10/29/2001

Off the Track

Every parent wants his or her child to succeed to the best of that child's abilities. Can that happen in our public schools, where children are often put in ability categories from a very early age? What happens to the late bloomers? What happens to the bright students who fight the system by rebelling against it, not even sure why they are so angry?

Here is one parent's point of view on this issue. What is your opinion?

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Strict tracking may not be appropriate, but heterogeneity (educating students with vastly different abilities in the same group) is not good either. From what I understand of research into gifted students, when schools offer different levels of classes, the overall achievement for all students increases.

Einstein was a late bloomer. Many of the geniuses from previous ages fall into that category. But if you research their school years, you find that they were heavily disparaged in their early years. They probably didn't bloom until late because they weren't allowed to bloom earlier.

High intellect is generally accompanied by an intense need for autonomy. Autonomy is systematically drilled out of our kids in schools. Without the opportunity for autonomy, highly intelligent children quit. They may coast, they may drift, or they may do just enough to get by with minimums. But they don't soar. For all the late bloomers we can identify in history, how many never bloomed? We'll never know.

What the research does show is that for all the late bloomers, we do indeed have more never bloomers. That intense need for autonomy is another reason why homogeneous groupings are a better idea (as long as the fluidity is there to change group membership every few months, depending on student achievement in each subject). Kids in the average range don't have that drive for autonomy and in fact fare better with more structure.

The issue isn't just late blooming. How much intense emotional pain do we put these high intellect kids through by holding them back? From watching my son, I can tell you the answer: for a lot of them, it's enough to diminish the potential or even destroy it. The loss to the individual is unconscionable. The loss to society? Perhaps the medical cure someone in your family or circle of friends needs. Doing away with homogeneous groupings (tracking) is a step backward in a system that can't afford any further missteps.

Links:

Dyslexia and underlying talent

Self-actualization

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Please send questions or comments to bbruno@snet.net.