5 ms·

And so many of those programs were absolutely horrible. I had a lot more homework than my peers and was expected to act more mature. Sorry, but we were all the

And so many of those programs were absolutely horrible. I had a lot more homework than my peers and was expected to act more mature. Sorry, but we were all the same age as other kids - we didn't deserve a higher workload (as kids and teens) and we should have been expected to act our age. It was pretty common to make fun of others for not keeping up well enough (struggling not allowed) or for appearing too smart (Not me, but a family member). Some school systems completely separated gifted kids from 'regular' students. By high school, it was obvious that this created some issues communicating with a broader range of folks. There is more than one way to make sure gifted kids get challenged - you don't necessarily need a special class for gifted kids. And you'll need to provide proof for the last one. It is true that they do teach so that the test scores are good - and since funding and jobs are tied to that testing, other things are going to go down. This isn't really making content matching the lowest denominator, though.

conjectures 2y ago
Seems geographical/not uniform. In UK some schools just pocket the gifted and talented funds and deliver nothing.
- Broken_Hippo 2y ago
  It definitely isn't uniform in the US - it isn't even uniform in schools near each other. Schooling systems between countries are very difficult to compare. I just learned that some UK schools have gifted and talented programs and funds, for example.
  - arethuza 2y ago
    The UK doesn't even have a single education system (e.g. exams for university entrance and the length of first degrees).
strken 2y ago
Mine was great. It had a normal amount of homework, a smaller class size (which was a happy but unintentional accident), and accelerated four years into three. We shared electives with the rest of the school and socialised widely. I was bullied pretty badly through my pre-teen childhood and the program provided a way out of that, which in turn taught me how to interact with a group of people who didn't physically and emotionally abuse me for social gain - something a lot of people take for granted. Which is to say that anecdotes are of course going to be mixed.
fma 2y ago
My daughter is in gifted. She still has a regular home room class that she is in 80% of the day. Gifted is treated as an elective where they have a class or two that is small in size and more intellectually stimulating (or so they say, I don't sit in there and have nothing to compare). No extra homework...they don't give homework at all nowadays. Because of how fragmented the United States school system is, your experience will definitely not be applicable to everyone. Heck, even the county next to mine does gifted differently.

conjectures 2y ago

Seems geographical/not uniform. In UK some schools just pocket the gifted and talented funds and deliver nothing.

Broken_Hippo 2y ago
It definitely isn't uniform in the US - it isn't even uniform in schools near each other. Schooling systems between countries are very difficult to compare. I just learned that some UK schools have gifted and talented programs and funds, for example.
- arethuza 2y ago
  The UK doesn't even have a single education system (e.g. exams for university entrance and the length of first degrees).

strken 2y ago

Mine was great. It had a normal amount of homework, a smaller class size (which was a happy but unintentional accident), and accelerated four years into three. We shared electives with the rest of the school and socialised widely. I was bullied pretty badly through my pre-teen childhood and the program provided a way out of that, which in turn taught me how to interact with a group of people who didn't physically and emotionally abuse me for social gain - something a lot of people take for granted. Which is to say that anecdotes are of course going to be mixed.

fma 2y ago

My daughter is in gifted. She still has a regular home room class that she is in 80% of the day. Gifted is treated as an elective where they have a class or two that is small in size and more intellectually stimulating (or so they say, I don't sit in there and have nothing to compare). No extra homework...they don't give homework at all nowadays. Because of how fragmented the United States school system is, your experience will definitely not be applicable to everyone. Heck, even the county next to mine does gifted differently.