Gifted Education, Minorities and New Year Resolutions


 Do you make New Year’s resolutions?  I do.  No matter how many times you make the same old promise and fall short you get to try one more time—no questions asked, no recriminations tendered.  It’s a new year, and maybe a new you.  What if we could ask the nation to accept the same optimistic opportunity for renewal? 

Given that chance, I would like to see us start an aggressive campaign to improve gifted education in this country.   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 uniforms, special teachers, special buildings 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 its students 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 than 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 our gifted students with extra effort, extra time, special instruction and unique facilities.  I want new money, dedicated in proportionately larger amounts to these students.  Special gifts merit special attention and most of these gifted students are going to be found in our ever increasing population of minority students.  That is very, very good, because Hispanics, African-Americans and girls are under-represented in science, mathematics and engineering.  We must not lose one of these students. 

Unfortunately, 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.  Part of this is due to the American attitude that physical acumen is inherently more meritorious than its mental counterpart.  The entrepreneur is given less respect than the workmen he employs, even though his effort, hours of toil, and investment of self are greater.  It is a carry over from our frontier past, when worth was measured in physical evidence of production.  If body and soul were to be kept together food had to be coaxed from the ground, shelter acquired through toil and advancement won on a harshly temporal landscape.  President Lyndon B. Johnson was famous for disparaging, “thinkers” over, “doers.”  Evidently, if you can’t see the work being done, it doesn’t count!

This perception is wrong, but changing 200 years of enculturation is no job for the feint of heart.  Yet, it can be done with a little of that New Year’s resolve.  Let’s make our best and brightest students a priority in every American classroom. 

Reward excellence and keep the faith.   

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