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Should gifted students go to a separate school?

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Re: Should gifted students go to a separate school?

#51

Post by maverick_iceman »

makecheck wrote: post #28

In order to keep students motivated, they should have opportunities to work at their best pace (i.e. let them work with other “gifted” students on interesting projects from time to time). On the other hand, learning how to interact with everyone is important and that will matter when it comes to functioning in society as an adult. It will also ensure that gifted people remain aware of and interested in all of society…

I doubt it will matter very much. Smart kids will grow up to be employed in intellectually stimulating knowledge based work. They will be likely be surrounded by people with similar intellectual capabilities. I know that "learning how to interact with everyone" gives people a warm fuzzy feeling but the lack of it is unlikely to be a serious handicap.

Re: Should gifted students go to a separate school?

#52

Post by Retra »

shawabawa3 wrote: post #26
iplaw wrote: post #7

Yes. Without a single doubt. I attended the long-running #1 public school in the nation. The School for the Talented and Gifted Magnet High School in Dallas, TX. The environment fostered creativity and learning. There were no distractions or negative pressures or stressors. Being smart didn't result in being bullied, it resulted in being respected.

I think there's no doubt that it's a good thing for the students that go to these schools. The question is whether it's good for society as other schools may suffer

How would other schools suffer?

Re: Should gifted students go to a separate school?

#54

Post by analog31 »

MichaelBurge wrote: post #23

The government should not be running any schools at all. They can impose taxes to fund them, but everyone should go to private schools that operate on the free market. Then you wouldn't need to ask the government to build another school; you could just do it.

The government would still have to operate schools, because of two failure modes:

1. Lack of capacity: Families that can't find schools for their kids, or entire regions that are "school deserts."

2. Schools that fail or go bankrupt.

Both are cases of private businesses pocketing public money while externalizing their risks and leaving the government with the cost of bailing them out.

I speculate that a law of economics or politics is: If something requires universal access for everybody, then it will be effectively supported by the government, even if the mechanism is not obvious.

Re: Should gifted students go to a separate school?

#55

Post by ck425 »

stinky613 wrote: post #5
dijit wrote: post #2

Absolutely. I'm going to sound very self-centered and certainly not humble but when I was enrolled in mandatory education I was doing so under Tony Blair's Labour government. This government was elected under premises such as nationalisation and additionally "Education, Education, Education"[0]. As such no child was allowed to fail school. This had the opposite affect in my primary school, instead of segregating the…

But, on the flip side, faster-learning kids need to learn how to live/work/deal with slower-learning kids and vice versa. The purpose of schooling goes beyond the accumulation of facts.

This argument always comes up but I'm not convinced. In society people tend to congregate in professions and social where people have similar intellectual capabilities. How many people here were interested in a career in Software Engineering because the people in it had similar interests and values to you? I know I was.

Sure you need to be able to talk to other groups of people but not to the extent that you require 35 hours a week of education along side them for years. Additionally I'm not sure being educated alongside them actually helps. There are a a hell of a lot of intelligent people who become resentful of that situation and that attitude can take years to mature out of, if they ever do.

Re: Should gifted students go to a separate school?

#56

Post by aaronchall »

got2surf wrote: post #21
germinalphrase wrote: post #16

Alternatively, why not just allow advanced students to graduate and start college/career early, if they so desire. I know this happens in exceptional cases, but why force a kid to just load up with AP classes (which may - but probably do not - match college level rigor) rather than simply taking college courses? If they're past what high school can offer then let them finish and leave. We keep far too many students i…

College courses are a great option too (my school district allowed "dual enrollment" where you could take anywhere from one to all of your classes at one of the local community or state colleges). There are definitely some cases where the AP equivalent is "harder", better taught, or better suited to high-school age students, though. I agree that defining "advanced" is very challenging, and goes beyond just the academ…

I remember my decision making process:

It seemed to me that if I took the dual/early enrollment college course that I would definitely get the credit, whereas the AP course would actually require far more repetitive homework, lots more class time (which I didn't want to do), and only then would I have a chance to qualify for college credit.

That's a no-brainer, in my book, but so many of my peers refused to follow my lead to the University when I tried to persuade them.

In spite of lots of sales training, I've never been a good salesman.

Re: Should gifted students go to a separate school?

#57

Post by Retra »

MichaelBurge wrote: post #23

The government should not be running any schools at all. They can impose taxes to fund them, but everyone should go to private schools that operate on the free market. Then you wouldn't need to ask the government to build another school; you could just do it.

The 'free market' is basically an fragmented informal feudalist government.

Re: Should gifted students go to a separate school?

#58

Post by shanemhansen »

Honestly I think that school is state sponsored babysitting. Once you understand that, the rhetoric teachers are often spouting about "misbehavior" "defiance" and "insubordination" all makes sense. At school a child's job is to not make a stir.

I also think free public school is critical to having an educated productive populace.

There's an apparent disconnect between my first opinion and the second. That disconnect is, and I know this will sound trite, questioning authority and facts. It's a critically important practice that schools actively discourage.

Re: Should gifted students go to a separate school?

#59

Post by Galinha »

What do you mean by gifted students? How you define them? Are you speaking about extraordinary brains and high QI?

In a normal basis, my answer is no, no and no. In Germany some schools start to separate kids when they have 10 years old. Is too soon. Intelligence it's not only about to be good at school - look at Einstein.

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