Pamela Taylor wrote: > You raise some good points. However, one thing I > would like people to consider as well is that ALL kids > are gifted. If the system sought to develop ways to > ACTIVELY reach more kids, there could be less emphasis > put on finding resources for the so called "typical" > gifted students.
All children are not gifted. Treating every child as gifted insures uniform mediocrity in instructional methods. > Again, IMHO, we keep classifying the out-dated as > standard norms of giftedness. This rules a lot of > students whose giftedness has yet to be unearthed OUT, > and tosses them right back INTO the standard > oppressive molds, and then we wonder why we have a > major problem in education. Children have different talents and abilities. The school system should provide opportunities for each child to maximize their potential, but classifying everyone as gifted, in the sense of general intelligence, prevents truly gifted children from receiving proper instruction. > We need to stop trying to protect the standards that > continually oppress our children, and seek to > establish new ones. We need to utilize what funding > we have to the good of the majority of children. As > my hero Spock said "the needs of the many outweigh the > needs of the few." Great, let's run the educational system based on the wisdom of a science fiction character (and by the way, where's Ayn Rand when you need her? *just kidding*). Maybe you can draw on another science fiction reference and suggest that gifted students should be required to take drugs so that they're be closer to average and average students won't have to feel so inferior. Attending to the needs of the majority does not preclude meeting the needs of gifted students, it just requires being creative about how you structure the system. Michael Atherton Prospect Park _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
