America is failing its most gifted kids

[artslave]

Time magazine looks in depth at why "no child left behind" and special education that ignores the special needs of gifted children are causing schools and the U.S. in general to squander, or even damage, the potential of its brightest citizens. Everyone knows education money is scarce; do you think gifted education should be more of a priority?

Comments

[slothman]

We should be spending more on gifted education; we should be spending more on education period. From an economic perspective, good teachers create tremendous value by educating the students who go on to be highly productive workers; shouldn’t we be investing more in good teachers?

[artslave]

I agree wholeheartedly. I am second-guessing myself constantly about whether I should be leaving my kids in the public schools. We happen to have a good school in a good district (ok, we searched for that, it didn't just happen), and have been pretty pleased with the quality of the teachers so far, but I know it's not universal.

Teachers have one of the hardest and most important jobs in the world, whether kindergarten or graduate-level teaching, and they all oughtta be paid significantly more than they are making now (not to mention having more support staff to help with the ever-increasing paperwork burden that takes away from actually using what they are trained for).

[snowdragonne]

Having been a "gifted kid," I can attest to the "more work not harder work" comment made in the article. I think where our education system is failing is in what I call "metaskills," like critical thinking, observation skills, creative problem-solving, and adaptability. More and more we have moved to a generic, one-size fits all education system that is based more on rote memorization than on actual learning and the result is an increasingly ignorant and incompetent population. I know this sounds harsh, but after having taught in several community college classrooms, I find that it is a sad reality. Another result, in my rather radical opinion, is also a population that is more easily manipulated and controlled. That frightens me.