Gifted children are special needs children

Trying to understand the opposition and failing

Mayoral candidate, and likely next mayor, Zohran Mamdami has announced plans to phase out New York City’s gifted and talented (G&T) programs, starting with kindergarten. This fits a long-running opposition to G&T on the grounds that its student makeup doesn’t reflect the city’s overall demographics.

NPR recently summarized the “controversy” this way:

School integration advocates say these gifted programs really exacerbate segregation in the school system and New York City’s public schools are notoriously segregated. In G&T, 70% of students in the gifted classes are white or Asian, even though white and Asian students only make up 35% of total enrollment.

Notice the rhetorical sleight of hand?

“White or Asian”

Lumping Asians with whites is odd. Asian communities in NYC are culturally and demographically distinct. Why combine them?

The reason is clear: Asian students are the primary beneficiaries of these programs and these people are fundamentally against these types of programs. Despite making up only 18% of the public school population, Asian students make up 43% of the G&T kindergarten program.

I’ve never seen a satisfying explanation for why a supposedly unjust system, one assumed to disadvantage certain groups, would “accidentally” advantage Asians, often above native-born white students. Some journalists hand-wave this away or use labels like “white-adjacent,” which is both offensive and evasive.

The simplest answer: the G&T system selects, however imperfectly, for merit and effort.

Gifted Children

Anyone who has spent real time with kids knows ability varies widely. Parents especially see it: siblings raised the same can have wildly different aptitudes and temperaments. Genetics matters.

We need to start treating gifted children as special needs children.

Gifted children are special needs children in their own way. Put them in a classroom where nothing challenges them, and they suffer similar to a child with autism who lacks proper support. That’s why Steve Wozniak, Apple’s co-founder, was bored enough in high school to build fake bombs.

Eliminating G&T doesn’t make gifted kids disappear. It just leaves them underserved.

Theory of mind of the anti G&T crowd

I usually pride myself on being able to understand opposing views, even when I disagree. Plastic bag bans? Flawed but understandable. Central planning? I see the appeal despite the failures.

But the anti–G&T stance baffles me. Even highly egalitarian societies like the Soviet Union went out of their way to nurture talent in science, sports, and chess. They recognized the value of elevating the brightest minds.

Even if you’re a blank slater who believes ability is evenly distributed, and a pure egalitarian who sees any demographic imbalance as injustice, even then, why destroy programs that benefit some children? Ending G&T doesn’t help disadvantaged kids, it just removes an avenue for excellence.

This is one of the few mainstream policies I can’t understand from the other side. It strikes me as deeply wrong and disheartening to see it shaping education policy in one of America’s most important cities.