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Gifted Education and the Spectre of Elitism

This paper explains current practices in gifted education as they relate to the schools' role in legitimating existing patterns of social stratification. It discusses the way in which the anti-intellectual climate of public schools fosters the provision of noncognitive instruction to the most cognitively apt students. In particular, the paper presents arguments to support the thesis that schools provide noncognitive instruction to gifted students in order to thwart their development as intellectuals. This phenomenon is especially germane considering the historical antagonism between intellectuals and the ruling class. Finally, the paper evaluates the extent to which gifted education programs are elitist. It suggests that noncognitive programs for the gifted are necessarily elitist whereas challenging cognitive programs for such students may in fact threaten the elitism of the ruling class.