Denying our geniuses....

[kushali]

Time magazine has an interesting article about how badly our school system serves some of the most promising individuals. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1653653,00.html

Comments

[firstfourisee]

We talked about skipping grades though I never actually did so. They handed a few of us 4th grade math books in 1st grade and that worked out.

Gifted programs rock, though I felt a bit guilty being called out to go to ours. It seems like there could be an alternative hour of teaching here and there, where it's divided by level (and the gifted kids go off and do their thing) and everyone else gets some modified version of the same types of activities.

I had older siblings and never quite fit in with kids my own age until about college. I'm intrigued by the social development questions this raises, where we don't advance kids too quickly so they have a chance to grow up a bit, to be a bit like normal kids. Rarely do exceptionally intelligent kids enjoy much of being around their own grade anyway, but we always say that college is as much about growing up as the knowledge you gain and we must be gaining some kinds of useful social awareness in 5th grade, yes??? In some fantasy world, it would be great to ask the advanced grade if they will accept and welcome someone from the lower grade into their level. Assuming they consent, they have chosen to bring this person in and might even look out for him or her in ways they wouldn't now. It would be like sibling classmates and perhaps less scary, threatening, or simply awkward.

What becomes of bright kids later? What happens when we nurture them well or don't? Do they tend to change the world for the better? Talent finds a way, as Einstein did, but we can certainly give it a hand. What's the best way to help? For whatever reason, mentoring programs are coming to mind more than anything. They might inspire those who can use a bit of motivation and provide context and wisdom, beyond book knowledge, for those who are absorbing a lot of information at an accelerated pace. It might make some of the accelerated learning a lot more useful both for the individual's fulfillment and societal good.

I love your analogy on clothes and educations that fit. Apt.

Somewhat beside the point, I bristled a bit at this:
American schools spend more than $8 billion a year educating the mentally retarded. Spending on the gifted isn't even tabulated in some states, but by the most generous calculation, we spend no more than $800 million on gifted programs. But it can't make sense to spend 10 times as much to try to bring low-achieving students to mere proficiency as we do to nurture those with the greatest potential.

I get the author's point but it had a spooky, elitist tone to it somehow.

Thanks for bringing up the topic.