what happens if you succeed in prepping your child into a gifted magnet (or whatever passes for the rarified differentiated instructional format locally)?? Won't it be pretty damaging for an otherwise bright, even above-average, youngster to try desperately to keep up with a pace and level of instruction that they simply aren't intended to cope with??
Weelll.... yes, if that programme of education really does have a much faster pace and higher level of instruction than what the child would get otherwise. But, maybe it's a mistaken impression coming from the concentration of parents of children who need way more that we have here, but I don't have the impression that that's common over there. Provocative? suggestion: actually a bright, well-adjusted, well-motivated child with supportive parents would be just fine in almost (not quite!) any gifted magnet or rarified gifted programme in the US. The gifted programmes are just better education, full stop.
Ahhhhhhhhh... I'm seeing something here.
So the real issue is that maybe MOST of the kids in that gifted programming
are kids like this who are bright but not gifted?
That explains so much, and it's entirely consistent with what I've observed locally as well. The labels (including the R-word) are about parental needs, the education is what all mainstream students could (and maybe should) benefit from, and it really only doesn't work for kids that are HG or PG. Mostly.
So this is about private school privilege without tuition. I see.
