The idea of giftedness – possessing outstanding talent or intelligence at a young age – is, and always has been, controversial. Parents, teachers and psychologists have long argued over the nature of childhood precocity and whether labelling it does more harm than good. Many worry that designating children as gifted places undue pressure on them to succeed, setting them up for unbalanced and unhappy lives.
I grew up poor as ahit and i was labeled gifted, not sure what you mean by proxy for wealth.
When it’s used as a proxy, an average kid of wealth could find themselves in a gifted program usually due to the motivations of their parents.
In private school circuits it was used to isolate kids from other kids, often along a specific line that was not academic. (Race.)
Well at least in NYC in the 90s it did not work like that at all.
I am glad it wasn’t the case in your situation. But it wasn’t necessarily a universal thing either, which I think works both ways here.
https://steinhardt.nyu.edu/metrocenter/metro-learning/spoils-whiteness-2019
It even references ACORN studies from the 90s that were able to identify it.
Well im not glad, i wish i was labeled gifted because of my parents wealth lmao
No, it’s very complicated, im hispanic and i clearly remember how asian students were like 90% of my classmates, but even as a child i always felt it was fair. Those asian kids a lot of them were from very popr households and they got good at math because their parents stood over them while they did practice problems.
Math is math, if you want to get into Stuyvesamt you need to do math better than the other kids. The answer was never to massage the results of the tests, the answer is to invest more in those elementary schools in poor neighborhoods so theyre prepared to handle advanced classes in high school.