Now, for the record, in junior high, I was in the gifted and talented program. So, I’m not coming from a place that doesn’t know what it’s like to be in one of these programs. I moved to a new high school sophomore year and in that high school, there was a heavy emphasis on the MSI program, which labeled the students who could test into this program as “scholars” and the rest of us “non-scholars”. I didn’t make the cut. As a high-achieving student, I still never felt like I was academically gifted simply because of the children who were in the scholar’s program. The school put those students on a pedestal, which included giving them a big, shiny, medal to wear around their necks at graduation.

I believe that this is ruining the education for several reasons. The first one is that children fall under the pressure to amount to the difficult expectations of these specific gifted programs. Students experience an unhealthy amount of stress before they should be exposed to it. They also have the pressures of applying for college and thinking about the future at such a young age such as junior high and freshman year of high school. Gifted students in my high school are forced to take Advanced Placement classes as Freshman in high school. In reality, those classes should be reserved for Juniors and Seniors. Those classes are meant to be college preparation classes and to add an extra challenge to school, not to keep several students awake at the late hours of the night crying and stressing over the overwhelming amount of assignments and things to keep up with.

The second reason that these gifted programs are ruining education is that it creates a divide. It was clear to see the divide in our students at graduation when some of them had giant medals and some did not. This divide is so clear that in my Advanced Placement literature class, sitting on one half of the room were the “scholarly” students, while the other half held the rest of us. Not all classes were like that, but it was highlighted based off who the gifted students chose to sit next to. A point that can be argued is that there are Advanced Placement classes within the school, so what makes the gifted scholars program any different? Well, the program gives the students a specific label. Advanced Placement classes are open to anyone who feels capable of taking those classes, while the gifted scholarly program is something that you need to pass a test to qualify for. I like to think of it as a cult versus a community.

The third reason is that the divide starts to make students feel like they are not capable students if they are not in this program. Students are very gifted in so many different aspects, such as being athletic, musical, theatrical, overwhelming compassion, a heart for service, and many others. Some of these simply do not translate into the classroom, and that needs to be recognized. A school should highlight the differences within a school body that make each child unique, instead of selecting specific children to represent the academic standards of the school itself.

The last reason is that a student’s self-esteem becomes highly linked to his or her grades and where he or she falls in the class rank. Because gifted programs exist, it causes the students to become obsessed with every single grade that they get and use that to determine how they feel about themselves. Mental health starts to become a concern across the board when you have the “scholars” trying to strive to be the best and then students who are struggling to barely pass their classes. The school needs to become a place of learning, and not a place of self-worth determination.

I’m not saying that a gifted program is unable to work if it’s used in a way to spark student’s love of learning, but the emotional and negative cognitive consequences may be too much of a risk when students are put under a severe amount of pressure. These programs divide students and change the way that they view one another, creating tension instead of unification. As I mentioned before, it’s the cult ideology versus the community. If gifted programs are restricted or eliminated, I believe that a school is possible of achieving a community of respect and unity.