Posted on 12/16/2008 6:13:06 AM PST by SoftballMominVA
Public school teachers don’t want smart kids in their classes. As “education” majors, any kid having above room temp IQ is already well ahead of them.
The ones intelligent enough to comprehend the curriculum generally are the successful kids.
What has really come out of this is the intelligent kids come from a cross-section of society.
It's not the popularity contest some parents make it out to be.
It’s Maryland. Waddaya expect, competent leadership?
I thought “gifted” was code for retarded?
For years I tried to get into special class (with recognition to Bill Cosby). Yup, Yup.
If 40% are elegible, then gifted now means slightly above average.
I think ‘honors’ comes into play in middle and high school in this area. This is largely an elementary issue.
Different where you are?
Honors classes in a different school district were definitely a better choice and much more demanding work. A teacher had to recommend the student each semester or they couldn't get into the program.
It’s all part of the “No Child Gets Ahead Program”.
Do the Montgomery education leaders also believe that raises and promotions for the adults should be abolished as well, on account of them also being arbitrary and unfair?
Didn't think so.
There are 9 children in my daughter’s TaG class. 9 out of the entire 5th grade.
Maybe they can just call the top 2/5ths normal and other 3/5ths of them below normal and that will even things out?
“Two-fifths of Montgomery students are considered gifted on the basis of aptitude tests, schoolwork, expert opinion and parents’ wishes.”
40%? The label is meaningless, then. Unless by “gifted” they really mean “at least a little brighter than average”. On an IQ basis you’d probably have to lower the qualifications for “bright” to about 105-110 (or maybe even less) to get 40% considered bright.
Our public school's "gifted" program was what made me decide to pull my eldest daughter out and homeschool. It was a joke, using make-work to keep the gifted from getting bored in class while not actually enhancing their education.
Yup, that’s my point - everyone has been made ‘special’ therefore, no one is..... notice the bolded PARENT’S WISHES? I wonder how many were/are in the program because Mom and Dad said...”S/He’s gifted - put him in”?
As long as they don't also have to sit in the regular classes and move at the mind numbing pace of the slowest kids in the class. That was required of my daughter in first grade. It destroyed her love of learning and taught her to do only enough in class to stay at the top. We started homeschooling her in third grade when the school would not guarantee that her brother (even more highly gifted) would not have the same teacher she had for first grade. That was the best decision we ever made. Even though we struggled for the rest of her school years with her attitude toward learning (If this is educational, I don't want to do it), she was successful in college and her younger siblings were free to enjoy learning.
I realize people make fun of parents who like having their kids labeled "gifted," but it is just as wrong to ignore the special needs of highly able learners as it is to ignore those who need extra help just to get by in school. I worked in youth ministry many years ago and several of the teens I worked with were quite intelligent, but did not do well in school, even to the point of dropping out. I always believed it was because they were bored silly and just did not see the point in hanging in there.
I think it is the same here. “Gifted” programs are in the elementary schools. I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, I get frustrated with the one-size-fits-all education the establishment pushes. I think kids should be educated to the extent they are willing to learn, which means separating the goof-offs from those who want to learn, the slow learners from the fast learners. When I was going through elementary school, I can recall a lot of classes where kids were placed in three groups and taught accordingly. It was somewhat fluid, changing from subject to subject, and most kids were in the top level in at least one subject and the middle or bottom level in others. Today computers could do so much more in teaching if teachers would let go of the notion that all kids learn in group or face-to-face oral presentations. There were many times I could have used more time on some subject and a lot less time on other subjects and I think most kids are that way. We can absorb brilliantly in some areas and are a lot slower in others.
I think the title “gifted” is overblown and certainly a source of competition among the parents, mostly. To the extent it is arbitrary, it can be a source of self-limitation to kids. And to the extent it is not arbitrary, it usually reflects a narrow band of competence that educators consider important: ability to participate in class, ability to sit still for long periods of time, ability to perform in front of others, ability to express thought cogently, ability to work well with others, ability to do multiple-choice exams, ability to, generally, think like the teacher. That is not the true measure of genius as any examination of real geniuses shows many to have been labeled retarded or at least below average. It is just the true mark of someone able to ace school.
Many of the kids whose parents most sought for the label here are talented and intelligent in some ways but total dweebs in another. One family in particular has kids in the programs who are supposedly functional autistics, that is, brilliant in their particular academic endeavor and an absolute basket case socially. Expect the little darlings to be flexible or treated like others in any way and you see a hissy fit of major proportions, and the kids’ fits are even worse.
There are better ways of identifying a child’s talents and strengths than relying on educators for that judgment.
“Welcome to Lake Webegon, where all the men are good-looking, all the women are strong, and all the children are above average.”
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