Punished for being intelligent? It looks that way according to this headline, “Seattle Public Schools shuts down gifted and talented program for being oversaturated with White and Asian students“, which was published by the New York Post on Wednesday, April 3. 2024.
Seattle Public Schools is dismantling its gifted and talented program, which administrators argued was oversaturated with white and Asian students, in favor of a more “inclusive, equitable and culturally sensitive” program.
The district began phasing out its Highly Capable Cohort schools and classrooms for advanced students in the 2021-22 school year due to racial inequities, the school district notes.
The program will completely cease to exist by the 2027-28 school year, with a new enrichment-for-all model available in every school by the 2024-25 school year.
“The program is not going away, it’s getting better,” school officials said on the district website.
“It will be more inclusive, equitable and culturally sensitive.
“In particular, students who have been historically excluded will now have the same opportunities for services as every other student and get the support and enrichment they need to grow.”
“Why even have a ‘gifted and talented’ program if everyone is able to join?”, said National Director Thomas Robb, of the Knights Party of the Ku Klux Klan, centrally based in Harrison, Arkansas. “Doesn’t it defeat the purpose of having a ‘gifted and talented’ program if anyone can join, even those that aren’t ‘gifted and talented’? This is another form of Affirmative Action, which the Supreme Court banned colleges of using. Colleges aren’t allowed to base admissions on race anymore. You either make the grade or you don’t. They’re saying here that the program isn’t going away, but that it’s getting better. How is this possible if you don’t have to be ‘gifted and talented’? What this boils down is that the school wants to make everyone the same. This means that low IQ non-white races will be placed in with the exemplary White and Asian students. The only was to make the low IQ non-whites look ‘intelligent’ is to lower grade points down to their level. In simple terms, this means to make little black Toby look as smart as little White Mary, the school has to dumb down little White Mary. So why even have this program within the school at all. This takes away the pride the intelligent students have earned, and placed them into sub human category of the non-white students. How does making ‘dummies’ out of all the children make the ‘gifted and talented’ program better?”