Gin & Tonic Kids

"Memo to suburban voucher opponents who 'support public education': you're already sending your kid to private school. You're just confused because your tuition fees came bundled with granite countertops and hardwood floors."

Great mini-rant from Megan McArdle on gifted-and-talented programs and how perhaps their main effect is confuse rich parents into thinking that the public school system doesn't need reform.

FYI: Yes, I was "G&T" tracked in first grade, and I got a giant leg up on college from that, though my work ethic is also pretty suspect as a result. (There are studies out there about how continuously telling kids they're smart makes them work less and be averse to challenging themselves. I'll see if I can dig up some links sometime.) I also went to a public school district that behaved and attracted talent like a private school. My main concern, as an about-to-be-parent, is not that such districts exist, but that they exist thanks to income inequality that has only worsened in the 15 years since I graduated.

Also, the name "gifted and talented" strikes me as a marvelous phrase that sounds politically correct but is literally horrible. "These children, through no work on their part, have gifts and talents. We can tell because ... well, I guess we can just tell because all these other kids were born without any gifts or talents somehow."

By the way, I almost lost my slot in G&T on the first day of segregated instruction, when me and the other two G&T girls in my class were asked to color a picture of a sheep on a hill while the other kids ... I don't know, learned how to wash dishes or something ... and instead of coloring the hill green, I tried to draw each individual blade of grass with my green crayon. When the teacher patiently explained to me later that I could have just filled the hill area in with solid green, I could tell she was debating which euphemistic definition of "gifted" really applied to me.