Reply to My 4 Yr Old Son's FSIQ is 131, Now What?

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Reply to "My 4 Yr Old Son's FSIQ is 131, Now What?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

3.  As a consequence,  I'm uneasy about statements like one PP made, to paraphrase, that "it's a tragedy that we don't support gifted kids with lots of federal/state money, because they are our future leaders.". This sounds a bit like creating an entitlement for kids who already come from privileged backgrounds (given that everybody seems to agree there is a connection between IQ, SES and enriched environments).  Some of you step up to this problem by saying we need to help the gifted at all SES levels, ie at inner city schools.  [b]But if you're coming from a position that IQ is innate, then you can justify diverting money  away from that low-SES kid who at age 8 measured average, when in fact what you're measuring is the impact of that kid's environment on him.[/b][/quote]

Maybe I'm not understanding your comment, but there are certainly low-SES kids who show intelligence at a very early age--isn't that innate? I don't think making that assumption equates to a justification of diverting money away from low-SES children. As much as I believe that we should be helping all children reach their potential, I think we should also be supporting gifted kids from all "walks of life."[/quote]

Yes, certainly there are low-SES kids who show high intelligence.  But the problem is that, because of less "enriched" environments, there will be fewer of these kids.  In other words, a lot of the discussion here has been about how it's not necessarily "innate" as you say (with the appropriate caveats that research hasn't yet shown how much is innate vs. how much is susceptible to environment, or whether an enriched environment can produce a genius, etc.).  And this leads to the conclusion that supporting gifted kids from "all walks of life" may mean that we are supporting a smaller percentage of low-SES kids and a higher percentage of high-SES kids.[/quote]

Really, I just don't agree. I've been working with lower achieving and special needs children for over 30 years and have been in all kinds of settings--rural, inner city, private, suburban. We're spending mind-boggling amounts of money (and I'm glad we are) trying to help the non-gifted low-SES children. While I do very much want them to succeed in school and enter the job market with the skills they need, we should not think that gifted students (both low and high-SES) will get it on their own. They deserve to have their skills and abilities nurtured. If anything, lower SES children who show potential and do well in school have to deal with some very difficult pressures--and even prejudices--from within their own communities. [/quote]

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