Andrew Sullivan is on a Gifted and Talented education kick today. Of course, some of his correspondents are missing the point about why plenty of left wing-ish folks are against pulling exceptional students from the mainstream and putting them in environments where they are free to associate with like-minded and equivalently-skilled students.

These writers’ key misunderstanding seems to be that while it’s beneficial to challenge exceptional students, it’s beneficial to every student to have exceptional students mixed in with lesser students. The job is harder on teachers to differentiate assignments and challenges appropriately, but it can be done.

Moreover, even if education is only a minor element affecting one’s future income, why would we further segregate and stratify the student population? Wealthy families can literally afford to be more engaged with their children, making them better students. Of course some individuals buck the trend, but in larger samples, the trend’s the trend, and it does the poorer students a disservice to institutionally deny them access to better students, who are an important resource in improving their academics.

But what of the GATE students? What if they can do still more? Give them more to do. There’s no reason they shouldn’t be challenged even further than other students within their same classes, and no reason why they shouldn’t be challenged beyond those classes, according to their interests, just like any other student.

The larger issue — that would go a long way to addressing legitimate desires to track students in the first place — would be to make teaching a desirable and elite occupation. Think about how many teachers have an M.A. (hello!) and aren’t paid nearly as much as equally-educated professionals in other fields.

10:35 am - 17 May 2011
- - -
Filed under: #education