They used to. These days that doesn’t often occur in elementary schools. They usually wait til high school when the gifted kids are all on Ritalin or bored out of their interest.
I was too and was still underchallenged. My children will simply be homeschooled. Their education will be tailored to their personal needs.
Today, I don't believe they even try. My daughter went to k and 1st in public school. They are mainstreaming everybody now, even those we used to classify as "Special Ed" back in my day. There is no way that the gifted kids will flourish in this atmosphere, period. We put our daughter in a private school last year, she loves it.
Not true here. Our school district decided that ALL their classes met the state definition of classes for the gifted, so they eliminated the gifted program. The teachers seem to really enjoy having all those bright kids doing group projects with the average and less than average students - the bright ones do all the work, all the kids get the grade, the teacher only has to grade 5 projects/papers/tests for each class AND their classes all move on with high GPA's. My daughter hates group projects, thanks to her school experiences.
When my older son was in elementary school, the district decided that they needed to get serious about a program for "talented and gifted" students.
The first year the selected students were bussed to a separate building one day a week where they were taught more stimulating subjects by the smartest teachers in the district.
The next they cut the budget. They still had the program but it was only a half day and was taught in a separate room of their individual schools.
The third year the program was reduced to two hours a week and it was decided that all students should be able to participate.
This was in the 1990's. Writing this I can see that even the first year was inadequate. This was supposed to be in one of the better school districts in the state. Fortunately we moved to another state and a much better school district not long after this.
“I went to public schools, and I was pulled out of general study courses in first grade along with others in my class who were deemed “gifted.” Our group continued to be placed in more challenging courses every year until graduation. I suspect most schools do this.”
Same thing happened to me, in upstate NY... but that was in the ‘50s and ‘60s. That isn’t happening there any more as far as I can see. So much has changed. Anyhow, is it really the job of government to be in the education business? Not really.
You posted: Not true. I went to public schools, and I was pulled out of general study courses in first grade along with others in my class who were deemed “gifted.” Our group continued to be placed in more challenging courses every year until graduation. I suspect most schools do this.
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I have boy/girl twins, just entering 10th grade (school starts today). My son was in a gifted program from 3rd grade through 8th, and now takes almost exclusively honors and advanced classes. My daughter has not been in the gifted program, but performs at the top of the “general population.” I think both of them have been well-served in our school system—althought I do have to disabuse them of some of the liberal messages they get at school...
Nope, most schools don’t pull out the ‘gifted’ kids and place them in tougher courses. Most schools now days behave as described in the article, abhor tracking (it might hurt the self-esteem of those in the ‘slow’ or even ‘normal’ track), and regard gifted-education as a ‘frill’ like drama or music.