Jun 10, 2022 07:00:00

Does giving gifted education to talented 'gifted' children lead to discrimination against people of color?

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Gifted ' refers to a person who has innately high intelligence and abilities compared to those around him, and in recent years, gifted children have been actively given special education to improve their abilities. I have been gifted. On the other hand, the special education program for gifted people in public education (gifted program) is fair, saying that 'gifted is biased toward wealthy white children and colored races are underestimated.' There is also a movement to oppose it because it lacks. Regarding the issue of gifted programs and fairness, Colin Seal, a lawyer and founder of the education-related organization ' thinkLaw ,' said, 'It is unfavorable for people of color to quit the gifted program for fairness. It will strengthen equality. '

Stop Eliminating Gifted Programs and Calling It'Equity' | Teach For America
https://www.teachforamerica.org/one-day/opinion/stop-eliminating-gifted-programs-and-calling-it-equity

A criticism of the gifted program in public education is that 'programs that seek to develop the talents of certain children focus resources on already privileged students and are unequal to students of color who are prone to underestimation.' Things can be mentioned.

It is clear that some children have a high degree of academic talent in public education, which labels children with various indicators. On the other hand, black elementary school students are 66% less likely to be identified as 'talented' than white elementary school students who scored the same on the test , as well as black, Latin, and Native American. These inequality is a problem, as it has been reported that children are much less likely to attend 'schools offering gifted programs.'

Therefore, some people involved in the construction of the school system are beginning to consider 'uniformly abolishing the gifted program of public education' in order to eliminate this inequality. 'Closing the gifted program is an excellent and underrated student of color,' said Seal, who is also a colored person, admitting that on the surface this seems to be a logical conclusion. It only deepens the injustice to the gifted and opens up new barriers to unlocking their talents, 'he said, arguing that the gifted program should not be abolished.

Mr. Seal cites the case where 'the ratio of colored race 8th graders (2nd graders in Japan) taking' Algebra I 'is significantly lower', and in this case, the 8th graders aim to eliminate discrimination. Instead of removing the 'Algebra I' class from the curriculum, he argued that the curriculum for 7th grade and younger should be reviewed to give everyone a chance to take 'Algebra I'. 'When did fairness come to mean'everyone can't get anything'?'

Seal, who had taken the gifted program himself, pointed out that children with academic talents tend to behave problematic because they are too bored in age-appropriate lessons. If access to the gifted program is blocked, many talented children can lose their enthusiasm for learning and become catastrophic.

We also need to look at the reality that wealthy parents have access to programs that develop their children's talents outside of school, even if they abolish gifted programs in public education. In other words, the abolition of the gifted program for public education only hits children who are not originally privileged, and does not have a significant impact on children who are privileged.

'Every child is talented,' Seal said, giving everyone the same education is one thing, giving every child access to a special program to develop their talents. The abolition of the gifted program further strengthens the inequality between the wealthy and the underprivileged, so instead of abolishing the gifted program in public education, it will be expanded to accommodate all children with special education. I appealed that it should be done.