Wow! Great discussion. Dottie, my sympathies!! Our program used to be a combination of pullouts (where they painted puppets one semester and did a math calculator system another) and tracking. Now it is just tracking and I'm kicking and screaming when I hear them talk about pullouts. ugh.
I agree that a good gifted class has more lecture and discussion then lets the kids loose to progress to their own needs. The "entertainment" factory I see in the so-called enrichment structure is pitiful. It still keeps those rapid, knowledge-sucking, minds from firing on up the path to gifted success.
Every child has the right to LEARN!! It's really what it boils down to. Being stuck in pre-fab education just isn't allowing our kids to LEARN!!
Willa
