Rethinking What Gifted Education Means, and Whom It Should Serve

[cyclonefence]

4. I hate gifted programs

and my son was in one throughout grade school. Gifted programs validate unnecessarily the "smart kids" in the class and give their parents something to be snotty about. And they don't do a damn bit of good.

Children chosen for gifted programs in our public schools were given the kind of enrichment activities that many gifted children receive from their parents. They are not the children who need to be exposed to opera, art museums, robot construction, or field trips. Kids in our school district were placed in the gifted program if they had IQs over (I think) 120. These are kids who do not need programs to keep them from being bored in school. First of all *all* kids are bored in school. Secondly think how much worse boredom is if you don't really understand what's going on.

I hate gifted programs.