What really gets up my nose about this is the fact that while Hung-Hsi Wu is a competent mathematician, he is *NOT* a cognitive psychologist and frankly appears to have *NO* gifted education credentials. The statements that he has made by emphatically declaring that acceleration is not needed with the Common Core Maths are supremely irresponsible.
The debasing of the the 'gifted' label (and this is something that *all* of us here we have seen) has probably contributed to his 'weltanschauung' as it is very likely that he has had students that may have been the dubious product of 'G&T' programs. When people that are not really gifted but have just been in a class as a 'defense' against accusations of elitism, it is obvious that *those* students will not do well once the pretend G&T veneer or 'pixie dust' wears off. This why the presence of rigour as opposed to the pretense of rigour ought to be axiomatic.
In the other hand, dealing with the truly gifted population, getting kids that already have mastered the material - and in Maths this is very quantifiable - to just repeatedly do what in principle ( and IMO one of the characteristics of giftedness is being able to effortlessly distill the essence or principle quickly) is the more of the same stuff will only ensure that a host of truly gifted children are turned off Maths out of boredom not challenge.
Last edited by madeinuk; 12/08/13 06:14 PM.
