are the TAG students getting left behind?

While sitting in on parent-teacher conferences, I was hit with the pondering question, are the Talented and Gifted students being cheated out of an education? Have we lowered our expectations in America so much that we are trying to aim at the bottom half? Where is the middle? Who is the average? Should the apathetic students be included in the mix for hitting the middle of the classes?

TAG students may be getting behind the ball. Are they being ignored? In this article, a few examples of TAG programs being cut with budget cuts or no TAG programs at all. The article discusses where the situation that TAG students are in. It varies widely between active programs, cut programs, and I would venture to say not really a TAG program.

Can you imagine a special education program being cut? People would be appalled! Why are we not paying much attention to the TAG students. I think America has done a great job of providing an education for special education students. I think that is one thing that America has figured out. They do not want to leave students behind. However, are we leaving TAG students behind? In the article No Genius Left Behind, a Reno academy for the gifted is discussed. The school accepts only 100 kids and takes them above and beyond where they would get education anywhere else.

I posted my questions in the introduction. Where are we aiming at. I found after teaching high school math that I spent way to much time dealing with the apathetic bottom 5 than I did with the top five that wanted to go further. Maybe we should separate the classes by intelligence and work ethic. Most schools have 3 or more classes so why not separate the top, middle, and bottom.

This may not be the answer, but we do need to look at this to avoid wasting our TAG students. By letting them fall to the wayside, we are not only hurting them, but we are also hurting the future of America. We need to capitalize on these assets and make sure that these kids too get to reach their fullest potential.

What do you think?

Philip Russell