GroupNewsBlog: On Mixed Up Kids

I sometimes feel, even at 49, that I'm still a mixed up kid. Unlike the situation that Jesse Wendel writes about here
both of my folks were very supportive and patient with me, in the midst of their own struggles to make sure we would survive poverty, racism, and other facts of Queens Village life...

But I wonder sometimes why I am so set against having children (meaning me, not others), and glad not to have them at this ripe middle-age. And I think that, rather than the reason being because I didn't see good parenting in action (I did), it's that I'm still that mixed up kid, and balancing my own inadequacies is going to be my work during this lifetime.

for a bit of personal meta and a question, inspired by Jesse's post (which I highly recommend, both for the post itself and for the comments), please follow me...

Jesse took his inspiration from a Time Magazine article, the point of which is this:

"... our education system has little idea how to cultivate its most promising students..."

When I was growing up, while there was some attention paid to what would be known as 'special' children, I think there was scant systemic support, within the system, for gifted kids. My own experience is that the support came in the form of busing. The point of busing was integrating the schools, but it had the effect of putting potentially gifted kids together, kids who might have scored high on whatever tests they used at the time, but who might have foundered in the rough (at the time) environment of PS 147, were chosen to take a little schoolbus, from a corner that I think I could still find today, to Flushing's PS 192. But that was a partial solution for that time, not now.

Here's what I wonder after thinking about all of this: what kinds of programs are out there, in public schools, that support/cultivate/honor and understand gifted kids while keeping them in the midst of gifted, average and struggling kids? Of course, there are schools for gifted kids, but isn't it reasonable to think that most kids will be better off getting the support they need in the context of a diverse community?

I'm hoping that parents who are happy with their kids' education weigh in and share the experience..