"Ericka Kammerer" wrote in message
...
toypup wrote:

I certainly agree with that. Most of the grades in
our school have reading and math groups. They aren't
identified as anything beyond "Mr. Alexander's reading group"
or "Mrs. Grader's math group" and they don't tell the kids
(or the parents, unless you torture it out of them!) which
groups are which, but the kids figure it out in very short
order.

There is an advantage of leaving it to the kids to figure out.
Even when they do figure it out, they don't have the heft
of the school administration behind them. There's always
that seed of doubt. But once the labels start....

I talked to one child in a profoundly gifted program.
Her class was small, and they were bringing in
another child. She has her doubts about this
child, after all, she came from the "only" gifted
program. "She might be pretty stupid." Made
me wonder exactly what they were teaching
the profoundly gifted kids.

Still, I think there is something important about
names, and calling something the "gifted and talented"
program does beg the question of precisely what these
kids are gifted and talented *at* and whether everyone
else is *not* gifted *or* talented (which would be patently
untrue).

But I agree, the label implies they are gifted and talented
at everything, which is cruel to both kids on both sides.

I'd be happy seeing a somewhat different label,
but I haven't the foggiest idea what it would be. And
really, maybe it wouldn't do any good after all. Even if
you started out with more neutral words, perhaps they'd
just acquire the meanings one hoped to avoid anyway, as
you say.

Why not start with what exactly the program does. Is
it an accelerated program in academics? Could be called
the "Accelerated Academics" program. Does it not
accelerate, but covers the subjects in more depth,
call it the "Comprehensive Studies" program.
Heck, head on down to whichever program has the
kids doing creative writing and have them look through
the Thesaurus for good names.

Best wishes,
Ericka