Are Public School Programs For The Gifted A Good Idea?
Spokane School District 81 has decided to create a full-time magnet school for gifted students in the fifth and sixth grades. This first-of-its-kind option in Spokane public schools is likely to rekindle the debate that usually accompanies special educational offerings for the brightest youngsters.
Even the current one-day-a-week Tessera program has been accused of being, among other things, elitist. Parents whose children qualify for such programs now will have the option of sending them every day to a classroom filled with similarly intelligent classmates.
Does such a program create troublesome social divisions? Is the selection process fair, or is it skewed in favor of socioeconomically privileged classes?
On the other hand, should students with the intellectual capacity to advance faster in school be forced to move only at a pace their peers can maintain? Or should more challenging school settings be provided for those who have a greater potential?
A District 81 survey shows parents of Tessera students are divided about the idea of a full-time gifted program. How do “Bagpipes” readers feel?
Higher learning or higher yearning?
Area colleges and universities are among those struggling to decide what kind of controls can prevent students from abusing access to the Internet.
Aren’t institutions of higher learning supposed to be stretching the minds of students, rather than worrying that students may stretch their own minds and, in the process, wander into areas the college hierarchy consider inappropriate?
What kind of devil technology forces the educational system to curb the inquisitiveness it used to encourage?
Children should be seen and heard
James A. Nelson of Spokane believes the Spokane City Council would benefit from the voice of youth on a regular basis.
“I think we would all agree that fresh blood and new ideas are what makes a group or organization function to its greatest potential,” said Nelson, 63.
Young people could be chosen by a committee of civic leaders, based on nominations from teachers, to serve as nonvoting participants in council meetings, he suggested.
“The youth could serve for one- or two-month periods,” he said. “This would allow a good cross-section of ideas throughout the year.”
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