Supposedly,
that was the way things were before GT pull-out programs, summer
enrichment courses, and magnet schools. Now that these programs have
been around for at least a decade in most areas, I spend some time with
the campers
trying to get a perspective on how these programs feel from the inside.
I am particularly interested in the subject because of the experience
of my younger brother, who was first tapped for a GT pull-out program
when he started third grade at a brand new school. He had those high test scores teachers love to see.
Steve was teased every time he had to leave the regular classroom. He became so sensitive to his classmates calling him a brain or an egghead that he began deliberately failing his regular classes. In high school he quit GT and discovered partying and popularity, although he still wrote for his school paper a richly sarcastic column that kept classmates hanging on his pronouncements. Then he flunked out of college, three times, a disappointment to his family. Many of our campers are riding this same edge between the pressure to achieve, or to slide. One force pushes them to realize their potential and stand out from the crowd; the other force pushes them to homogenize.
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