I hear your concerns. I asked because I suspect you see more forest, whereas my lens is a few trees.
For most gifted programming, I think you’re right - cross-grade grouping and acceleration (SS or global skips) would cover off most needs, and not be unnecessarily exclusionary. It would also maximize opportunities for students to grow when coming from disadvantaged backgrounds, while respecting the needs of individual learners. I hope the educational policy zeitgeist ultimately arrives there.
To this point…
The only sorts of programs that are ethically defensible are those that provide students who gain entry into the program something that they need that would be inappropriate for students who do not gain entry.
…I think you’re speaking to highly specialized instruction, particularly for more extreme gifted outliers.
For instance - and I’m sure every poster here has several similar examples - my DS9 and I are running a summer “book club”, in which the two of us read and discuss themes in more unusual books that would not normally be covered in school. The current book is HG Wells’ “The Island of Dr Moreau”, which DS selected. DS has delved into topics I would never have dreamed he’d enjoy at this age, and his insights, frankly, would be a better fit for undergrad literature and philosophy discussions than elementary school.
Today’s discussion ranged from intersubjectivity, to genetics, skin grafting surgical techniques using shark tissue, the origins of religion, and an exploration of the epistemology of pleasure and pain (and moral vs embodied pleasure/pain). My role here is, in my view, to help DS hone his ability to formulate and test arguments, and to support learning terminology that furthers his inquiry. So I’m a sounding board and catalyst for exploration - a humanoid idea-grappling dummy - rather than a teacher.
In no way do I believe this kind of exploration is feasible, even in HG magnets, until late high school. DS has a particularly accommodating teacher and education plan, which allows for a lot of deep-dive independent studies, but it doesn’t provide the same fulfillment that a seminar/Socratic discussion generates. And so, like many families here, I try to keep my beastie fed with brain snacks so he doesn’t have to go rogue!
But I’m saying nothing new for this crowd. Our kiddos don’t fit in neat categories, so our individual children’s “best” solutions may not be widely generalizable.
