My son is very high IQ and my daughter has a learning disability. The school system did an excellent job of providing for my daughter. She manages quite well despite of her disability. My son, another story. He was bored and he sort of checked out. His junior year he took the SAT and went to college. His lowest score on the SAT was 98 percentile. He is a successful father, husband, employee. Does he live up to his potential - no way.
When I saw this start with my grandson (in kindergarten no less) I became the grandmother from hell. So far, so good. He is in gifted classes in a school where the teacher makes sure she stays ahead of him. He is spreading his wings and flying. The bad news is that its a constant struggle to provide what he needs. He will have to change schools in 4th grade since the one he is currently in will have no program for him beyond 3rd.
Here’s a good one - the school system in the state where he lives decided that the gifted classes were too white and Asian and needed more diversity. So they created “soft” requirements, so that a more diverse student body would be in gifted classes. Naturally, most of those students who meet on the “soft” requirements are unable to keep up and ask to be returned to regular classes. In the meantime, students who qualify academically for the gifted classes are in the regular classes because there are no seats available.
I taught in public schools, then ran screaming. Homeschooled our son and then considered getting a degree in Gifted Ed. The more I explored it, the less I liked it. The concept itself is honorable, but the formula is the same - pour more money into the same exact WAYS of teaching. Besides which, 95% of education money goes into Special Ed, so there’s no funding anyway. Besides which, it is considered ‘elitist’ to even want your kid to be in Gifted Ed.
I am now tutoring 1:1, essentially homeschooling the students I work with, trying to light the fire of the love of learning in each one. To anyone who considers it, I enthusiastically urge homeschooling as a remedy for ALL that ails their kids.