Are we failing our geniuses? This provocative question is posed by a recent Time magazine article and inspired a great conversation over at Slashdot.org.
Some interesting quotes from the article and discussion:
…up to ten times as much money is spent nationwide on educating ‘developmentally disabled’ students as gifted one.
“There are no losers” so let’s give everyone an award – we’re raising a generation that thinks mediocrity is ok. It’s not ok, and the failure to nurture gifted children is ensuring our future demise.”
“Some cultures love their smart people. The Asian’s love their smart people. They glorify them, they treat them with a lot of respect, and view them as a source of national pride. We, on the other hand, do not. Culturally, Americans view intellectualism with suspicion. We love the captain of the football team; big, handsome, and dumb. “
“It still comes down to parents doing actual parenting. If you’ve got a gifted child, you have to know they are only going to get so much from their school.
“I was lucky. My parents knew what they were doing. They let me explore my interests without pushing. They had me in a creative writing class. They got me into science competitions. The best thing they did was buy a computer for the house.”
This last comment echoes my own feelings on the subject. Education for both the gifted and developmentally disabled is ultimately the responsibility of the parents NOT the government.
If everyone believed in a strong family identity we would be aggressively nurturing our children instead of nurturing a peer-based identity that is inevitable when your kids spend half their young life at a government run school.
I agree totally with your assessment that ultimately our children’s education is OUR responsibility, not the governments! We’ve been lulled into handing this responsibility over to others and then get upset when our child’s special needs are not meant.
If we view our kid’s schools as just one part of their education and we supplement that in order to meet the individual needs of our kids, they will be much better off! They’ve figured it out in other countries – why haven’t Americans figured it out? Or have we, but we are too lazy or too greedy seeking out professional advancement to give our kid’s education the priority it deserves?
Explaining the issues that gifted families and individuals deal with is quite different from offering suggestions for actions. We’ve lots of articles that explain the buzzwords, the emotional issues, the lack of support, etc. What we really need is an article that makes suggestions, puts forth ideas, untangles the roadblocks and empowers our officials and administrations to take action to address the needs of the gifted individual. That’s the article I want to see on the front cover of a national magazine!
Until action is taken, we will loose an untold number of our greatest minds. Some will find their way through the bureaucracy, the tedious classroom instruction and they will excel. Others will become disappointed in the very system that is supposed to be educating them and turn to negative behaviors. Personally, I’d like the brilliant to be working with society and not against it…..
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