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This talk about high performers and low performers needing focused environments to perform gets me thinking about the scenario of putting them togethe

This talk about high performers and low performers needing focused environments to perform gets me thinking about the scenario of putting them together. Well, hold up. I think that some large school districts in major cities have magnet schools for gifted kids. But to my knowledge in America most gifted programs are not some kind of total segregation and I don't see a lot of people arguing for that either. In my experience in US public schools the "gifted" classes were like maybe 1/4 of our total classroom time. Likewise with developmentally-challenged kids. Most programs have an emphasis on varying levels of integration with the other kids. In some schools, the special-ed kids are in "regular" classrooms but have their own semi-dedicated assistants. (Example: 1 teacher, 20 kids, plus 1 special-ed assistant and 3-4 special ed kids)

austin-cheney 1y ago
My wife works in a large public school system with academically disabled children. That school system, and it appears so in various degrees in neighboring school systems, that children with extreme academic performance disabilities are well separated from the general population, because they need more dedicated resources and if they are mixed into the general student population will consume a disproportionate amount of resources as to become a distraction. Super high achieving students, likewise, have special needs. They don't necessary require as much assistance as the students at the low end of the spectrum but they do require more dedicated resources. This is part because they move fast enough academically to consume educational material faster than general education can fill their needs. It isn't that the education material needs to be more challenging, but that it must also be replenished at a much faster rate. I have noticed these same sorts of trends during my software career as well. The low performers are bored because they have trouble with the standard tasks. If they are recoverable through coaching then its not a problem, but otherwise they can become a huge drag on the team. This is also true of high performers. High performers tend to get bored and distracted and have higher availability than there peers. Many of these high performers tend to do things they aren't supposed to, like contributing to competing open source or taking outside jobs, just to stay occupied.

austin-cheney 1y ago

My wife works in a large public school system with academically disabled children. That school system, and it appears so in various degrees in neighboring school systems, that children with extreme academic performance disabilities are well separated from the general population, because they need more dedicated resources and if they are mixed into the general student population will consume a disproportionate amount of resources as to become a distraction. Super high achieving students, likewise, have special needs. They don't necessary require as much assistance as the students at the low end of the spectrum but they do require more dedicated resources. This is part because they move fast enough academically to consume educational material faster than general education can fill their needs. It isn't that the education material needs to be more challenging, but that it must also be replenished at a much faster rate. I have noticed these same sorts of trends during my software career as well. The low performers are bored because they have trouble with the standard tasks. If they are recoverable through coaching then its not a problem, but otherwise they can become a huge drag on the team. This is also true of high performers. High performers tend to get bored and distracted and have higher availability than there peers. Many of these high performers tend to do things they aren't supposed to, like contributing to competing open source or taking outside jobs, just to stay occupied.