Are We Failing our Geniuses?

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/ar...653653,00.html

Bit of a synopsis of the first page or two: Special needs children receive 10x the funding of gifted and talented children. Is this causing our smartest kids not to measure up to certain other countries? (Japan, Korea, etc.)


I think the same can be said for college. No offense, but I don't think race should be a considering factor in admissions or scholarships. That should be illegal. I think income, academic achievements, extracurricular activities, and other legitimate reasons should be looked at.

And sorry to the less fortunate, but I think more of the scholarship money should be earmarked for the more intelligent kids than just those that are poor. Fucking middle class gets shafted by the government in every other sense though, so why not education too?

I think scholarships are mostly based on academics or sports, not by need. They can't give them out by need actually; it's more like a grant.

Well, I meant any money not just scholarships. I'll reword it as financial aid. But no, most finacial aid money is need based. Something like 90%, I'll look it up.

Sorry, I guess I was being a bit too picky about the wording. I had to earn all of my scholarships through my academics, even though my family is low-income. I was kind of pissed though, could have gotten $5,000 more dollars if I was the top 10 in my grade, but when a 3.7 leaves you at 22 out of 59, it's kind of shitty. The top 10 in my grade had 3.95 or higher.

So the federal government considered your family a low-income family and you got no help off need-based? I know of plenty of people getting free educations because of coming from low-income families and they did a lot poorer on their tests than I did x_X. I know a guy who did really well on ACTs plus was classified as "low income" and he's getting paid $5,000 a year to goto college (on top of full tuition/books cost/meal ticket/student parking, etc.). That's extra grants and stuff. Another friend is getting $1200 extra a year.

59 in your class? How big is your school?

I thought mine was small with 103, but 59 is wow

Lucky him. I only got $7,500 in scholarships solely for getting a 28 on my ACT. I am so pissed that I didn't fit the criteria for more money; I went to a harder high school. People who went to public and have the same GPA as me are getting more money because they are in the top percentile, which really makes me mad.


Edit: -Spector-, there is an average of 250-260 at the school. The biggest class ever was the class of 2006, which was 79.

I'll agree with a fair portion of that, however I don't think that we should be diverting funds from Financial Aid to give GATE students more expensive toys to play with. I understand that there is a certain amount of sense to give the more intelligent students the ability to further develop their abilities to further our goals, however not at the expense of getting others their college educations.

Especially these days, where most jobs require an Associates minimum. College degrees are pretty much what High School Diplomas were a few decades ago.