Gifted Education and the New School Year

I have eight grandchildren who all started school this week.  I am excited about every one of them, eager to share their year, listen to their woes and cheer their successes.  I am a, “lifer” in education.  I taught for 30 years, worked as a principal and college instructor.  I co-authored of a major science text book.  Frankly, I’m good at what I do.  And as the school year starts I want to talk about public education.  You will notice that I said, “public” education.  I’ve got no problem with private education but public schools educate 80% of our students and have been the source and heart of our great melting pot.  I love public education. 

            Don’t get me wrong.  If I had my ‘druthers we would change a great deal about public education—and precious little of it would be approved of by the NEA.   Essentially, I feel the same way about the NEA that Charlton Heston felt about primates.  They are all a bunch of damned, dirty apes.  So I will ignore the apes for a while and concentrate on the kids. 

I would start reforming education by concentrating on gifted education programs.
Our gifted students are an at risk group.  They have a drop out rate equal to all other students (about 5%) but when we lose a gifted student we lose a rare and precious resource.  Unlike students who are musically or athletically gifted there are few bond issues or bake sales devoted to providing special buildings, special teachers, special uniforms and special materials for the gifted.  There is precious little sympathy for their needs and no legislation to make sure that none of them are left behind.  Worst, there is an assumption in the educational, “triage” which occurs on an hourly basis in America’s classrooms that smart kids will always land on their feet.  That assumption is wrong.

            It is time to boldly say that all students are not created equal, nor should they be treated that way.  An educational system designed to homogenize everyone into a single, amorphous group, will regress toward the mean at the expense of the entire society.  Those who are more interested in equality than excellence will start grinding their molars when they hear this, but if we get more educational bang for the buck by providing an exceptional education for exceptional students what is lost by doing that?   Let me make this clear, I am not in favor of taking one penny or an iota of respect away from other school programs.  I want something much more revolutionary.  I want a bold, conceptual change that would mandate schools to provide gifted students with extra effort, extra time, special instruction and unique facilities, especially in poor and inner city schools where all the attention is on remediation instead of excellence.  I want new money dedicated to these students.   This is a racially and culturally neutral request.  Giftedness is equally distributed throughout the population, but it is frequently ignored in poor populations, precisely where it needs to be encouraged the most.   

There is a residual jealousy and suspicion in the population at large of people with intellectual advantage.  The same exceptional talent, expressed in sports, is lauded.  In music or the arts it is tolerated, though considered, “quirky;” but exceptional intelligence is considered suspect.  Let’s rise above that.  We need a nation of thinkers in order to have a nation of doers.  The best way to improve any organization is from the top down, let’s start with our best students, but let’s not stop there.

Let’s give to the gifted and keep the faith. 

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