Why do we hate gifted students but love gifted athletes? (degree, elementary school)
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In my case the teachers knew because I had to take a battery of ability identification tests during the 2nd grade because my first results stated that I was: “Retarded but reading at the level of a high school graduate”.
Don't that beat all. Someone actually said or wrote that, at 7 years old, you were retarded but reading at the level of a high school graduate? Did they know the meaning of the word "retarded", or were they retarded themselves?
Usually gifted students are coddled and told by everyone how smart they are so they tend to be more breaks in life even if they are troubled. I do not know where the OP got this impression.
It's simply a baseless claim or faulty impression by the OP. In my experience, between K-12 the gifted students are always recognized and usually have all kinds of extra side group meetings, teacher recommendations, advanced placement courses, top teachers, private schools preference, SAT study groups, tutors, college scholarships, Congressional sponsors for service academies.
These people have the red carpet rolled out for them. It's all the "regular Joes" that get left behind with the "normal" education.
It's simply a baseless claim or faulty impression by the OP. In my experience, between K-12 the gifted students are always recognized and usually have all kinds of extra side group meetings, teacher recommendations, advanced placement courses, top teachers, private schools preference, SAT study groups, tutors, college scholarships, Congressional sponsors for service academies.
These people have the red carpet rolled out for them. It's all the "regular Joes" that get left behind with the "normal" education.
Just because some of us have had different experiences than you does not mean that our experiences are not valid. I was a high achieving student (not sure if I was "gifted" or not)
who experienced firsthand being treated badly for teachers.
Last edited by mitsguy2001; 07-09-2018 at 06:51 PM..
I don't know that gifted students are hated. I think what is disliked are the parents that are convinced little Suzy or Bobby is the next Albert Einstein when the reality is they are not particularly gifted.
I live in a college town with many, many very intelligent people that had very intelligent children. I don't think I ever heard any of those people promoting their children as gifted. It was simply accepted and expected that their children would be very smart. Most of them chose not to put their children in the school district gifted program for various reasons. This was a big contrast to our previous town that didn't have a similarly large population of very intelligent people.
Location: Was Midvalley Oregon; Now Eastside Seattle area
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Quote:
Originally Posted by leastprime
Anyone can become President.
But there is only one who can be LeBron James or Tiger Woods.
That is why an athlete who makes it the top is amazing. And even when they make it to the top, they get better.
We have a TAG son. (somehow skipped a generation) He got a reputation in his grade school for wanting to drop-out of school in the second grade. Public school made him an offer that he couldn't refuse-move from second grade to mixed 3-4 grade. Teachers all loved him because he's an easy kid, made a lot of jokes and generally had to make a go of being the smartest kid in school. We were worried he would just give up because of the lack of challenges. But he figured it out. High School IB and music kept him busy enough. NMS, 1st in class. Double engineering with very high honors. Full ride MS CS. The payoff is that he likes his job-work and still is pretty easy to work with. He made and given a lot of opportunities in HS, in college and post grad.
He also solves my computer problems, gives me his old Macbook, and is rebuilding a closet at our new place.
We have a TAG son. (somehow skipped a generation) He got a reputation in his grade school for wanting to drop-out of school in the second grade. Public school made him an offer that he couldn't refuse-move from second grade to mixed 3-4 grade. Teachers all loved him because he's an easy kid, made a lot of jokes and generally had to make a go of being the smartest kid in school. We were worried he would just give up because of the lack of challenges. But he figured it out. High School IB and music kept him busy enough. NMS, 1st in class. Double engineering with very high honors. Full ride MS CS. The payoff is that he likes his job-work and still is pretty easy to work with. He made and given a lot of opportunities in HS, in college and post grad.
He also solves my computer problems, gives me his old Macbook, and is rebuilding a closet at our new place.
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Location: New York Area
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth
Quote:
Originally Posted by tnff
This is something I've pondered from time to time and it came up again today reading the local paper. This country in general seems to have an active dislike of those who are academically gifted. We constantly find ways to put them down, both large and small. But with athletics, it's different. As a culture we admire athletic prowess. We shower adulation and money down on them. Even at the lowest level of sport, the kid who is just a tiny bit stronger or faster gets all the attention.
I know this dichotomy is real having experienced myself and with my kids. But I can't explain it, nor even understand it. And the more I read about it, the less it makes sense. Our schools put effort into supporting and bringing the lowest performers up to the minimum, but pretty much ignore the gifted assuming they will just be fine on their own. An example from my own schooling is being berated by the teacher for reading ahead "how are you going to learn to read if you don't keep the place!!!" when I already knew how to read, as evidenced by the fact I was a couple chapters ahead while the class was stuck on one paragraph.
Sorry for the stream of consciousness, it just kind of flowed out after reading the paper this morning.
IDK, OP. I think you got a lousy teacher, though.
I am addressing primarily tnff's post, though I quoted part of Ruth4Truth's post to say that there are an abundance of such "lousy" teachers. Or the system encourages such failure to promote quality.
The people who set educational policy have a mad desire for a certain spurious and damaging equality. Equality must be about meeting and where possible raising peoples' potential. It must not, in the manner of Kurt Vonnegut's short story Harrison Bergeron (not sure whether short story names are underlined) be about dragging down higher-functioning people. In the story, people were "handicapped" so that they could not excel:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut
THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren't only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarterthan anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else. All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General.
In third, fourth and fifth grades, corresponding to academic years 1965-6, 1966-7 and 1967-8 there was "tracking." Better students were placed separately from medium students. Lower-level students, but in general not remedial, were in a separate class. I distinctly remember that a few students were raised through the year, in one case the student starting at 4-2 and rising to 4-0 by around February.
Grades 6, 7 and 8 were not tracked. They were a nightmare. I had to tolerate having chewing gum placed in my hair. Why? The student's parents were going through a divorce.
We'd be better off as a society of students were encouraged to excel, not to "veg."
America has a strong anti-intellectual undercurrent. Smart people are derided and discriminated against. Part of it is that schools are aimed at babysitting the lowest level. I was entertained to see that of the local high school, 16 students earned their associates degree the same day they got their high school diploma.
Location: Was Midvalley Oregon; Now Eastside Seattle area
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ddm2k
This is the kind of kid parents hope for.
And has nothing to do with athleticisms or smartisms .
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