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Date:         Sun, 13 Sep 1992 15:57:25 -0500
From:         ANTHLAL@UMNACVX.BITNET
Subject:      what to do in a world that trivializes intelligence

well, i'll throw in my $0.02 here.  i was in a gifted program in high school
but i certainly don't wax rhapsodic about it.  as far as i could see, it
should not have been called "quest" (as it was), but "marginally organized
loitering for the bright".  gifted programs reinforce two stereotypes,
each of them in its own little destructive way.  first of all, it
sequesters these students, and convinces them of their superiority.
yuk.
this tends to isolate them, on one level as "those brainy geeks" and on
another as "you won't ever need to mix with the hoi polloi, o bright
children."  all i ever did in quest was
a) use my freedom to haunt the halls hoping to catch a glimpse of my
beloved (sheesh)
b) play chess
c) play computer games
d) organize dungeons & dragons games
e) play risk
f) do the calculus homework i'd blown off the night before
g) "  "   mandarin chinese hwk. i'd .....

isolating the brighter kids in classes of their own tends to deprive
other students of role models in their own classes.  it is my experience
that tracking students in this way reinforces their opinions of themselves,
and that's not necessarily such a positive thing. ("i'm in the slow class,
so i must really be as stupid as they tell me.")
whatever.  i didn't learn anything after about 8th grade anyway...and that
continues to the present.  i was, i must say, viewed as the great failure
of the olathe south gifted program...they tend not to really dig the
bright students who reject the system.  when asked my "major" (ha)
the general reply from me was "espionage" or "economics" (there was a
flourishing drug trade in my area.  whatever, i grew out of it.)
didn't kill me, i ended up at a good school with a buncha scholarships
in the end (i will not bore you with the intervening adventures that
occurred before i managed to get to college), better-than-average
sats (one could say ;-), and a national merit certificate for my mom
to frame (after she fished it out from under the bed).  what i'm trying
to say is not "hey, look at my resume" but that people learn in *spite*
of their education, and personal motivation plays a muchmuchmuch
bigger role in educational success than any program designed to stroke the
egos of parents, teachers, and children.  you have to end up putting the
onus for education (and religious participation, etc., etc.) on the
individual, and not relegating the responsibility for janie and johnnie's
education to the system.  your life is your *own* responsibility, not
you teachers', parents', or clergyman's.  personal responsibility is the
element missing from most of our school reforms...and the reason that
any of those reforms are doomed, in the end, to fail.

                                  * * *anneliese "most likely to end up
                                       dead in a ditch somewhere with a
                                       mind full of chemicals, 1985" l.
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