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Comment by jajuuka | Hacker News Reader

The weirdly feels like a "can you believe he said that" piece. But he's not wrong. Having a two tiered education system from kindergarden that favors one group over another does not lead to good educational outcomes across the board. Nothing wrong with gifted or AP programs, but when they start right away and seem to be favoring one group over another that's a problem.

Ultimately this is a minor issue though. Nobody is voting for a mayor based on their view of a gifted student program.

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I don't know about gifted programs, but anything that separates kids who don't want to learn from those who do is a good thing; far to much time is wasted in America's schools catering to bad behavior.

At this age it's probably not even about "want to learn" or "bad behavior" but "is capable of reading fluently" vs "can't read at all".

Clearly there's a middle ground, but that doesn't mean the extrema don't need to be separated.

This. Frankly, it is aggravating if not depressing that it is somehow issue that should be considered at a national level. It is an issue that it even is an issue.

I think you're missing the point. This isn't separating children on "willingness to learn" but based on race.

People absolutely will vote against someone because who's running on a platform of anti-intellectualism.

Whether Democrats will vote for someone because of anti-intellectualism is an open question, but it worked for Republicans, so it's feasible.

What is anti-intellectual about not having gifted programs in kindergarten that is a thinly veiled attempt at segregation?

Citation fucking needed. You can't just claim any difference between people must be racism - if anything, that's a racist attitude to assume that in the first place, in fact.

I (and who knows how many a kid) was bored out of my mind all of kindergarten and first grade since I was one of the few kids who could read, and our gifted program didn't start until 2nd grade (I think in 1st grade I tested reading at 7th-grade level?). It's gratuitous torture to mix kids of different ability levels - both for the competent and the incompetent kids.

So you didn't read the article and decided to hop on your own soapbox then. I see.

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