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Comment by bko | Hacker News Reader

I don't know where this extreme egalitarian belief that it's bad to let smart people excel is coming from. How is it not healthy? Even Marxism, an extremely egalitarian system of belief has a phrase "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs."

People focus on the second part of the phrase, but the first part explicitly states we should strive to work up our individual ability and potential. Denying that is an entirely new concept that likely never existed prior to the last 50 years or so.

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The question isn't whether "it's bad to let smart people excel". Obviously, we never want to actively stop anyone from exceling.

The actual question is whether smart people should receive a disproportionate amount of a finite resource, like education. This imbalance creates a potential runaway effect in which one group grows ever more successful at the expense of other groups.

Can you expand on how gifted program students receive a disproportionate amount of education?

G&T programs are potentially disproportionate in terms of attention from the best teachers/classes, access to high-end resources, pipelines to the best colleges, etc. If those were available to everyone who could benefit from them, then there wouldn't be such competition for them.

Source: Am a parent of a G&T student and I see the intensity with which parents push their kids into the program.

I think the word "potentially" is carrying a lot of weight there.

Do you have any sources that these things happen and/or that they negatively impact students outside of those programs?

The argument I've heard previously is that G&T programs remove peer role models from classrooms, which lowers the class's average behavior and achievement.

I was a G&T student for 5 years (2nd through 6th) and have close relationships with people who were educators then administrators in a G&T program.

it comes from valuing "Equity"

....no, pretty much by definition, "equity" means giving everyone what they need to do well.

You may be confusing it with "equality of outcomes"?

In education, the effects of striving for equity in the US have amounted to a ridiculous level of Harrison Bergeroning within the public school system, which is partially responsible for the collapse in trust in schools.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_equity

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Substantive_equality

it's the 'E' in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diversity,_equity,_and_inclusi...

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