Gate to a Gifted Society : Youths Master Art of Politics

Eleven-year-old Terence Yin spent a recent Monday night at a Monterey Park City Council meeting, looking for a few tips on political wheeling and dealing.

Terence had mastered enough of the preliminaries to be elected mayor of the so-called “Gate Society,” one of five mini-communities created as part of a yearlong civics project by students in the Alhambra City and High School Districts’ Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) program. But he figured it was time to hone his skills.

“I felt that I wasn’t doing a very good job as mayor, so I thought I’d watch the real one at work,” said the fifth-grader at Los Ynez Elementary School in Monterey Park.

Importance of Being Earnest

What did he learn from the pros?

“To act serious at all times, no matter what I do.”

As mayor, Terence has led his fellow fifth- and sixth-graders as they wrote laws, gave speeches and sold goods in the Gate Society, according to Susan Ashby, gifted program specialist for the Alhambra district.

Ashby established the basic guidelines for the five societies, but the 145 participating students decided how their communities would operate. The children spent their days debating laws, electing officials and working out tax policies.

Students also decided what jobs they wanted to perform in their societies and received salaries in currencies that they named. Ashby was on the payrolls as a consultant.

“There is only one thing different from a real society: We don’t get to drive a car,” said Tiffany Kuo, 11, a fifth-grader at Northrup School in Alhambra and a citizen of the Gate Society.

The students, who are in second through sixth grade, attend regular classes four days a week at the Alhambra district’s 13 elementary schools and spend one morning at Los Ynez with Ashby, who supervises them as they conduct their society business.

In the afternoons, Ashby goes to the schools to help teachers prepare lessons that will complement what students learn in their societies.

To celebrate the end of the fall semester, students from all five societies gathered at Los Ynez for an International GATE Market, where they bought such student-made products as cookies and potted plants with the “funds” they had earned as part of a lesson in monetary systems.

Terence said that when he dubbed his society’s money “shish kebobs,” he did not know there was a food of the same name. Other societies used “goldies” or “gates.”

The Alhambra district is one of 23 elementary and high school districts in the San Gabriel Valley receiving state funds for gifted and talented education programs. Two other districts, Bonita and Arcadia, are among 98 in the state waiting to get programs. Funds become available only when a school district with comparable enrollment drops out of the program. This school year, 218,000 students in 428 districts took part.

Building Leadership

Linda Forsyth, GATE director for the state, said the program is aimed at building leadership abilities in those students identified by their districts as gifted, based on standardized test scores, exceptional academic achievement or other special abilities.

“The gifted program,” Forsyth said, “is in the business of helping public education do its job for a portion of the public that has unique abilities and potentials.

“Do you train for a marathon by only being allowed to run the 50-yard dash? It’s the same with education. You don’t train your gifted children, the innovators the future leaders, without giving them the stretching they need to exercise that kind of leadership.”

Forsyth said the state issues broad guidelines for gifted programs, but lets each district decide how funds are used.

The state allocated $21.5 million for gifted education for the 1986-87 school year. Alhambra got $58,100 for its GATE program, which has had a full-time teacher for two years.

Academic Enrichment

It was up to Ashby to decide how to challenge her gifted students.

“What I’m supposed to do with these kids is offer them some enrichment, something they won’t get in the regular classes,” Ashby said.

Forsyth said the mini-society concept is especially useful in working with gifted children because “that’s the kind of theme or umbrella concept that allows you to teach a heck of a lot of stuff.”

In a typical classroom, Forsyth said, the teacher might teach one aspect of government or the monetary system, but would not instruct students in how the various institutions interact, unlike the mini-society project.

The main thing the students learn, she said, is that “in order to get anything done, they have to work together.”

Orderly Meetings

“These kids are probably conducting meetings more orderly than most city councils,” Ashby said.

Ashby said that before she took over the GATE program, she taught first- through eighth-grade classes for 11 years.

“It’s the most challenging job,” she said of working with gifted children. “It’s also the most frustrating. I’d like to see all classes taught this way. I wish every teacher could work with these kinds of students.”

Vincenza Green, a GATE classroom aide whose son, David, is a second-grader in the GATE program at Los Ynez, said his son “takes what he learns here on Mondays and it takes him through the week. After this, he sees his other classes as child care.”

Green said the class helps students think creatively. “They aren’t just sitting there and saying, ‘5 plus 7 is 12.’ I think that’s frustrating for a child. Every child should have this (kind of program) every day.”

Taxes and Welfare

Taxes and welfare became major issues in each of the societies. After Ashby suggested taxation as a means of financing government, one student made a sign proclaiming “No on Proposition 1--We Can’t Afford to Be Taxed.”

The same child also made a sign calling for a “yes” vote on a welfare measure. “If you needed welfare, you’d want it too,” the sign said.

Ashby said the signs set off a lively debate about government priorities, which ended when the citizens of one society voted to reduce taxes and pay for social services through other unspecified means.

Her students also learned about ordinances and the rules of government, so much so that “they have even slapped a couple of injunctions on me,” Ashby said.

No Newspapers

One society sought relief from being required to keep a journal of daily activities. The other prevented Ashby from forcing a society to buy a newspaper.

“They claimed I was unfairly subsidizing one business and that other businesses weren’t receiving the same consideration, and they were right,” she said.

With the “salaries” they received for their jobs in their societies, students learned to manage checks and bank accounts. Ashby said few checks have bounced.

“But the purpose is not to have learned how to balance a checkbook,” Ashby said. “It’s not skills I’m trying to teach them. It’s new ways of thinking about things.”

Both students and parents are enthusiastic about the Alhambra district’s program.

“The best indication of this program’s performance is the kids and the parents,” said Donna Perez, the district’s curriculum coordinator and supervisor of the GATE parent advisory group.

“I’ve never seen such enthusiasm. The kids get sick and upset if they can’t attend, and the parents do everything they can to see they get there.”