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by Phyllis Schlafly
A
Nation Deceived: How Schools Hold Back America’s Brightest Students, N.
Colangelo, S.G. Assouline, M.U.M. Gross, Connie Belin & Jacqueline N.
Blank International Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development,
2004, 67 pp. plus lengthy appendix.
The woeful state of primary and secondary education in America is common
knowledge, and the magnitude of the problem has crowded out more
specialized concerns regarding education. In this report, educators
argue that in addition to raising academic standards for all students,
schools should do more to stimulate and challenge the students who
demonstrate the aptitude and motivation to move faster than their peers.
Acceleration can take many forms, of which the best known are
grade-skipping, starting elementary school or college early, and various
kinds of ability grouping, including Advanced Placement courses in high
school. Different types of acceleration work for different students and
are by no means applicable only to child prodigies. More than a million
bright, motivated young people benefit every year from acceleration
programs. Prominent beneficiaries of acceleration include Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr., Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice.
While acceleration offers obvious benefits to both individual students
and society at large, its implementation faces obstacles in the
education community. Many educators are afraid of the potential negative
consequences of acceleration, including excessive academic pressure,
isolation from other people of the same age, and inability to fit in
with older students. These are legitimate concerns, and ones which this
report tends to downplay. However, such problems arise mainly in cases
of drastic acceleration, such as grade-skipping. In the more common
forms of acceleration, such as honors or Advanced Placement courses,
these concerns are minimal.
Acceleration is not for everyone, and it may go against the grain of
egalitarian ideals. However, students are used to being grouped by
ability in other activities, such as sports, so there is no reason for
teachers to treat academics differently. The availability of
acceleration options is an important component in any society that
recognizes and promotes individual achievement.
Students and society are losers when a district succumbs to pressure, as
California’s Vista Unified district board did in May, to open honors
classes to everyone. Latino families pushed for the change in a packed
meeting where a father of a non-honors student complained to the board
in Spanish, “All of the students should have the [honors-class]
opportunity.” (San Diego Union-Tribune, 5-25-05)
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