Gifted Students

I was really interested in the reading of Educational Foundations Part 2 particularly the parts about gifted students in the classroom. As I said before being in a gifted program all throughout elementary school I have pretty strong opinions on gifted programs.  But before doing the reading my opinions were solely based on the experience I had.  I figured some people could have wonderful experiences and some people could have horrible experiences in gifted programs.  But the main problem the book indicates is that high achieving students may not be benefiting from inclusion classes and may actually benefit from gifted programs.  It was also interesting to me that high achieving female students received the least attention from their teachers.  Therefore maybe being in a gifted program would get them more attention because they would be amongst many gifted children.  I also really liked the term of self fulfilling prophecy that meant students perform in the way teachers expect.  So if students in an inclusive classroom are only expected to meet a standard level by their teacher then the gifted students would not be challenged to their ability.  Another aspect about gifted programs brought up in class today was about how there is so much focus put on special needs children when gifted children make up the same percentage but on the other side of the normal curve.  Do they deserve the same amount of attention in school?  Or should we leave them be since they are already performing above school standards?

Although I do advocate for these programs I do feel like they have some flaws.  For instance I have some friends that were never in the program but in high school were much smarter than I was.  Should there be testing every year to see who belongs and who doesn't?  A sole test in kindergarten shouldn't be the tell all.  I also had some friends in the program who really struggled and their parents did not take them out.  Should you have to sign a contract when participating in a gifted program that if you fall below standards you must go back to your original classes?  These are some questions and flaws I found in the gifted program I was in.  Does anyone else had or heard of any other experiences?