Katie sent me an interesting article on the funding of gifted programs. It is evident that over the years less and less funding is given to the gifted students. Another professor who teaches the Adolescent class for the AYA students even attested to this claim. Dr. Young stated in class the other day that No Child Left Behind is targeted to the children who are just below average on the standard curve. She claimed that it almost disregards students on the extreme ends of the spectrum like students with learning disabilities or giftedness. This quote in the article really stood out to me:
"The effort to leave no child behind is a major threat to high-ability students, whose cognitive and affective needs are increasingly falling by the wayside from default" (Kenney, 2007).
I understand that not having gifted programs fails to improve and build upon gifted students attributes. But that fact poses another question. I wonder if gifted programs help students in the long run. Do gifted programs really help students to become better more developed assets to society? Do these programs increase the likelihood of a gifted student to go on and do better things or does it just prevent boredom while in grade school? How much is not having these programs actually a major threat?
Gembar, Sarah E. Gibbs, Greg K. Ph.D.(May 2010). The "Quiet Crisis" Continues. Retrieved from http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED531602.pdf.
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