One of the most important parts of the article: “...Vanderbilt researchers have previously found that those who weren’t challenged in school were less likely to live up to the potential indicated by their test scores. Other research has shown that under-stimulated gifted students quickly become bored and frustrated—especially if they come from low-income families that are not equipped to provide them with enrichment outside of school.”
There’s very little if any convincing evidence that throwing more education at underachieving students helps in any real fashion, but there’s ample evidence that not challenging gifted youth robs the future of valuable, productive, capable and trend-setting individuals.
Yet our society has become so obsessed with the siren-song of “equal outcomes” that we seek to achieve it by brushing the capable under the rug and spending like mad on the incapable.
Instead I would like to point out that all of society, rich and poor, gifted and disabled, benefits when the best and brightest are encouraged to reach for the sky and given every possible assistance along the way. The wealth and groundbreaking advances that can be generated by one brilliant mind can result in more benefit to society than any amount of midnight basketball and “English as a second language” classes.
Today’s gifted children, ignored by our schools and treated with disdain and disgust by liberal elites, could be our future Newtons and Galileos. We’re throwing away the future because we refuse to encourage the more-able to do everything they can with their God-Given Gifts.
One thing I am certain of is that sooner or later, countries will start recruiting the gifted and will put their brilliant minds to their own use, for good or for evil will depend on the choices of the gifted kid and then of course, the country that has recruited them.
The whole concept of equal outcomes is centered around not hurting the feelings of people who have made all the wrong choices in life/society. The girl who ruts like an animal in heat is certainly not as good as the girl who stays chaste and reads instead of ruts. Yet, the rutting girl isn’t supposed to be made to feel bad about her life and bad about her choices. So we tear own the girl who reads to the level of the rutting whore.
Our school systems are based on ‘Harrison Bergeron’.
Unsurprisingly we get mediocre results.
This is not new, as much as most folks today want to believe all the worlds problems are the result of the last election.
The smartest kids, without social skills that match their intellectual capacity, have been ignored, made fun of or beat up since the beginning of time.
Most survive, some fail, but a significant number cause all kinds of trouble :)
I wholeheartedly believe that in these last days, God has a particular purpose for those who are gifted yet have been shut out by the world.
Who knows how many of them are out there. Bored and unchallenged from birth, with unmet potential. Perhaps wired from their school experiences to be slack and unproductive, simply because their intellect and gifts were never realized much less encouraged or engaged.
God Himself is going to harness this untapped resource to fight the forces of Amalek (read: Obama). Finally challenged and tasked with a *God-given* righteous purpose, these "misfits" will rise to the occasion. God bless and keep them.
Obama and his malevolent hordes have no idea what kind of army they will face. FUBO.
The scene in Addams Family Values, when the lowly camp "rejects" burn the village to the ground, is a good window into the future. Nice touch with the Jewish kid. ;-)
Today’s gifted children - the last thing they need is more money thrown at the schools. They need to be homeschooled.
well said
Not just treated with "disdain" by the elites -- middle-class gifted children are hated and feared by the elites, because they are competition to their OWN little darlings.
There's a phenomenon called "regression towards the mean". It means that the children of the very successful will not necessarily be as smart as their parents (but probably will still be above-average). How do they ensure their own next generation will be able to retain their positions in the halls of power? By making it harder for the exceptional children of the lower classes to not get the opportunity to successfully compete.
No amount of fertilizer will make a maple tree grow as tall as an oak. The only way to keep them "equal" is to take an ax to the oak.