alt Hacker NewsI have very deep lived personal experience with being a gifted child and having gifted children. I know what sorts of resources they need. And I'm quite sure that if you ask pretty much any gifted person if they would rather be in a room with a bunch of other gifted children and minimal adult attention, or be told to sit quietly or participate in some activities targeted several years lower than their current cognitive ability all day, that they will tell you they would rather have been with the other gifted children and minimal resources.
Like her freshly three-year-old sister is at a level more advanced than the class, and is apparently more of a cognitive peer than most of the classmates.
I think at this point the failings of the education system with respect to phonics are widely known enough that you can just discount professional opinion entirely. We're talking mass incompetence and failure. A complete disaster.
It's crazy to me that you're now arguing that I don't understand enough about education to criticize professional educators when I'm wildly outperforming them as a layman dedicating a few minutes a day to the task. And just using some basic logic, how is a kid supposed to benefit from learning something they mastered when they were two years old? Before you say, oh well, maybe they could use additional practice. No, they mastered it when they were two years old. Literally, none of their day is spent at their level. So, how could a mixed classroom possibly be better for them? Why don't we put kindergarteners with 12th graders and only teach the kindergarten curriculum if mixed ability is so beneficial?
How does the current situation not bring everyone to the bottom when they literally don't teach past the bottom?
> I have very deep lived personal experience with being a gifted child and having gifted children. I know what sorts of resources they need.
The fact that you are explaining that because you have experienced TWO situations, you are in a position to know better than people wo have way more experience, with a way more diverse set, shows that the main problem is you acting like a "Karen".
> I think at this point the failings of the education system with respect to phonics are widely known enough that you can just discount professional opinion entirely. We're talking mass incompetence and failure. A complete disaster.
First, you realise the conclusions I've presented are obtained by studies in plenty of different countries. Are you saying that somehow every education system all over the world (including the ones that did not do the mistakes you pretend is the proof they are unreliable) are all incompetent?
> ... when I'm wildly outperforming them as a layman dedicating a few minutes a day to the task
How many children have you taught? Because from what you said, it was ONE. You have no idea of the diversity of students, you have never experienced student for which your approach crashes and burns lamentably.
But, yeah, you are an armchair educator on the internet, so, obviously you know wayyyyyy better. You even say something (which is: it's better to have classroom separated by levels) that a simple google search demonstrates is terribly simplistic, and even risk bringing everyone to the bottom.
> So, how could a mixed classroom possibly be better for them?
That argument is the level of "how can the earth be round, I see it flat around me".
I don't care about your specific kid. You base all your conclusion on this single data point. The studies are looking at thousands of gifted kids, and conclude that mixed classrooms are better, including for the high performing ones. Maybe not for your kid, but then you are asking to bring everyone else to the bottom just for your special kid.
Also, your kid is not even on the top of her class. There is no way that the teacher don't provide tasks also for the smart ones as they are a big fraction of the classroom. But you will tell me that you know exactly what the teachers are providing, despite not being in the classroom, just because "I know better than them".