Betrayals in Public Education

Gifted children are betrayed when services are given grudgingly, sparingly…if provided at all. Too often, instead of teaching these children how to use their marvelous skills, gifted education seems directed more towards a Child Buyer agenda. Consider the label gifted. It encourages people to believe that such children received – as a gift – more than their fair share. Too often the wrong children are identified for services since classroom teachers accurately identify gifted students only 10% of the time. 10%! Classroom teachers generally think that the good, well-behaved children must be the very intelligent ones, instead of realizing that the under-challenged, troublesome children are more likely to be the superior thinkers.

One of the big problems of public schools is that they want classroom management but don't teach how to do it. Expecting teachers to diagnose children while being inundated with the pressure from the administration and the parents and the daily stresses of the children, it is amazing that they get anything done at all.