The Tendency to Question and Challenge

I highly recommend this lecture if you interact with gifted youngesters at all.  The third characteristic of gifted youth, according to Judith Roseberry, is to question generalizations and challenge authority.  I’ve heard other people call this the “little lawyer syndrome.”  You’ve probably met the child who cannot just accept what you say as being true and argues over details, an individual word, or even a related, but different example.  From my experience with a classroom of 28 gifted youngsters, I agree that this group of students does this more than average youngsters.

Our class has been working on ways to respectfully disagree with each other in conversation.  I can see that they need to be able to show that they agree with, or at least acknowledge, parts of another person’s statement, even when they do not agree with everything.  Being able to notice small details and evaluate their accuracy can be a wonderful skill in a democratic society.  Questioning and challenging can lead to new insights and new discoveries or all.  Too much questioning, however, can be perceived as being disrespectful.  Roseberry gives suggestions on phrases to teach to gifted youngsters that allow them to question and challenge ideas, but still follow social courtesies and use polite manners.  Most of these phrases are given with teenagers challenging their parents in mind, but the ideas still fit with younger children in the classroom:

• In my opinion it seems as if…
• Would you look at my evidence?
• Is there anything I could say that would change your mind?

With instruction and practice, students can learn to use phrases like these on a regular basis.  They need to realize that conversations can be more productive and satisfying for everyone when the questioning and challenging of ideas happens in a polite, nonjudgemental way.