What happens to a dream deferred?

“Does it dry up 
like a raisin in the sun? 
Or fester like a sore-- 
And then run? 
Does it stink like rotten meat? 
Or crust and sugar over-- 
like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags 
like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?”

Langston Hughes

While I’ve been around the world studying K-12 education, I’ve been pondering what will be America's unique advantage in global competition.

Coming out of WW2, America had the largest economy and the least infrastructural damage. That was sufficient advantage to power the U.S. to the top.

Extending that lead, came the immigration of motivated and talented foreigners who helped develop new products and educate a new young generation.

Additionally, competing with the Soviet Union pushed us to the limits of our scientific, educational and economic abilities. There was massive defense funding during the Cold War – pioneering an array of scientific research that later brought new inventions and enormous new industries.

We welcomed, or in some cases dragged, talented foreigners to our shores. After the war, the U.S. was fortunate to spirit Dr. Warner Von Braun and about 60 physicists, mathematicians and rocket scientists out of Germany.

During the war, we had already benefited from talented people fleeing the Nazis – Albert Einstein being the most prominent. Arguably NASA would not have succeeded in wining the space without our bright immigrants.

In the 1980’s and 1990’s, thanks to new ERISA laws, there was an explosion of venture capital which fueled an amazing array of commercial innovations – from semiconductors to computers to software to medicine. We had what other countries lacked – a superior higher education system, a free market, large pools of capital and a national psyche that encouraged risk and didn’t punish failure.

All in America!

So what now?  With record debt levels, our K-12 education in decline, our top collegiate scientists and engineers on student visas, our national xenophobia and the stunning “rise of the rest” - where does America find its edge for the decades ahead?

We are already outmanned (& outwomanned) in scientific and engineering talent. We are nearly outgunned in economic clout. And we are being outmaneuvered in new venture creation, as Chinese companies, in particular, IPO on the NYSE and NASDAQ to fund rapid growth of companies in their home country.

I have come to the conclusion that it will be our own best and brightest – gifted and talented Americans - who might help lead a new generation of innovation, invention and entrepreneurship. America’s greatest potential natural resource is the nexus of brilliant, creative young minds and an education system that challenges, nurtures, expands and rewards their gifts and talents.

So, how does our education system treat our gifted & talented students?

We slow them down to the average; we bore them to death in school; and we ignore their unique educational needs.

It’s not fashionable to talk about spending more resources on our extremely gifted students. For now, education reformers want to close the achievement gap – a laudable and necessary goal, but one that ignores remarkable talent right under our noses.

I’m just starting down this thought path – so I would welcome knowledge from those who have walked ahead of me.

There is no quick fix to the Achievement Gap – we’ve proven that over the past 30 years.

But there may be a “home grown” fix to our declining level of scientific, engineering and artistic creativity. If only we can remove the yoke of mediocrity they now bear in our K-12 system.  I believe we must to stay competitive.

On the other side of the world - the Taiwanese government publicly explains how they treat their best and brightest: "gifted and talented students are divided into three categories - general abilities, scholastic aptitude, and special talents. Students of the first two categories are generally admitted into superior intelligence classes, while those with special talents are admitted into classes according to their individual talents (e.g., music, art, dance, athletics)."

Meanwhile, mainland China is eerily quiet on the subject…

Next Post – a young composer, with math as a hobby, and how she survived 12 years of ennui before reaching freedom and unfettered creativity.

Comments

[Peter Lydon]

Remember the US govt. provided grants for GIs returning from the war to attend college?....The US seems to have forgotten that message...presumably a memory lapse caused by the desire for tax cuts. At some point, hopefully, Anmerica will realise that better education means higher taxes to fund it or personal spend on private education.

[Darren]

I wholeheartedly agree Bob. Here's some additional data points, many of which come from the National Association for Gifted children (http://www.nagc.org) :
• NAGC (national association for gifted children) estimates that there are approximately 3 million academically gifted children in grades K-12 in the U.S - approximately 6% of the student population.
• The federal government does not provide funding directly to local school districts for programs and services for gifted and talented students.
• Congress allocated $7.5 million in 2008 for the Jacob K. Javits Gifted and Talented Students Education Act, (focuses on underserved/underrepresented gifted/talented children)
• NCLB was funded by Congress in 2008 to the tune of $11.1 billion
• The House Stimulus bill allocates a) $12 billion in the next two years for Title I schools, those schools that have the greatest concentration of low-income children, and b)$1 billion for schools that consistently fall behind in meeting their testing goals under NCLB

Even if you say the NAGC is off by 50% (i.e. there are only 1.5 million gifted children, not 3 million), and if you count the $7.5 million that congress allocates as funding, AND you take the lowest NCLB federal number ($1 billion) that still means gifted children – the top potential talent of the country – receives less than 1% of just one aspect funding that is allocated for NCLB.

Even the Early Reading First program gets $100 million in federal funding!

WTF?!

[Peter Smyth]

Not only are the gifted, but also the above average being dumbed down and disengaged in many (but not all) schools, as much as a result of the reform movements and standardized testing. It is ironic that the the film Race to Nowhere shines a light of the pressure on some of these kids in some schools. But the reality is that the above average to gifted kids in so many schools are no longer engaged in, much less passionate about school. Their experience has not demanded higher level thinking in their course work, which has often become meaningless.And we in education have done this to ourselves.