[Ohiogift] Forget the Gifted

[Will Fitzhugh]

Gifted Students Are Unnecessarily Sacrificed

By Walt Gardner <http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/walt_gardners_reality_check/> on February 5, 2018 7:36 AM 

In an attempt to help underperforming students, public school teachers are shortchanging their gifted classmates ("A Better Way to Teach the Gifted - and Everyone Else <https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-better-way-to-teach-the-giftedand-everyone-else-1516145490>," The Wall Street Journal, Jan. 17).  Only in the U.S. are the gifted treated so poorly. 

I've long believed that tracking <http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/walt_gardners_reality_check/2018/02/gifted_students_are_sacrificed_for_the_benefit_of_others.html#> is essential to correct the problem.  But it is seen as elitist.  That's why I think that "mastery-based education" has a better chance of gaining support.  It allows students to progress to ever-increasing more difficult material once they demonstrate their proficiency.  As a result, a classroom could theoretically have each student working on different skills. 

The strategy would be in step with personalizing instruction.  It would allow the gifted to be engaged to a degree that only few schools can claim.  I taught several mixed classes, where a few gifted students were bored to death.  I tried to help them by giving them special projects that required essentially independent study. We agreed on a particular assignment.  But after that, they were on their own for the most part.  I never felt the approach was as good as a class composed entirely of gifted students.

Unfortunately, it's unlikely that the gifted will be accorded the attention they deserve.  I say that because differentiation in education in the U.S. is considered anathema to democratization. 


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