
It is simply not the burden of the American education system to develop a student’s work ethic for them. Meanwhile, “standard” students are afforded none of the same self-belief systems and their self-efficacy is actually damaged by being made to believe they are less than “gifted” kids. Yet standard track students who find themselves struggling in high school don’t blame the system, a fact I find highly ironic as gifted programs imbue students with an extremely high degree of self-efficacy. Thus, these students are not especially endowed by the education system with an intense work ethic and neither are standard track students. Gifted programs are not meant to teach students work ethic but rather adapt an educational curriculum to those with a natural predilection for understanding new material. Obviously, the ability to work hard is crucial to succeed in school and beyond but the fallacy lies in blaming an accelerated educational program for the lack of such an ability.

However, recently, across social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram, current high school students have complained of long-term adverse effects of such gifted programs.

As such, beginning in elementary school, the course load is usually heavier by comparison to non-GT/AA classes while the pace at which content is introduced and taught is also increased.Īcross the country, similar programs to this, initiated in elementary school, admit millions of students every year. The GT/AA program is one which according to BCPS’s webpage is “ specially designed to extend, enrich, and/or accelerate the standard school program in order to meet the needs of students.”. In fourth grade I was placed in Baltimore County Public School’s Gifted and Talented program, which has since been dubbed with the new moniker, Advanced Academics regardless the program has inherently remained the same.
