No More Gifted in MoCo?

[Anonymous]

To the 11:54 poster's comment, I think I get where you're going, but it doesn't reflect my experience. From what I've seen, all kids, and all adults, have days when their self-esteem is low, and when they are affected by what others think. I of course agree that good parenting can help to take the edge off, but nobody's immune. Perhaps part of the issue is that I've never viewed the GT program as being for kids who are "superior" or that kids who are not in the program as "inferior." The program was based on IQ testing, not an assessment of the kids' worth or overall talents. As for everyone having a right to learn, I agree, but I don't see how that's relevant to the issue. As a parent, I'm not trying to level any playing field. I hope to teach my kids to appreciate people's differences, to develop their strengths and acknowledge their weaknesses, to find a way to excel (emotionally, in their relationships, in their talents and in their academics), and to give back to the larger community. If my kids aren't very engaged in school and direct their energy and talents elsewhere, I wouldn't expect them to be included in a GT program. If they are academically slow, I would expect that some other kids would become frustrated with them over time. And if my kids tease academically oriented kids for being nerdy or geekish, I would understand that those kids might be pretty happy not to be in classes with my kids.

[Anonymous]

I think labeling kids "gifted" is as wrong as labeling kids "slow". Every child is gifted, so I applaud MoCo's desire to get rid of the label.

Putting kids of varying abilities together in one classroom is the challenge of public schools. Private schools do not need to do so. A trend in public schools is away from the GT label, and toward differentiation in the classroom, a shaky proposition at best.

In choosing public for elementary school, a parent may be deciding that a child needs to be around kids with a wide range of academic abilities. At early ages, socialization is extremely important, as is learning skills in other, less academic areas, like sports, music, or art. Getting along with people of varying levels of intellectual ability is a valuable skill.

A truly gifted child should be in a separate program, if s/he is so academically-oriented that the social and other activities available at a regular public school are not enough to make up for the lack of intellectual stimulation. The problem for public schools is that separating the gifted children entirely from the less gifted is politically untenable, and usually financially impossible.

Hence this odd hybrid: pulling kids out of class for GT programs. The very act of pulling kids out requires a label, leaving those left behind in the regular classroom with the defacto "un-talented" label, whether explicit or notl. My brother, a Mensa member, was one of those left behind, and he's never forgotten it.

22:27: You have to put your kids in private for ES to find what you are looking for. Move them into public for MS and HS. By then they will be tracked and separated from the kids who are not as talented and/or are not interested in school.

[Anonymous]

As a kid who went through GT, Magnet and IB in MoCo, I know how important it is to get that separate attention. Though I'm not going to claim that I did John Nash level math at 3rd grade (which it seems many parents are sure their kids are doing), I am sure that if I had never gone to these accelerated programs I would have lost all my interest in learning. This would lead to me becoming less intelligent, and therefore I would make a less positive contribution to society.
If you did not have the opportunity to participate in accelerated programs, you cannot appreciate neither the long-term nor the short-term gains achieved through competing against and working with the brightest kids (or at least some of them) in the county. The fact that teachers will not be as compelled to help students, and that brighter children will be left without an extra boost has been well discussed but few people realize how much influence peers can have on students.
When America is already lagging far behind other developed nations (and even some developing ones), taking stands for political correctness seem trivial in comparison to the idea that the United States could very soon melt into a feeble, dependent nation.

[Anonymous]

PP's experinece lead to an interesting question: is there any empirical studies on how GT labeling (or lack of) affact on kids' educations?