Education for gifted kids

I like to think my youngest child, Adam, is pretty smart. What parent doesn't think at least one of his kids is special, even if the local talented and gifted program seems more intent on keeping kids out of gifted education than finding those who would benefit. I say that because in Cabell County, fewer than 2 percent of children are considered talented or gifted, vs. about 15 percent in Ohio or Kentucky.

Adam may not be a world-class genius, but he is pretty bright. So I saw an article in the online version of Time magazine. I have read the first part, and I plan to read the whole thing later this afternoon. This paragraph summed up much of my frustration with Cabell County public schools:

In a no-child-left-behind conception of public education, lifting everyone up to a minimum level is more important than allowing students to excel to their limit. It has become more important for schools to identify deficiencies than to cultivate gifts. Odd though it seems for a law written and enacted during a Republican Administration, the social impulse behind No Child Left Behind is radically egalitarian. It has forced schools to deeply subsidize the education of the least gifted, and gifted programs have suffered. The year after the President signed the law in 2002, Illinois cut $16 million from gifted education; Michigan cut funding from $5 million to $500,000. Federal spending declined from $11.3 million in 2002 to $7.6 million this year.

We're squandering our best minds.

It's been hard to get Adam's mind on intellectual pursuits this summer. When school starts, we won't push him to be the first Wall of Fame reader in his grade. But we will continue teaching him at home about botany and other stuff second graders don't get much of. He enjoys it, so he'll get it anyway. Even if the schools have a hard time identifying and teaching the brightest kids.