What comes first, the provision of gifted education for those children who stand out as being academically able to cultivate that intelligence, or the social awkwardness and feeling of a heavy burden that comes as being labeled as “gifted” or a “genius” by others? I happened to be a child during a period where gifted education was celebrated as a way to encourage students with high scorable intelligence and a general aptitude for academic work, but by the time I got into high school there was a widespread retreat away from this sort of education which took children out of the ordinary classrooms of their grade starting in the third grade onward in math and science, and in the seventh grade and onward in English and history courses. At least in the area where I grew up, in Central Florida, there has been a tension between wanting to encourage and cultivate high academic achievers, but at the same time not wanting them to feel too special or shortchange the learning experience of ordinary students, in an environment of general scarcity when it comes to academic funding and attention.

Although I had been in gifted classes for several years by this time, it was only as a sixth grade student, ironically enough in a regular English class, that I became aware that I was not a sui generis, the first of my kind, but rather a part of a rare but nonetheless identifiable tribe of people. In reading the novel “A Little Princess,” I was struck by how Sarah Crewe was credited as having the native bearing of a high class young lady despite her suffering a great deal of exploitation at the hands of Miss Minchin and others at the school where she had been a parlor boarder before her father died, leaving her (as he thought at the time) destitute after problems with some diamond mines. Sarah Crewe’s vivid imagination, kindness in sharing her knowledge and perspective with others, and devouring of books all struck me as being very kindred qualities that marked her as the first time I had encountered someone like myself in the world of literature. Since then I have found that people of my kind are far more common in print than they are in real life, though surely if people write about Nathanish characters than surely there must be some of them in reality to provide the proper model for them.

What is the goal of gifted education? One need hardly expand the pride and ego of those who are regularly praised for being of high intelligence. Such praise can easily go to people’s heads and puff them up and lead them to think that their talents and abilities make them better than the common herd of humanity, in the same way that praise for athletic ability tends to turn those who are world-class athletes or notable beauties and leads them to look down on others. At the same time, though, to the extent that people are made to feel bad for enjoying learning and having native intellectual curiosity, having an education system that separates such people from the bullying that follows whenever someone is different–even different in the positive way of appreciating and enjoying the process of learning, not finding it dull or boring as most people do–is worthwhile if a community or society wishes to cultivate that desire to learn and study and grow intellectually for its own benefit, even if such interests alienate people from their peers and provide a long-lasting burden that can often hinder social acceptance. Having a parallel education system for those who want to learn and are able to learn more, and enjoy it, than most people can be of great benefit when that knowledge is put to use to serve the larger community, which may grudgingly respect others who have useful knowledge and intellectual curiosity and discipline later on in life if they do not when they are young and foolish.

In my experience, at least, what comes first is the burden of being an intellectual in a society where intellectuals are viewed with suspicion or even outright hostility. While areas that are congenial to intellectuals foster many who wish to appear as intellectuals when they are not, some people will be intellectuals wherever they are, even in the most uncongenial and hostile climates for it, as was the case for me growing up. This creates a terrible burden when one is so out of step with those around you, which in any community is going to be grounds for a great deal of social ostracism and bullying, and without a lot of places where one’s native inclination to learn and study and ask questions and investigate matters is celebrated or even merely accepted or appreciated. Gifted education does not cause this problem. Instead, it is an effort, however slight, to ameliorate the burden that intellectual children in unintellectual surroundings will face whether or not their plight is understood or recognized or not.