No Genius Left Behind?

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The problem with the name "No Child Left Behind" is that it creates a mental picture of a group setting out to climb Mt. Everest. If the group adheres to the idea of leaving no one behind, the average climbers are left waiting to help the slower ones catch up, and the advanced climbers have gotten so bored they've left the mountain. Literally and figuratively.

The education system is hurting those students who have high IQ's, who are able and eager to learn more, and yet are held back from developing their intellectual abilities. Most school systems will only allow a student to advance one or two grades beyond their age level, while there are students who need to be advanced three or more grades. This is due in part to school administrators' concerns that the age difference in these gifted students creates more of a problem socially and developmentally than leaving a child behind with other children of a similar age. However, a report in the Handbook of Gifted Education, states that the drop-out rate for gifted children is the same as non-gifted children - about 5%. This suggests the frustration and boredom of the gifted students is equal to the challenges faced by average or below average students who can't keep up.

There's another problem - and it hits tax payers directly in their wallet. According to a recent Time magazine article, American schools spend more than $8 BILLION a year educating the mentally retarded within the public school system. In contrast, the most generous estimates show that no more than $800 MILLION is spent on programs for gifted students. That's a difference of $7.2 BILLION, for those who are keeping track of the numbers. Or to look at it another way, the American tax payer is paying 10 times more to help low-achieving students in school than we are paying to promote the students with the greatest intellectual abilities.

It's estimated that of the 62 million school age children in America, about 62,000 have very high IQ's (above 145). Conversely, the same number of students have very low IQ's (below 55). And yet, the money spent to educate these students - and all those in between - is spent disproportionately on the lowest achieving students.

At a time when the US lags behind so many countries in education, specifically in math and science, is it really fair to spend our education dollars in this manner? Arguably, the highest achieving students are the ones who will go on to discover life-saving advancements in medical treatment (cures for cancer or AIDS), develop new technologies that benefit our lives (alternative fuels, ways to combat global warming), or other similar advances that we all benefit from in the end.

It's time to abolish the idea that leaving no child behind in school helps society in general. It's time to find ways to advance our smartest students to help them grow to their fullest intellectual abilities. It's time to be competitive with the best and brightest minds in the world, and unfortunately, that means someone might have to be left behind.