When I was in high school (SO many yrs ago!), our gifted cluster was called MG (for Mentally Gifted...as if the term "gifted" didn't offend enough). It was absolutely great, if you were in it. We were excused from any class if we needed to meet with our "MG Mentor" or search college resources. We went to a handful of excellent theater performances and could take the rest of the day off (we'd end up shopping downtown). Recruiters from different colleges would come talk to the girls...another way to get out of class.
One of my best friends who was ranked 4th out of 462 in a city-wide gifted magnet school was so soured on the MG program because of elitism or something (I don't know if I ever figured out why she opposed it) refused to be part of it. I always thought, "Why wouldn't you take advantage of the privileges offered, even if you don't agree with it philosophically?" Maybe she was more sophisticated than I was and had a strong sense of ethics. Or maybe she was stubborn or just not interested--I don't know.
Anyway, we're starting to develop an official gifted ed program for our charter middle school. I've been talking to the president of the governing council, who has previously been biased against gifted programs. The small school has a full-time special ed teacher who works with four students. I explained that this is an amazing program to service the needs of those 4 lower end students and I thought the 4-5 students on the other end deserved the same servicing of their needs. I think this was probably the most persuasive thing in getting him to understand that it wasn't "privileges" I was asking for...but equitably appropriate education. We'll see what comes of it.
