Hard disagree. Gifted kids are a myth. Overwhelmingly, these kids are just privileged. Privileged to grow up in an educated family, privileged to not have to

Hard disagree. Gifted kids are a myth. Overwhelmingly, these kids are just privileged. Privileged to grow up in an educated family, privileged to not have to help out at home, privileged to not have to take a job in high school to support a struggling family, privileged to be afforded extra tutoring specifically designed to jump through all the hoops in the system. (which don't measure talent or giftedness, just familiarity with and ability to jump through the hoops) (if you can even call tutoring a privilege - I know I would prefer if kids were allowed to be kids and not shut into a room with a tutor when they're already done with school for the day) etc etc and before anyone starts to reply "aKsHullY..." YES of course there's the odd legitimately GIFTED child out there, but they're a rare exception and even in the proposed system, if they're not from the right family, they wouldn't be picked up - other, rich, ungifted kids would take their place. Let alone that if you look at biographies of legitimately GIFTED kids, they often don't do well in or take well to school in the first place. Basically to me this whole thing reeks of disingenuous masking of privilege as "giftedness" and completely misguided and mistaken ideas about actually gifted kids. EDIT I should add that to really bring progress across the board, the focus should be on the bringing the bulk of the kids to the highest possible levels, and the most support focused on the kids who struggle the most. Privileged kids already have privilege - they will develop anyway don't need public support. Non-privileged kids do.