Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion How asinine is the US educational system?

The thing is that gifted kids (especially highly gifted ones) are very, very different from other kids (even moderately gifted ones). Kids with very high IQs can learn in ways that seem impossible to people who haven't spent time around them or learned about them. These kids are also very rare, and most teachers either aren't gifted or haven't had classes on gifted students. All this makes it very difficult for us as parents to convince the schools that our kids really did start to read when they were 2 or 3, or that they really can do algebra when they're 7 or 8 or 9, or whatever. Even harder is to convince others that our kids enjoy doing this stuff and get a lot out of it.

Also, when only looking at the surface, it's very easy to see "high achiever" as "gifted." Sometimes kids are both, but they often aren't. This table has a lot of information about the differences. Some high achieving kids may indeed be pushed into classes they aren't ready for, which may be what you've seen. I don't know.


That's up to you, but if you look for vilification wherever you go, you'll probably find it.