The concept that gifted and talented programs in the schools (if you can even find one) are elitist is a concept conceived in the mire of political correctness, its supporters wanting us all to be alike, when the reality is that we are not, and not every child is gifted and not every child is talented.

Gifted and talented programs rarely even exist in public schools, unless there is a parent group capable of paying for it themselves. The idea that these programs are elitist may come from the fact that the public dollar does not generally support these programs, but if parents want it, they have to be able to afford it themselves.

And what does this achieve? Gifted and talented kids are left to languish in public schools, their gifts and talents unchallenged and wasted. Kids who could go on to be incredible scientists, engineers, doctors, and artists never get exposed to the skills it would take to achieve their full potential. They never know that those goals are within their reach.

Here in Illinois, the Governor just cut the pittance of $5 million allocated for gifted programs from the state budget, calling it pork barrel spending. That's out of an education budget of $1.5 billion.

Now in the era of No Child Left Behind (more aptly, it should be called All Children Pulled Back) we are attempting to homogenize the education of our children into a bunch of test takers, without nurturing critical thinking skills, hold back children who are talented in mathematics, reading, and writing to keep the test scores of the herd within the mandated ranges.

We spend incredible sums on helping the developmentally disabled. Children with mental handicaps so intense they aren't even capable of feeding themselves. The schools have rooms devoted to being daycare centers for these children, with several adults being paid to cope with these children.

One school district I studied a few years ago was spending just shy of 30% of its annual budget for the disabled students and less than 1% for its gifted children for advanced placement courses. The disabled students represented about 5% of the total student body, about the same percentage as the gifted students. While the gifted kids may not need the same level of monitoring, they deserve resources and challenges if we, as a society, want to continue advancing.

Learn more about this author, W Thomas Payne.
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