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California's most neglected group of students: the gifted ones

latimes.com

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Re: California's most neglected group of students: the gifted ones

#11

Post by bilbo0s »

My unpopular take is that people, and definitely the government, would take gifted options more seriously if there weren’t so many kids who did nothing more than learn the multiplication table early being classified as gifted. You limit enrollment to only the extreme outliers and at that point there would be national security benefits to identifying these children. (Heck, I'd bet the federal government might even try to step in and take over the education of gifted children for its own benefit.)

As it stands, it’s just a bunch of kids who mostly land on boringly normal tracks to public flagships. There’s not much upside in even identifying them, because "gifted" has been reduced to mean, well, pretty much anyone who can get a good grade.

Re: California's most neglected group of students: the gifted ones

#12

Post by Dilettante_ »

dogprez wrote: post #2

She makes some good points, but my take is that we in the 21st century are more bound to the success of our weakest links. Our world has become so complicated, one small mistake can have dire consequences. So, it's the state's priority to spend its limited resources helping those struggling to tread water. Gifted children will get the stimulus they need at home via independent study or from their family. I know since…

>Gifted children will get the stimulus they need at home via independent study or from their family.

That's extremely optimistic.

Re: California's most neglected group of students: the gifted ones

#13

Post by edmundsauto »

BadHumans wrote: post #7
rcpt wrote: post #3

It's not because of BLM. It's because of Prop 13.

Go on...Going to need a little bit more of an explanation here.

Prop 13 limits property taxes which are typically used for funding local schools. The comment is implying that it’s low school funding in Ca that is the culprit.

Re: California's most neglected group of students: the gifted ones

#14

Post by atomicUpdate »

> There’s little doubt that racism played a role in identifying children as gifted even though the label was based on supposedly objective criteria.

Why has the LA Times settled on racist teachers as the only reason for the skew in enrollment numbers, and why aren’t teachers upset the LA Times are calling them racists?

I’m constantly surprised how often accusations like this are thrown around and how little pushback there is by those accused of it.

Re: California's most neglected group of students: the gifted ones

#15

Post by cosinetau »

BadHumans wrote: post #7
rcpt wrote: post #3

It's not because of BLM. It's because of Prop 13.

Go on...Going to need a little bit more of an explanation here.

Prop 13 prevents new property tax without a direct referendum.

Without new revenue streams, gifted programs were affordable for school districts until they were not.

Re: California's most neglected group of students: the gifted ones

#17

Post by rangestransform »

dogprez wrote: post #2

She makes some good points, but my take is that we in the 21st century are more bound to the success of our weakest links. Our world has become so complicated, one small mistake can have dire consequences. So, it's the state's priority to spend its limited resources helping those struggling to tread water. Gifted children will get the stimulus they need at home via independent study or from their family. I know since…

> we in the 21st century are more bound to the success of our weakest links

only because they can vote

> Gifted children will get the stimulus they need at home via independent study or from their family

This is definitely not true for poorer gifted students:

- whose parents may not even know anything about the field that the student is interested in

- whose parents may see higher education as a waste of time or have other anti-intellectual views like a sizeable chunk of the US

- who may have ADHD (pretty likely actually) and need some kind of external structure to pursue something to the student's maximum potential

> Splitting gifted kids apart can warp them socially for life too

Gathering gifted kids together, instead of bunching them with lowest common denominators, can result in lifelong friendships. Out of 5 friends from high school that I'm still close with, 4 are in big tech and 1 is in a prestigious PhD program, we still try to gather a few times a year even though we've been out of high school for 10 years.

Re: California's most neglected group of students: the gifted ones

#19

Post by ImJamal »

dogprez wrote: post #2

She makes some good points, but my take is that we in the 21st century are more bound to the success of our weakest links. Our world has become so complicated, one small mistake can have dire consequences. So, it's the state's priority to spend its limited resources helping those struggling to tread water. Gifted children will get the stimulus they need at home via independent study or from their family. I know since…

You can help the weakest links without tearing down the most gifted.

Re: California's most neglected group of students: the gifted ones

#20

Post by thinkingtoilet »

atomicUpdate wrote: post #14

> There’s little doubt that racism played a role in identifying children as gifted even though the label was based on supposedly objective criteria. Why has the LA Times settled on racist teachers as the only reason for the skew in enrollment numbers, and why aren’t teachers upset the LA Times are calling them racists? I’m constantly surprised how often accusations like this are thrown around and how little pushback…

Honest question, you're a first grade teacher in LA. How do you "push back"? Write a tweet?
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