Hunt

It's funny how we seem to understand this in high school, with different kids taking different numbers of AP courses, but in the younger grades it's somehow too hard. Around here, there is an exception for kids who are exceptional in math, but if you're exceptional in English but not in math, forget it.

Hunt

"The function of school is not to identify who has a certain level of native intelligence, but to get these kids ready for the world. To that end, their special needs (doesn't every kid have special needs, and aren't these TAG programs just an imprecise grouping?) are less relevant."

I don't understand why special needs are less relevant. Less relevant than what? What do you mean by "ready for the world" if it's not providing a good education for each kid?

cptofthehouse

I agree, Hunt. This seems to be the Lake Woebegone of the college prep world.

missypie

Our elem school gifted program was frustrating for many of them, because everyone did all of the activities-the math kids had to do the English activities and vice versa. The kids who were only bright in one area weren't real pleased.

The best thing our district does for the math brains is to "telescope" them...have the 3rd grade math brains go to 5th grade for math, bus the 5th grade math brains to the middle school,etc. The system seems to work well.

tokenadult

One comment above reminds me of what George Bernard Shaw (Nobel laureate in literature) once wrote:

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man."

George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman (1903) "Maxims for Revolutionists"

alh

post 80: applause!

alwaysamom

msudad, so would you then be in favor of not providing educational accomodations for any and all students? Should everyone get exactly the same thing? To carry it further, should high schools no longer offer different tracks or levels of coursework? No AP? No IB? No vocational?

emeraldkity4

and we dont really need college either do we for the majority of available jobs

alh

"the function of school" is an interesting question. I would suggest baby-sitting and crowd-control as two important functions.

emeraldkity4

I thought meeting the opposite sex was one of my top 10 benefits.

vicariousparent

Hunt: Within the privacy of our family we sometimes use the term 'stupid' kids with no derogatory implications at all. We know that some stupid kids can be really nice people and some smart kids can be really loathesome (we have a separate thread for this here, no?).

BTW, the "stupid" people in public life are not always as stupid as they seem.

This reminds me of the quote from Forrest Gump: "Stupid is as stupid does".

mathmom

All I wanted was for my kid to learn something in school. I didn't care whether it was a gifted program, subject or grade acceleration, enrichment within a classroom, or separate reading and math groups. It was disheartening to hear him say day after day after day, "I didn't learn anything new today." (Of course sometimes he was wrong, since he didn't like learning to write, but he never, ever got pushed as hard as he could have been.) We don't make good skiers stay on the bunny slopes because they aren't old enough to tackle bigger hills, why do people think it's okay in elementary school?

emeraldkity4

I repeat this story a lot in the hopes that it might help someone- even though I am probably easily tracked- because I think it is an unusual story.
My D was 10 weeks premature- born to a blue collar no education past high school couple. ( well I didn't even graduate high school) no college degrees in extended family, except for one uncle.
She participated in a study through the university to track premature babies into school age.
Although I didn't finish high school, I liked to read and she taught herself to read at 3.
This was fairly unusual but my theory was because of her gross motor delay, sitting activities were more rewarding.
( and plus she liked language)
When I approached the kindergarten teacher of the local elementary about what she could do, when the teacher was working with the other kids on letters and such, the teacher told me straight out to look for another school.
( I was not being combative, I was looking for reassurance)
Long story short, the only program she gained admittance to, that seemed a reasonable fit, was a private school who believed in experiential education and had small class sizes and mixed grades. ( and good finaid)

If we hadn't bucked our families belief that we were too big for our britches in even looking at private schools, and if we hadn't already had the info from the university about her divergent abilities we wouldn't have considered private school and since she didn't qualify for any public school enrichment program despite a 160 iq, she probably would have become frustrated and more frustrated.

THey need to think outside the box in developing programs for learners who want to go beyond what is supposed to be grade level curriculum in all areas including sports and arts.

MSUDad

Hunt, every kid has "special" needs. Once we accept that, and we accept that schools cannot meet all "special" needs, and once we accept that school should at least prepare kids for real life, intelligence testing for the purpose of finding one group to treat preferentially is less important than teaching them to function in the society they will be living in.

In other words, I would spend my scarce education dollars elsewhere than on "gifted" programs for the archtype CC kid who is so bored by English that he doesn't turn in assignments (but who really might be, to use an out-of-date word, lazy)

I'd keep him in that class and instruct him to turn in the assignments, because sometimes life is boring, but you still have to perform. That will stay with you long after the characters in Silas Marner are forgotten.

marite

This is great preparation for life on the factory floor. Too bad that the factory is closing fast! I've always thought that two of the great American virtues is impatience and being easily bored. They (together with idleness, of course, which is another word for laziness) are the mothers of invention.