Posted on 2/10/2007, 2:32:12 PM by shrinkermd
At an educators' meeting in Washington last fall, conversation turned to whether the federal government should support programming for this nation's most gifted and talented high school students. Educators overwhelmingly said that top students in secondary schools need no assistance, much to my dismay. Priority must be given to those not meeting the minimal standards in science and math, they reasoned.
The ugly secret is that our most talented students are falling through the cracks. Not one program of such major governmental agencies as the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation or NASA specifically targets the top 5 percent of students who have demonstrated academic excellence and have the greatest potential for becoming our inventors, creators and groundbreaking scientists. An international assessment of math problem-solving skills of 15-year-olds in 2004, along with more recent studies, found that the United States had the fewest top performers and the largest percentage of low performers compared with other participating countries. By the time students reach 12th grade in math and science, they are near the bottom or dead last compared with international competition, according to the Education Department. These are the critical years for supporting students in science and math, for it is when they make career-determining decisions for college studies.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
"...At the strategic level, the United States must establish a policy for nurturing its most talented science and technology students and integrate this policy with a long-term vision of U.S. economic and military development. The White House and State Department science advisers should make this task a priority.
"...The next step should be a thorough assessment of all government educational programs geared to science and math. Shockingly, there are few assessments and little coordination among governmental agencies for the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on educational programs from kindergarten through the undergraduate level...
If anything rewards and fosters mediocrity, it is government bureaucracy. let's not go ape over India and china which currently have GDP/cap of $2 and $3,000/cap. They are not exactly nipping at our heels.
The only assistance they need is called "school choice" or "vouchers", not another government program to help them be mediocre and fit in.
It's true. The preponderance of funds for those "not making it" versus that available to those who are gifted is slanted towards the lowest common denominator: those who aren't making it.
Sounds to me as though this article isn't talking about college; it's talking about advanced teaching within the nation's K-12 system.
There is little to no "outreach" for gifted students. Furthermore, there's a mentality afoot that the gifted need no assistance. A Lefty Church Mantra: You're so special, screw you. Being Gifted is its own reward. You are on your own and we hate you.
I've tutored young criminals. Some of these were highly intelligent. What outreach do they get? Be proud of being dull, then, we will reward you with funds and ACCESS. (Witness Al Gore and his crappy movie.)
The system is screwed up.
I think the author is talking about accelerated courses for the gifted before college. Most of us are not particularly intellectually gifted. I count myself is this group. The gifted are the folks that will invent, innovate etc. Sure someone like me can do it but it is less likely. However, for those children, they are not challenged and in addition to being bored, they never need to "struggle" to acheive, something needed for them to develop humbly. I am a devotee of Charles Murray on this. He wrote the Bell Curve and recently discussed education and intelligence in the WSJ. I cannot remember as much of the discussion as I would like but it may be worth a read for many of us.
No.
The opportunity is there already for gifted young people IF they will take advantage of it. Advanced Placement courses prepare teens well for post-secondary education, as well as offer college credit after successful completion and testing.
The problem is not that schools (or some government program) fail to offer opportunity, it's that our values are so screwed up that many kids with potential don't take advantage of what's there.
Parents don't push, kids just want to have fun, childhood stretches into maturity, and a capable student doesn't realize what he missed until it's too late.
Another government program won't fix that. Attitude adjustment on the part of parents will.
I speak as the parent of three who did avail themselves -- with parental guidance -- of the toughest courses in high school and completed a year's worth of college before they graduated from HS. All three are now engineers.
And they had a good time doing it. Nothing beats competence for boosting self-esteem.
I remember reading the Education catalogue at a major university.
I was very curious to see the three-part course on The Exceptional Child since I was curious how the great minds of tomorrow were to be assisted.
it turns out exceptional children are unruly, disruptive, blind, deaf and/or dumb.
The gifted was the last category in the last of three parts and it seemed clear that if there was any way to exclude them from the course entirely, they would be gone.
I thought that was a very interesting description of the priorities of our educational establishment and our public schools. I got the feeling that the teachers of courses like that actually don't like gifted kids.
Probably because students of education are taken from the bottom of the barrel.
As others have said, it is an awfully good argument for vouchers ...
D
I've reviewed statistics from the Dpt. of Ed. http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/nrc/tuda_reading_mathematics_2005/t0006.asp?subtab_id=Tab_1&tab_id=tab1&printver=#chart and other sources, all of them show the disparity between white gifted students and black gifted students. Could it be that because there are vastly more while gifted students that to create a special class of them would highlight the racial distinction, and that would be politically incorrect?
Most of the talented and gifted if recognized and pushed by the parents are enrolled in the TAG pogram and it is a joke. My husband and son were such students. My husband dropped out of high school in the 11th grade, because it was so boring. 2 years later he took the GED test to go to college and scored in the 95% in the nation.
My youngest was on the same path, smarter than some of his teachers and they knew it. Really good in math, getting bored in the 8th grade. I begged to get him into the next grade math, it took a half a year. Then when he got there, he got beat up by the seniors, who were just trying to graduate with as little math as possible.
In the tenth grade my son enrolled in the high school accelerated program at the local commummity colege, for dual credits, college and high school. He got an adult high school diploma in two terms, if he had stayed at the high school it would have been two years.
The bright students, many of them are just dropping out.
Yes, this is true. And most of those dropping out are males.
P.S. Your children are wonderful!
Some bright kids are born into families that are not wired in to the success circuit. The kid WILL NOT "figure out" how to get a high school education that includes calculus, physics, and foreign languages. Sure, he can go into the military and become an officer, and that's a worthy career. But his other options have been closed off. His chance to be a scientist or an engineer has been smothered in the crib.
If they can't figure it out they aren't that gifted.
Get them jobs. That is the best program for all kids.
A bigger factor could be that black gifted students are routinely put down by their black peers for "acting white". Kids are amazingly susceptible to peer pressure, especially when it's applied early in their schooling by older siblings and their friends.
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