Hawaii Gifted Association
Enriching the lives of gifted and talented individuals.
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About Us
 

 

Mission Statement

 

 

 

To enrich the lives of gifted and talented individuals.  

 

 

 

 

Objectives

 

 

 

The Hawaii Gifted Association (HGA) strives to support the

 

needs of gifted and talented individuals in our community

 

by providing enrichment programs for students and

 

informational and educational resources for parents

 

and educators. As part of this support network,

 

the advocacy arm of the HGA addresses current

 

educational and political policies that affect

 

gifted and talented students.

 

 

 

The HGA provides opportunities for gifted and talented

 

individuals to play, think, work, and learn with others

 

who share similar interests and abilities at a level that

 

may not be available in their current school settings.

 

 

 

Support programs for parents who want to learn more

 

about the unique issues facing gifted and

 

talented students are also available.

 

 

 

The HGA aims to provide training opportunities that

 

help educators identify and understand characteristics

 

of gifted and talented students and better prepare

 

teachers to provide appropriate learning opportunities

 

in their classrooms.

 

Definition of Gifted and Talented

 

 (U.S. Department of Education, 1993):  Gifted youth are children and youth with outstanding talent who perform or show the potential for performing at remarkably high levels of accomplishment when compared with others of their age, experience or environment.  These children and youth exhibit high performance capability in intellectual, creative or artistic areas, possess an unusual leadership capability or excel in specific academic fields.  They require services or activities not ordinarily provided by the schools. 

Outstanding talents are present in children and youth from all cultural groups, across all economic strata, and in all areas of human endeavor. 

 

 

 

(Martin, D.E. (1996).  Towards and understanding of the Native Hawaiian concept and manifestation of giftedness.  Unpublished doctoral dissertation, The University of Georgia, Athens.)  In the Hawaiian community, one who excels with his or her given gifts is someone who is doing what he or she is supposed to do and therefore, the expression of that talent is a natural phenomenon, not an anomaly or deviation from common law.  Consequently, the individual who early on shows an acute awareness and use of given gifts is nurtured just as much as another who does not.  In the Hawaiian viewpoint of giftedness, there is an inherent understanding of purpose for developing one's gifts and the valuing of one another.  The individual recognized by the Hawaiian community for outstanding abilities then, is one who develops, uses, and shares inherited gifts knowingly and to the fullest.  

 

 From Karen Rogers:  Dr. Rogers expounds on the definition of gifted and talented by French Professor, Francoys Gagne in her book,

 

 

Re-Forming Gifted Education: How Parents and Teachers Can Match the Program to the Child

 

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Rogers writes, "Every Child is born with some ability or capacity--what we could call a strength--a gifted child is born with a comparatively greater degree of this ability or potential." She goes on to use Gagne's definition of "talent" as, "'extraordinary performace in a field of human endeavor.'  Hence, according to Gagne, the child who is reading at sixth grade level in kindergarten is talented in reading, and the musician who can play Tsaikovsky's first violin concerto at age 10 is talented in music."     

 

Our history: 

 

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