Ungifted

A question underlying the novel is, what does it mean to be human? Human Growth and Development is the name of the course the gifted students need to make up, but it also expresses the novel’s main theme. Being human means growing and changing, making mistakes, developing our gifts, and striving to strengthen our weaker areas.

The gifted students need to grow in their understanding of themselves as human, capable of feeling, acting, letting go, and making mistakes. Chloe wants to experience social interaction. Noah needs to learn that he is capable of making mistakes, no matter how high his IQ is. Donovan and his friends, Daniel Sanderson and Daniel Nussbaum, need to see the gifted kids as fully human and capable of feeling. Dr. Shultz needs to develop patience and the ability to listen and to see all students as having potential. Mr. Osborne and Ms. Bevelaqua need to see students as more than just an aggregate number arrived at by testing. Only Ms. Bevelaqua demonstrably fails to change over the course of the novel.

The novel’s events suggest that achieving growth requires learning to balance nature and nurture. Donovan is impulsive by nature. The gifted students are highly intelligent by nature. These qualities, however, do not define them by necessity, nor are they positive or negative by definition. For example, Noah’s stratospheric intelligence makes it difficult for him to relate to other humans, both his peers and authority figures. Donovan’s impulsiveness can lead him to make poor choices, but it also compels him, later in the book, to confront what he sees as injustice.

What Donovan and the gifted students do with their natural qualities depends on the environments they are in—in other words, on nurture. At ASD, student are assumed to be capable, driven, and smart, which they are. However, the environment also encourages these traits by providing intellectual challenges and by assuming that intellectual curiosity drives student action. For example, when a student throws a paper airplane on the school bus, the driver interprets it as an experiment. When Noah provides incorrect answers on math tests, the teacher dismisses it as intentional and rewards Noah by raising his grade.

In contrast, Donovan notes that neither teachers nor students have the same high expectations at Hardcastle. After his time at ASD, Donovan develops an affinity for schoolwork. His grades go up, the work seems less challenging, and he begins participating in class. However, his friends do not support his scholastic achievement. When he raises his hand in class, they remind him that he is not at ASD anymore, implying students at Hardcastle do not engage and achieve.

Both Hardcastle and ASD lack balance. Students at ASD achieve academically but lack social skills, as noted by Ms. Bevelaqua and Dr. Shultz. When one of Donovan’s teachers suggests at a faculty meeting that he possesses emotional intelligence, Ms. Bevelaqua dismisses this. She argues that Donovan only seems socially savvy because they are comparing him to the socially-maladjusted gifted kids. Dr. Shultz attends the Valentine’s dance because he worries the gifted kids will struggle to relate to their Hardcastle peers. Both Ms. Bevelaqua and Dr. Shultz have a point, as the ASD kids do struggle to relate socially. However, both overlook the extent to which the environment at ASD cultivates social awkwardness by valuing intellectual development over social. Among the faculty, Mr. Osborne is the most aware of Donovan’s value to his students. He notices how Donovan’s presence brings students together, transforming them from individuals preoccupied with their solitary achievements into a community. After Donovan is expelled, Mr. Osborne misses him and recognizes that the students also feel his loss. At the end of the novel, he requests Donovan be permitted to participate in robotics and Dr. Shultz agrees, demonstrating his growth as well.

In the Hardcastle School District, a bold line divides the gifted from the not gifted, determining who benefits from ASD’s many assets; in actuality, the distinction between gifted and not gifted is not so clear cut. Korman demonstrates this by including each speaker’s IQ. Giftedness falls along a continuum from 115 to 200+, just as normal intelligence falls along a continuum. The novel suggests the importance of honoring this continuum rather than catering to extremes by privileging some qualities to the exclusion of others. Being human means being able to recognize one’s strengths and gifts as well as potential for mistakes and growth.