John Schinnerer
1 min readFeb 3, 2023

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Who decides what 'gifted' is and who has it?

It would be useful to provide context for what is meant by "gifted" here, including who created the definition, and who applies it, where, how, and why.

And kids this is done to - meaning, kids who are singled out for some special status, whether 'positive' or 'negative' - should be asked about their experience of whatever that program is and does. Their feedback should inform whatever is done next.

As someone tracked into some kind of G & T program in late elementary school, in the mid-late 1970's, what I can report is that there was no apparent explanation, consideration, or integration for those of us so tagged in terms of consequences for us, socially, academically, or otherwise. We were not told anything comprehensible about what was being done to us, or why. If the adults in authority had awareness of impacts on us, it seemed they could not imagine any negative consequences, though of course there were those. They would have probably said they were doing it "for" us, but "to" us is functionally more accurate in my experience.

It's upsetting to read a current article that seems to indicate nothing much has changed in almost 50 years.

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John Schinnerer
John Schinnerer

Written by John Schinnerer

A generalist in a hyper-specialized society. "How we do what we do is who we are becoming." - Humberto Maturana

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