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A-10 The Evening Bulletin, Monday, September 21, 1981

By Sonya F. Gray Journal-Bulletin Staff Writer

GLOCESTER -- Joyce Palumbo is just over 4 years old. Her large, dark eyes seem to absorb light and information. By her mother's account, when Joyce was a year old she spoke in sentences. At 1 and a half she was so avid about music that she tore her father's stereo tapes apart, trying to find out how they worked. He taught her to insert then into the stereo set and to dial the radio station she wanted to hear.

When she was 2.5: she was reading, books. Now she goes through local news- papers from front to back and is in the midst of "Black Beauty." Joyce Palumbo has an IQ of 155, which makes her a "gifted child." Her parents, David and Linda Palumbo of Putnam Pike in Harmony, say, as do the mothers of two other gifted children in the area, that their children's intelligence is a mixed blessing. They say attempts to put such youngsters into local school systems have been destructive because there are no programs geared to their unusual abilities.

The three mothers' children have IQ's in the 140s and 150s. (The generally accepted "average" IQ is about 100 to ll0). The mothers con- sider IQ a measure of their children's potential. Mrs. Palumbo says they are children who "seem to march to a different drum beat from the beat of the schools."

Alone with about a dozen other parents, they have set up the Northern Rhode Island Chapter of the National Foundation for Gifted Children. The chapter will be chartered and officers will be elected Thursday night during a meeting at St. Thomas Church in Greenville section of Smithfield.

Mrs. Palumbo said the chapter will explore the long-range goal of a school geared to be needs of gifted and creative children. One miscon- ception about the gifted, she said, is that because they are bright they will learn, regardless of what school they are in. But, she added, "These are children with emotional needs too."

She and the other mothers say that state law specifies that children should be provided "appropriate" education and that if funds are set aside for the retarded youngsters, there should also be some provision for those at the other end of the intellectual spectrum. They emphasize that they don't want to displace the retarded, but to be given their fair share.

MRS. PALUMBO said she didn't believe in saying "no" to Joyce, but rather in letting her explore her environment.

Mrs. Palumbo said that for two years her daughter attended nursery school and that convinced her of the necessity of teaching Joyce at home rather than enrolling her in a local public school.

Joyce was bright and happy when she first went off to nursery school, Mrs. Palumbo said. But once there, Mrs. Palumbo said, the child would ask other youngsters why they couldn't read. The result was that she didn't fit in. She would sit by herself in a corner reading while the other youngsters played.

"She'd never survive public school," Mrs. Palumbo said, adding that gifted children are usually sensitive and have an "acute sense of justice. They try to stick up for the underdog."

Mrs. Palumbo said she thinks her daughter would try to conform to public school, would never succeed because of her superior intellect and in later life would feel a sense of worthlessness.

She said she talked with some Glocester school officials about Joyce. but was told the child would have to learn to read again phonetically, rather than by remembering the meaning of words, as she does now. That would mean, Mrs. Palumbo said, that Joyce would be dealing with a be- ginner's vocabulary.

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Supt. Clifton J. Boyle Jr. said that Glocester schools have no program geared to a child with an IQ of 155, but that we "make arrangements flexible enough to provide a challenging program." David A. Crisafulli, principal of Fogarty Elementary School, said "a wealth of resources is provided in (local) schools for a gifted child." The system recently started an art and music program for gifted children, he said, but he added that there is no full curriculum provided specifically for such youngsters. Glocester is "moving in the direction of providing opportunity for children at every instructional level," he said adding, "No teacher has (ever) come to me with a child that exceeded the curriculum material."

Barbara Dean remembers that when her daughter was three years old, a bee got caught between the interior window of her home and the storm window. Mrs. Dean said she couldn't figure out how to get rid of the bee without raising the inner window and risking a sting. Her daughter suggested she raise the storm window from the outside, which Mrs. Dean says with a laugh and a touch of embarrassment, "I'd never thought of it." It is this, the ability of a bright youngster to solve problems in new and innovative ways, which Mrs. Dean thinks is another characteristic of the gifted. Her daughter has an IQ of 145.

"Mrs. Dean" is not her real name and some facets of her story have been changed slightly at her request to provide anonymity. She said she fears that any criticism of the system might cause a negative response from teachers and school officials.

Mrs. Dean's daughter, who is six, receives straight A's in school, her mother said, but a C in conduct. "Inattentive, slow, but not disobedient" is the school's assessment of her child's work. But Mrs. Dean thinks that her daughter, who began reading at the age of three, is simply bored.
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BUT THE MOST pernicious effect of attempting to integrate an extremely bright youngster into a learning situation geared to children with average intelligence, Mrs. Dean said, is that her daughter is unable to conform to her peers' interests and "now feels she's not as good as the others, or as pretty. She doesn't feel good about herself," her mother said. Mrs. Dean is considering taking a full-time job as a paralegal to earn the extra money required for her daughter's tuition at a private school. But she says that would mean being away from her son, who is 18 months old.

Joan Thomas, whose eight-year-old son has an IQ of 140, Lives in Smith- field. That also is not her real name and Johnny is not her son's name. She said that Johnny will sit at home reading for two or three hours at a stretch. But because he is bored in school, she said, he fidgets, be- comes disruptive and has been diagnosed as "hyperactive" She said school officials have told her that unless his behavior improves, he may be placed in a class for the learning disabled.

His grade average is B, except for conduct, which is C-minus, she said. Supt. John K. Boyle of Smithfield said he could not comment on Mrs. Thomas's son without knowing the parent or child involved. She said she has turned to the newly formed chapter for gifted and creative children in the hope of finding an alternative to the local school system.