The Gifted Children Left Behind

Washington Post ^ | 27 August 2007 | Susan Goodkin and David Gold

[JenB]

I would wager money the average overly-bright kid would learn more in a library than in a classroom of other fifth graders, most of whom can’t grasp the semicolon and its varied uses, with Ms. Henderson the harried teacher, who is vaguely resentful of Bright Child’s gifts...

[massgopguy]

What’s worse is now those overly bright children become distracted and bored in the classroom, and we all know what this leads to.

[Albion Wilde]

This has been my experience working for large corporations: the creative, innovative and more efficient workers are the first to get the ax. They are regarded as loony, non-conformist and lazy. Their gifts of foreseeing the future and trying to get people to prepare for it are resented by those with second-tier intelligence, which are conformist rather than innovative. Conformists tend to hold the stable management positions of power below the top. Conformists last in organizations, innovators either go up to the top tier or are forced out, depending on whether they are also able to build power bases.

[gardengirl]

Actually, locking them up in a library all day is the third best option, they might learn something.

Been there, done that! I won’t say I was gifted—but holding the smartest back to the level of the slowest is a sure guarantee for disaster—for the smartest.

I got in so much trouble for having a book in every class(besides what I was supposed to be reading!) it wasn’t funny. After awhile, my teachers finally figured out that yes, I was paying attention—I could answer any question they asked and as a rule I made very high grades on tests.

Some—read most—teachers can’t stand the fact that students can not pay complete attention to them and still know more about the subject than the teacher.

I learned to keep my head down and my mouth shut early on. LOL

[Old Mountain man]

It is good that the best and brightest are getting the heck out of government schools. Government schools are a disaster.

[Lancey Howard]

These parents are fleeing public schools not only because, as documented by a recent University of Chicago study, the act pushes teachers to ignore high-ability students through its exclusive focus on bringing students to minimum proficiency. Worse than this benign neglect, No Child forces a fundamental educational approach so inappropriate for high-ability students that it destroys their interest in learning, as school becomes an endless chain of basic lessons aimed at low-performing students.

Interesting how the authors framed their point. A good student is "high-ability", but is a bad student "low-ability"? No. A bad student is "low-performing". Democrats and other socialists simply cannot admit publicly that some people are smart and other people are stupid; some people have ambition and work hard while other people are lazy bums.

Of course, it is natural that Democrats would be loathe to criticize their own "base"....

[JenB]

What to do for literature and science: get a hold of curriculum catalogs aimed at homeschoolers or better yet, get thee to a homeschool convetion and look at the dealers selling stuff to homeschoolers. There are lots of great resources, and anything a full-time homeschooler can use, a part-timer like you can use.

And, you can fill in the holes in your own education at the same time!

[The Game Hen]

Not just this editorial. With one week of school out of the way I’ve already thrown a tantrum in front of my daughter’s High School principal because they won’t offer AP Physics this year.
He said offering that AP class to 15 students would mean larger class sizes for easier science subjects.
Why can’t we figure out how to serve both types of students? We certainly have enough administrators at that school. Can’t they solve one simple problem between them?

[Kevmo]

Interesting discussion. We have been discussing inexpensive ways to fast track kids through high school to avoid the nonsense:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1315730/posts?page=84#84

[ClaireSolt]

I went to RC parocial school, and that was such an egalitarian experience that I realize it formed much of my ourlook. I read at the 12th grade level at the end of the second grade, but no one ever suggested that meant I should be exempt from the regular class. So, I participated in the drills and exercises designed to fulfill the committment that everyone would master the work for the week. It gave me a firm belief based on lots of practice that everyone can learn and no child should be left behind. I aslo think that leaders who don't know and understand who they are leading are useless and dangerous. The main value of putting bright kids in mainstream classrooms is that they learn about other kids.

by the way, I went on to elite colleges, a PhD, and a teaching career. I have always been grateful for a foundation in rote mastery of the basics without any creative math.

[Mygirlsmom]

A woman I worked with went to conferences when her daughter was in elementary school and was told by the teacher, "Frankly, she's so little trouble that I have a hard time recalling very much about her."

The woman immediately put her child in private school.

[JenB]

I hear your story so many places and it makes me so glad I was homeschooled. I could get my work done and have the rest of the day to read, and I read voraciously. I don’t ever recall being bored with schoolwork. If it was easy, that just meant I got done faster.

Just one of the many reasons that when I have kids I’ll homeschool.

[gardengirl]

Spot on! Boorrriinngg!!

I made straight A+’s through 8th grade. Then I got smart. Why should I try so hard when everyone got passed, regardless of grades? I have a lot of secondary—gained on my own—knowledge that has stood me far better than anything I learned at school.

I tell my kids—what you learn at school is to pass tests. If you really want to learn about a subject, do it on your own!

[Sherman Logan]

Sounds like your school experience was much like mine.

I distinctly remember getting in trouble in second grade for reading The Lord of the Rings behind the prescribed “See Spot run” book of the day.

[too much time]

I’ve never heard of a “homeschool convention.” I use singapore and saxon that I order online, plus ED Hirsch’s Core Knowledge series for k-6th graders. Any other ideas or ways to find a “homeschool convention?”

[tennteacher]

This has been happening for a very long time. The high schools have International Baccalaureate and A.P. classes, but by the time many kids get there, they have often not gained the skills to handle accelerated classes. Also, since schools can no longer track students, the “standard” classes tend to aim at the lowest common denominator.

And don’t forget that everybody must pass- whether they pass or not. NCLB didn’t cause the problems, only exacerbated them.

[mathluv]

They weren’t even before No Child. No Child just requires teachers to actually teach.

[gondramB]

>>And here I sit in rural Georgia with 3 gifted kids and the closest private school 35 miles away ($15k x 3). I am afterschooling, currently, for math and history. I am too ignorant (product of rural Georgia’s gifted program) to know what to do about literature and science.<<

It should not be expected that the average parent be able to teach high school literature and science. Heck, most good teachers in a different subject would not do a good job if transferred to literature or science.

There is High School curriculum online free from places like MIT but that doesn’t get you someone to explain it and answer questions.

I certainly didn’t don’t mean to minimize the problem - I just meant that the problem is long standing and the No child Left Behind program with its free food and school transfers can’t fix all these existing problems.

BTW, we gave in and drove 30 miles to get me to a good private school and had to accept reduced tuition because of our economic situation. I was unhappy at being “the poor kid” but it was worth it. Good luck.

[steveyp]

Ditto

[jeddavis]

Any sort of a bright future for America has to start with the dismantling of public education.