[LMB] Prep and Finishing School OT:

[Peter H. Granzeau]

At 04:07 AM 8/3/2006, James M. BRYANT, G4CLF wrote:
>I complained that in the UK (and probably elsewhere)
>there is too frequently a political bias that support
>for the less gifted child is more important than
>providing support for the gifted ones.
>
>And Andrew asked:-
>
> >Can such a belief only be the result of bias?
> >Should not the majority also have an environment
> >where they 'can make the most of their talents.'?
>
>Yes - it is bias if the less able are favoured.
>In a universal system appropriate resources should
>be provided equally to all - not biassed to the more
>gifted, but equally not biassed to the less able.

This is probably a matter of perception.  Support for the gifted 
child has nearly always been there, frequently so much a part of 
basic education that such support is taken as a matter of course.

The problem was always that support for the "less gifted" (and I take 
it to mean less than the norm, not less than the gifted, which is 
nearly everyone) requires a much higher investment in personnel, 
time, and money.  The gifted child usually needs only to be 
recognized and pointed in the correct direction, and may actually 
educate itself, given access to resources and some encouragement, 
something that can be done with virtually no extra effort by existing 
resources.  A "less gifted" child, however, may need additional 
people, specially trained teachers, changes to the physical plant, a 
completely different curriculum, and as such, was mostly ignored.

So probably the change in bias is in fact one of equalization--except 
that, since extra resources are by definition going to be necessary 
to provide any education at all, they are seen as a bias toward the 
"less gifted".

-- 
Regards, Pete
pgranzeau at cox.net