No child left behind (and none up ahead either)

I came across an article in Time today, while looking for something else, that's so good I'm going to encourage you to read it for yourself instead of trying to elucidate on it. The US government spends 10 times more money on educating retarded children than it does educating gifted children. Those with IQs 55 and below are just as likely (5%) as kids with genius IQs 145 and over, to drop out of high school. The kids who could grow up to cure cancer, stop global warming or become the next world leaders, are being ignored, neglected and otherwise squandered in pursuit of the "thoroughly American notion that if most just try hard enough, we could all be talented."

I feel like I've been talking around this issue for months, but can now pinpoint how this problem starts in our schools. In my old job (the one that "inspired" this blog), I was kept from doing what I did best in order to help less qualified colleagues learn something new. The entire company suffered because management believed anyone could do anything. I've written that I need to be challenged in a job and that I need to be afraid of not being smart enough. I've written about how this President's administration values loyalty over ability. And I've written that most marketing is aimed at the lowest common denominator, completely alienating the smart and savvy core customer.

As a gifted child who skipped two grades, my status was debated each time I transferred to a new school. School administrators agreed that as long as I was well-adjusted, being intellectually stimulated was important enough to keep me advanced. The article states, however, that since the "mid-1980s, schools have often forced gifted students to stay in age-assigned grades--even though a 160-IQ kid trying to learn at the pace of average, 100-IQ kids is akin to an average girl trying to learn at the pace of a retarded girl with an IQ of 40." I'm not a genius and my IQ was at the more "socially optimal" level between 125 and 155, but I am aware, even today, of how I was formed by experiences in those gifted classes.

There's a perception that smart people are just smart and don't need help, so we should focus our help on those that need it. We've all heard the story about Albert Einstein leaving school at 15, but like anyone with a gift, athletic, musical or otherwise, without proper nurturing, may not achieve what they are capable of. A study conducted in Australia showed that gifted kids not allowed to skip grades had a jaded and negative view of education, had few friends, dropped out of school early and were treated for depression as adults. By contrast, the kids in the group that skipped at least three grades were socially adjusted and had gone on to earn Ph.D.s. In this country, the rate of growth in students earning Ph.D.s has dropped dramatically as funding is cut for gifted students and more social stigma is attached to being smart.

Despite my early years in gifted classes, I was not challenged for most of high school where honors meant more "busy work" (as we called it) and less actual teaching and understanding. My physics teacher used to read the newspaper in class while we were supposed to be teaching ourselves. I had more than a few hostile run-ins with my teachers. I remember one incident where I had received a B on a paper in English, a well-written and thoughtful piece on a book we'd read. My neighbor got an A and I asked to read her paper.

I scanned it and then raised my hand during class to ask my teacher (who lectured to a mirror on the opposite wall of the classroom by the way - I swear to god!) why I received a B for original thinking and clear understanding of the material while my classmate got an A for merely regurgitating his lecture. I was sent to the Principal's office and told by my counselor that with my grades and "attitude" I wouldn't even make it to a UC school. No longer in a gifted-only environment, I defended my young age to my peers by insisting that I wasn't smarter than them, I had just started reading early. But after hearing them talk about what they were learning in their English class, I transferred out of honors English and into standard English with Mrs. Pecht, the only teacher in four years who taught me anything. I loved her.

Instead of special schools and classes, why can't we just have a way for kids to learn at the level they're at, for every subject? That's how it was done when I was in first grade. I went to a fifth grade class for reading, a third grade class for math. No, I wasn't popular and the other kids didn't like this tiny girl sitting in their classes answering questions but what if I wasn't the only one? What if we didn't have grades and instead all kids were learning at their pace and making their way through a curriculum, excelling at some subjects and struggling in others? We'd have a system that much more closely resembles a free-market work place, which is exactly where we need these genius kids.