Burnette, F.

Hebert, T. P. & Beardsley, T. M. (2001). Jermaine: A critical case study of a gifted black child
living in rural poverty. Gifted Child Quarterly, 45(2), 85-103.
I really had a lot of different emotions while reading this study. First, the authors did an
excellent job of walking us through the setting of which Jermaine exists. They described the
location, the history of the location and how that played into common ideas of the area. They
recalled information regarding how others felt about the community that Jermaine exists in.
They also walked us through the school setting the Jermaine grows up in. The authors identify
also, early on, the teachers that are involved with Jermaine and we have can only imagine an
idea of what his life would look like without this particular teacher, Mrs. Teresa.
The authors gave us insight into Jermaines giftedness through giving us several
excerpts of his work, with explanations through field notes and observations to detail his
giftedness. His creativity being his strong suite, the authors walk us through different time
periods of his life that show us how he creates and how he yearns for more information. The
authors also show us different mediums for Jermaine to seek out his talents and satisfy his
cravings for more knowledge through television and reading. The authors do caution that while
television can be an escape for rural communities, it can also have negative effects on those
students as well through the ideas portrayed and the people represented.
I feel like this article really hits home to me. I work in a rural community, with an
extremely impoverished group of students. We have such a range of students demographically,
and we deal with a lot of these issues. Of how our students are coming to us without any
support. I feel compelled to be that teacher to my students. The one that encourages them and
becomes that support system. Realizing that I may never get to see the impact made. I liked
how the authors gave us insight into further research, but would have liked to seen this research
continued or a follow-up of Jermaine when he gets to high school. Since I am a high school

teacher, I would like to see how it changes as they grow and if they can maintain that same selfidentity. Also, I would like to see what would happen if you removed some of the support
systems and added in students that are gifted that are facing the opposite issue - no support.