I'm not fond of the Gifted and Talented Education program and you shouldn't be either - Persuasive Writing Essay

In the USA, during the mid-17th century,  the concept of school was first created. It was meant to help children mature into “good puritans”, however, as time passed, school became more and more focused on passing tests and achieving top grades. Although this may already be difficult for some, others find this easy and wish for more challenging work. Hence the GATE program was created. Standing for Gifted and Talented Education, the GATE program allowed students deemed to be gifted or talented a place to flourish and harbor their talents. Yet, this program is flawed as it often disregards student’s well-being, isolates students from their peers, creates an expectation to carry on being gifted, and is inconsistent in deciding who is gifted or talented.  

School creates a stressful environment by itself. Adding onto the high standards already expected of GATE students doesn’t lessen this stress. By forcing students into the GATE program, teachers are ignoring how the program will affect their student’s mental health. In 2015, a study was conducted on the mental health of 100 high-achieving students. The students were categorized as talented in either maths, physics, natural sciences, visual arts, sports, music, languages, drama, and history. Out of the 100, 46% of students described having a mild problem with issues relating to emotions (i.e. anxiety, anger, sadness, or impulsiveness) while 43% described having significant problems. This shows how the GATE program affects a student’s wellbeing and mental health. However, the GATE program doesn’t just affect mental health, but also how the students view themselves along with their peers.

Competition will arise between students deemed gifted and talented, and with the strive to be the top, it’s inevitable. Although this push for perfectionism may be positive at first, this will later affect the student’s social life. As gifted students strive for perfection no matter what, they risk missing out on a social life by volunteering to isolate themselves from their peers.  This hinders their social skills for later in life and their chance to create friendships with peers. Gifted students will also view other gifted students as competition, believing they need to outperform their peers. When they don’t, it leads to negative talk such as “you’re not good enough” or “you’ll never be as good as them”. This inevitable competition and need for perfection can lead to a student missing out on learning social skills and how to interact with peers in the future.

“We think that education is, above all, a preparation for the future.” This is how Professor Bill Lucas of the University of Winchester describes the purpose of school. But, does the GATE program help students in preparing for the future? Or does it make it harder to adjust to the new environment? For gifted students, it’s the latter. Gifted students go from being told they’re a special few among a few hundred to the opposite. They go from being a big fish in a small pond to a small fish within a big pond containing a few thousand other fishes. They become like everyone else. Alongside losing their “special” label, gifted students also have those expectations to live up to their so-called “potential”.  They’re expected to fulfill the role of being a gifted student by entering a career suitable to their giftedness. This pressure to excel and carry on their giftedness in a world where no-one cares about their “special” label causes conflict on what they want and who they are outside of their gifted label. 

But how is this label forced upon them, exactly? Well, it’s been found that GATE programs have a tendency to be selective and, occasionally, racist.  Focusing on the former, there is no solid way to tell if a student is gifted as it’s a selective thing. Different cultures and people have different opinions about what makes a child gifted or talented. The New Zealand Ministry of Education agrees with this, stating, “... Māori ideas of giftedness include personal qualities as well as abilities ....” Some schools will include personal qualities and abilities, however, there is nothing guaranteeing this. Nothing ensures that one school selects gifted children the same way as another school. In the end, every child has a gift or talent, don’t they? Why are the talents that benefit the school’s statistics the most important? 

Since the beginning of time, racism has existed. As time has progressed, this segregation occurred and, although it may have happened anywhere between 10 - 50 years ago, that separation still affects marginalized groups today. Why do you think so many African-Americans live in low-income areas? It’s because of racism. Unfortunately, this segregation affects who is considered gifted and talented. Someone who’s family can afford the opportunities of learning an instrument or afford books upon books for their child to read means that child will, inevitably, develop talents in those fields. In 2009, a study found that although black students made up 16.7% of the student population, only 9.8% appeared in GATE programs. Another study - conducted in 2016 - found that although a black student may score the same as a white student, they are less likely to get into a GATE program compared to their white counterpart. This hints to the subtle racism that lies within modern society and the GATE program.

Although I believe that it is important to allow students the ability to nurture their skills, the GATE program as it currently stands is deeply flawed. Through its disregard for student’s well-being, isolation from peers, the expectation to carry on the gifted label, and inconsistency with selecting who is considered gifted and talented, the GATE program has managed to fail at its original goal; to allow students a place to flourish.