The Jokes Gifted Teachers Are Tired of Hearing
- Michelle Robinson
- Apr 2
- 2 min read
Updated: Apr 7
You know the moment. You’re standing in the teacher’s lounge, juggling three folders, a coffee that’s gone cold, and a to-do list that includes “create a district-wide talent search.” A colleague grins and says: “Oh, you teach gifted? It must be so easy to teach those kids.” Cue the internal eye roll. 🙄
If you've been in gifted education for longer than five minutes, you've probably heard a greatest-hits list of comments like these:
“I could teach gifted if I had the good kids too.”
“Why do we even need a gifted program?”
“They’re just bored because they’re too smart.”
“They’re fine. Focus on the struggling kids.”
“They already know everything, right?”
“I give my gifted early finishers more problems to differentiate.”
And our personal favorite: “Gifted? They don't act gifted?”(insert silent scream here)
What’s wild is that these “jokes” usually come from smart, well-meaning educators who just haven’t been given the tools to understand what gifted really means. But over time, those quips wear you down. They make it harder to advocate for your students and your program. And they can leave you feeling like you're the only one who gets it.
But you're not alone. There's a whole tribe of gifted teachers out here—rolling their eyes right along with you. (We'd love you to join our Gifted Ed Solutions FB Group - it's small, but growing)
We see the emotional intensity. The asynchronous development. The misdiagnosed behaviors. The perfectionism. The underachievement. The endless juggling of teaching, planning, advocating, and explaining—over and over again.
And because laughter is sometimes the only thing keeping us from flipping a desk, I made a
little something for you:👉 The Gifted Ed Comebacks and Clarifiers Toolkit — aka your personal stash of polite mic drops. Just in case you need a little something extra next time someone says, “I wish I had your job.”
Hang in there. You’re not crazy. You’re a gifted teacher. :)
Email Michelle: michelle@themichellerobinson.com
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