school settled in as low expectations of himself. I recommend this book to anyone who is a parent of a gifted child, as well as to any teachers. You will be enlightened about motivation for every student, not just the gifted.

A Love for Learning is an excellent comprehensive guide for parents and teachers alike, outlining the various aspects of motivation in children, especially those who are gifted. Carol Strip Whitney and Gretchen Hirsch have explained in detail why these gifted children lose motivation and how we can all help rekindle that lost enthusiasm and love of learning.

A Love for Learning is written in clear, precise language that anyone can understand. Each topic is explored in detail. While this is not "easy rading," it is extremely educational and informative, and is an excellent reference tool for both parents and teachers. The summaries and ancedotes are especially helpful, bringing each chapter into a practical focus.

Gifted children are "special needs," too. In this country, much time, effort, and funding is spent bringing children up to the "norm." This book illustrates what could be accomplished if we concentrated as much attention on helping our gifted children progress to their fullest potential. Clearly BOTH ends of the sprectrum deserve our help.