Outside the US, UK and Tokyo (and more recently some parts of China), there is no such thing as “public schools with good gifted programs”. In fact, for most of the population, there is simply no such thing as “public schools with gifted programs”. I suspect that for a significant fraction of countries, you could even drop the “public” part altogether.
For a few years I was teaching in a public school for giften children in Slovakia. It required IQ at least 2 standard deviations above the mean (i.e. Mensa level). Originally the requirement was both for students and teachers. Later, the requirement for teachers was dropped (because these days the schools in Slovakia consider themselves lucky to find any teachers), but it seems to me most of the teachers there would fulfill the requirement anyway.
I was told we should be lucky that such school exists, because in most European countries, the mere existence of such school would be “politically incorrect”. (In Czech Republic, a similar project had to be done as a private school. And in some countries, probably even that would be impossible.) Even here, many people seem driven mad by the idea that the nature already gave advantage to some people and now the society is going to help them even more. It’s like only the unlucky people deserve any help. Many people express the opinion that the smart children should stay in the same schools as the less smart children, because it is somehow supposed to help the less smart children. And we should not care whether it harms the smart ones; they already are privileged, aren’t they? Or there is a rationalization that for a gifted child, being separated from you equally smart peers and spending all times with the average kids is a good thing, because when they grow up, they will have to deal with the average people most of the time, so they better learn it while they are young. It is as if people believed that a gifted child spending their time with other gifted children will inevitably become an autist or member of some evil mastermind clique, but surrounded with average children they will become a happy normal kid. (Ironically, most parents don’t care about IQ of their kids, so many gifted children are discovered by being sent to psychologist after having problems in their “normal” school. Seems like the data contradict the folk theory, but as usual, most people don’t care about the data if they can have an opinion instead.)
Interestingly, it is considered perfectly “politically correct” to have special public schools focused on art or sport. Those schools are allowed to be public and to have admission criteria that most children could not pass. Only when the intelligence becomes the criterium, it somehow becomes an unacceptable elitism. The analogy with the public art schools and sport schools was successfully used when lobbying to allow creating this one school I taught at. But it was only an exception to create one experimental school. It cannot be used to create more schools like this. (In the current political climate, we are lucky that the experiment is allowed to continue, but there is no chance it would be officially declared successful. I guess there are even no hard criteria for success other than the government liking the idea.) Which is bad, because I would like to see some competition in this area.
Sometimes I think the smart people should simply support each other, regardless or even against the rest of the society. We should treat other gifted people as members of the same opressed minority, like ethnic or religious minorities do. Perhaps create secret textbooks for gifted children, or even build a shadow educational system? The internet should make it easier. -- But then I remember that Mensa tried something similar, and somehow the results are not impressive. Maybe because Mensa was too focused on measuring the raw intelligence, instead of developing rationality. We should help the gifted children to become successful and rational people. Maybe we could still find some people in Mensa who would support this goal.
I was told we should be lucky that such school exists, because in most European countries, the mere existence of such school would be “politically incorrect”.
I’ve gotten the same kind of response up here in Canada, heard at least one account to that effect for Russia (Moscow specifically), and south america / africa can arguably be excused because they should start by having schools in the first place (they kind of do, but not enough and not everyone has access to basic education).
As for the middle-east, well, you’re either Taliban or you’re a poseur heretical scrub, as far as I can tell. So the only “gifted” education available is to be a distinguished and promising elite of the religious teachings of [Insert locally favored sub-sect or religious curriculum].
Overall, your post very much nails all I’ve seen, though if I had to conjecture the simplest hypothesis I can to explain this behavior and connotation, it would be that people have this belief that everyone has an equivalent amount and distribution of strengths and weaknesses; There cannot be one human who is physically fit, much more intelligent than normal, good-looking, hard-working, and psychologically stable. If all the observable traits are there, one of the less-observable ones must be broken—“This kid is not normal, stay away from him, he could be dangerous.”
For a few years I was teaching in a public school for giften children in Slovakia. It required IQ at least 2 standard deviations above the mean (i.e. Mensa level). Originally the requirement was both for students and teachers. Later, the requirement for teachers was dropped (because these days the schools in Slovakia consider themselves lucky to find any teachers), but it seems to me most of the teachers there would fulfill the requirement anyway.
I was told we should be lucky that such school exists, because in most European countries, the mere existence of such school would be “politically incorrect”. (In Czech Republic, a similar project had to be done as a private school. And in some countries, probably even that would be impossible.) Even here, many people seem driven mad by the idea that the nature already gave advantage to some people and now the society is going to help them even more. It’s like only the unlucky people deserve any help. Many people express the opinion that the smart children should stay in the same schools as the less smart children, because it is somehow supposed to help the less smart children. And we should not care whether it harms the smart ones; they already are privileged, aren’t they? Or there is a rationalization that for a gifted child, being separated from you equally smart peers and spending all times with the average kids is a good thing, because when they grow up, they will have to deal with the average people most of the time, so they better learn it while they are young. It is as if people believed that a gifted child spending their time with other gifted children will inevitably become an autist or member of some evil mastermind clique, but surrounded with average children they will become a happy normal kid. (Ironically, most parents don’t care about IQ of their kids, so many gifted children are discovered by being sent to psychologist after having problems in their “normal” school. Seems like the data contradict the folk theory, but as usual, most people don’t care about the data if they can have an opinion instead.)
Interestingly, it is considered perfectly “politically correct” to have special public schools focused on art or sport. Those schools are allowed to be public and to have admission criteria that most children could not pass. Only when the intelligence becomes the criterium, it somehow becomes an unacceptable elitism. The analogy with the public art schools and sport schools was successfully used when lobbying to allow creating this one school I taught at. But it was only an exception to create one experimental school. It cannot be used to create more schools like this. (In the current political climate, we are lucky that the experiment is allowed to continue, but there is no chance it would be officially declared successful. I guess there are even no hard criteria for success other than the government liking the idea.) Which is bad, because I would like to see some competition in this area.
Sometimes I think the smart people should simply support each other, regardless or even against the rest of the society. We should treat other gifted people as members of the same opressed minority, like ethnic or religious minorities do. Perhaps create secret textbooks for gifted children, or even build a shadow educational system? The internet should make it easier. -- But then I remember that Mensa tried something similar, and somehow the results are not impressive. Maybe because Mensa was too focused on measuring the raw intelligence, instead of developing rationality. We should help the gifted children to become successful and rational people. Maybe we could still find some people in Mensa who would support this goal.
I’ve gotten the same kind of response up here in Canada, heard at least one account to that effect for Russia (Moscow specifically), and south america / africa can arguably be excused because they should start by having schools in the first place (they kind of do, but not enough and not everyone has access to basic education).
As for the middle-east, well, you’re either Taliban or you’re a poseur heretical scrub, as far as I can tell. So the only “gifted” education available is to be a distinguished and promising elite of the religious teachings of [Insert locally favored sub-sect or religious curriculum].
Overall, your post very much nails all I’ve seen, though if I had to conjecture the simplest hypothesis I can to explain this behavior and connotation, it would be that people have this belief that everyone has an equivalent amount and distribution of strengths and weaknesses; There cannot be one human who is physically fit, much more intelligent than normal, good-looking, hard-working, and psychologically stable. If all the observable traits are there, one of the less-observable ones must be broken—“This kid is not normal, stay away from him, he could be dangerous.”