Aiding Academic All-Stars
John Cloud's "Failing Our Geniuses" correctly identified a troubling trait in our public education system [Aug. 27]. He stated, "In a no-child-left-behind conception of public education, lifting everyone up to a minimum level is more important than allowing students to excel to their limit." It's no wonder we're witnessing a proliferation of charter schools, home schooling and private schools. In my state, an alliance of politicians and the teachers' union controls all funding and curriculum for kindergarten through high school. As a result, teachers and administrators are given little incentive to be creative in educating students with a wide range of aptitudes.
Neal Brunner MOUNT HOREB, WIS.
Thank you for being brave enough to critique the country's education system. We have ignored bright students for as long as I can remember, to our detriment as a nation. Slow learners receive most of the attention, and huge sums of money are allotted to educate them. If students are bright, they are left pretty much on their own. In integrated classes, they are forced to learn at the pace of the slowest. We need to raise the bar. There are exceptions to the rule, but on the whole not enough attention is paid to bright children. They need special classes too--and more money spent on them.
Linda Law, CARMEL VALLEY, CALIF.
There are two ways of raising average test scores: assist those at the bottom, and empower those at the top. Our society needs to do both.
Mark Podracky, FAIRFAX, VA.
I am distrubed the the implication that the needs of the highly gifted can be met by merely moving them up three grades. A 9-year-old, for example, might very well attend middle school. Bright kids have social and emotional as well as intellectual needs, and such a plan would be far too easy an out by school districts. Denver schools have classes for the highly gifted that are led by educators who have been trained to address students' specific social, emotional and intellectual needs. One needn't go to the Davidson Academy of Nevada.
Holly Miller, DENVER
It's not just the highly gifted who are forgotten. There are bright children who don't learn study habits when they're young because they have no need for them. When a child scores perfectly on tests, how does one instill the need for hard work and study skills? These kids can coast through school without reaching their potential because they are never challenged properly. It's the child who has to work for grades who does the best later on, whereas those for whom it comes easy falter. If we don't teach bright children to face challenges early, how can we expect them to do so later in life? Think what all those kids could do if given the proper tools.
Jennifer Hayes, ALBANY, N.Y.
Parents of gifted children must accept responsibility for meeting their children's needs. Home-schooled students stay with their families and communities; they choose friends and activities according to their personalities and interests and learn at their own pace. Many home-schooled children begin taking community-college courses in their early teens without leaving home, so they don't suffer the social isolation of the "hurried child" who leaves home for university life before he has matured. For those who fear they cannot teach or do not have time to teach, rest assured that there are options ranging from Internet-based distance education classes and tutors to home-schooling co-ops in which children can work with experts in any field.
Lisa Chernow, AUSTIN, TEXAS
As the mother of an 11-year-old boy with a Mensa-level IQ and photographic memory, I have pushed for grade skipping and spent hours meeting with school officials to champion gifted-child programs in a long struggle to educate my son in a school that challenges him. TIME's revelation that money spent educating students with the highest IQs is a paltry 10% of the money spent educating students with the lowest IQs comes as no surprise to parents of gifted children. Gifted youth who have the potential to find a cure for cancer or get the U.S. back to the moon and beyond deserve special curriculums. Because federal and state governments neglect the needs of gifted students financially, the opportunities for our best and brightest are diminished.
Wendy Ellis, TITUSVILLE, FLA.
I am by no means headed to the Davidson Academy. But I am a product of a school system that has allowed me to take advanced classes with older students. Schools should offer bright students the option of such accelerated placement throughout their school years, although in limited instances in the first few grades.
Jared Alves, ASHLAND, MASS.
Like one of the students featured in the article, I was taking Algebra II when I was 11 or 12. My mother pushed school administrators to allow me to do so. I had encountered resistance from a couple of teachers, and their lack of understanding caused some problems. It certainly caused me to abandon math and science. I became a lawyer instead.
Jeff Dover, SALEM, ORE.
Rove's Curtain Call
The sultan of spin, Kark Rove, may be leaving the White House but not with his tail between his legs [Aug. 27]. Writer James Carney reminded us that Rove brushed aside George W. Bush's failure in bipartisanship because of what Rove called the hostility of the Democrats. Rove also discounted polls that portrayed a damaged American image in the world as politically imprecise. He will spend a little more time with his family of two, cut a bit of Texas brush with his buddy at the Crawford compound and continue to pursue his dream of "a durable Republican majority." "Out of the Picture" Rove shall never be.
Celine E. Riedel, AVON LAKE, OHIO
Considering that Bush's presidency may go down in history as one of the most incompetent, on both foreign and domestic fronts, I'm not sure that I would want to be considered "the architect" or "Bush's brain." The stupidity and lack of forethought in all that this Administration has attempted have been shocking, to say the least. Can someone please tell me where was "the genius" in all this?
Loretta Korsmo, SAN DIEGO
What's in a Name
Brand recognition is an effective shelling tool only if the consumer is aware of the product linked to the name and the name conjures a pleasant memory. Until I read the story "Why We Buy" [Aug. 27], I thought that HeadOn was an ointment designed to lighten facial scars, not the homeopathic headache cure that it is, thanks to its maker's ambiguous ad campaign. No matter how often I've heard the commercial repeat the name HeadOn, I never would have bought the product, thinking I had no use for it. Now that I know what it is, I still won't purchase it. The commercials are as annoying as the company admits they are.