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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Maybe that's why Fairfax has an "advanced academic" program, not "gifted."  Surely you acknowledge some kids are academically advanced.
That said, I'm pretty sure Mozart was gifted.  [/quote]
I do not see any need for such a program in public school. I believe they are all just a waste of money. It makes little difference in the long run if one kid or 100 kids are doing "advanced math." What do they gain by doing math ahead of dumb kids? They all end up in the same pot eventually. Perhaps US curriculum is dumbed down?[/quote]

We can argue over definitions of gifted and who should be in it, but I think it's worthwhile to have such programs.

My school didn't have a gifted program and didn't differentiate until 8th grade, and even then just for math, science, and language. Being in class with kids who have no interest and are disruptive, when one works hard and is reasonably bright, is not fun. I was so, so bored in my English classes, despite the great books we read, because classroom discussion was at such a low level. Even my foreign language classes (French and Latin) were not that interesting because the pace, even in the advanced classes, was too slow. I used to memorize vocabulary at a glance and drank up the grammar. There were a couple other kids who did the same, and then a bunch of others who got Bs so they were put in the advanced class, but they weren't advanced. I was never disruptive and I worked hard and excelled, but I was so excited when I got to college and there were other people there who were interested in learning. And I am by no means a genius, by the way. I was challenged by the work in my high school classes except in languages and English. It was the learning environment that was lacking because of the lack of differentiation.[/quote]
I don’t understand this at all. I tested “gifted” as a child and got insane verbal scores on every test through the SATs and GMAT. I was bored in all of my language classes (at a bilingual school) because I have a photographic memory for vocabulary and grammar. I just skipped ahead and wrote more interesting papers. But math was perfectly challenging. I don’t understand why every child must be perfectly challenged in every subject. Smart kids aren’t perfect at everything, and learning to deal with the mundane and boring is its own challenge in life.[/quote]

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