Why public education fails gifted students

Public education fails most students it claims to pass. That held true two decades ago and nothing has changed in the present day. 

Gifted students suffer the most. And no, “gifted” doesn’t pertain to those who played the game of school well. If a student consistently hits the honor roll, belongs to the National Honor Society, Beta Club, and reaches notable levels of academic achievement, this doesn’t make them gifted.

In many cases, the opposite’s true. They know how to conform, recite and repeat what they’re told to, and rarely think outside acceptable parameters. It’s why I lol when I see a bumper sticker that says “Proud Parent of an Honors Student.”

Yeah, congrats, Mom and Dad. You raised your kid to be a subservient drone. Because in actuality, public school fails gifted students who possess innovative minds, think outside the box, and question what they’re lectured.

But what does public school and traditional private school do to these kids? They treat them like problems. These kids are “disruptive,” and prone to getting in trouble with school administrators if they don’t shut up and conform.

In other cases, they’re the kids who end up on ADHD meds, simply because they don’t want to sit still for six to eight hours. Or, better yet, their natural inclination doesn’t involve sitting still.

So, Mom and Dad, if you think your little honors kid’s brilliant, you got another thing coming.

Public school fails gifted students because they demand conformity

This doesn’t mean they fail them in terms of letter grades. Most teachers will never disclose this, but they need to pass a certain number of students.

I remember a conversation with a friend of mine, whose daughter openly complained about her school passing a kid who never did any work. Hell, I can look at an old yearbook and wonder how in God’s name a good quarter of my graduating class walked away with a diploma. At least a quarter.

But I also asked, “How would these kids have fared if they weren’t forced into a one-size-fits-few model?” That’s where public schools fail gifted students.

Some may say, “Well, a lot of public schools go beyond the classroom setting these days, TC.” I understand that, but kids predominantly sit in a classroom, listen to lectures, take notes, and must recite and repeat through written tests for a letter grade.

The core model remains intact. But even if we broke out of the classroom entirely, public schools still wouldn’t cater to every student. They’d only offer specific programs, while a free market approach would provide programs and services based on demand.

Even if the market didn’t cater to everyone’s demand, there’s still room left over for innovation. In a setting ruled by public schools, this is less of a case.

Why? Many, but not all, would-be providers would find it tough to compete with a publicly-funded borderline monopoly. There are other avenues they can funnel capital and resources into without competing against the State, and that would more likely increase profit margins.

Public schools continue to be normie factories

To this day, public schools follow the old Prussian model. That model was used to forge compliant citizens, not independent thinkers.

It’s why drones who graduate with honors recite and repeat State-approved “facts” while spitting on anything that contradicts those “facts.” Have you ever noticed how many people online say: “Yeah, well I have credentials in Fields X and Y, so I’m the expert, you’re not.”

Seriously, if they get more pissed off when someone contradicts them more than Anthony Fauci did during COVID, it’s because they’re, in reality, insecure about what they were taught. If they were secure and confident in their worldview, the compliant drones wouldn’t be so up in arms when dissenters like Scott Horton make a compelling case for why NATO’s truly at fault for the Russo-Ukrainian War.

What does COVID dissent have in common with pointing the finger at NATO for the Russian invasion? They spit on the State-approved version of “facts.” Public schools do the same thing daily, and it’s why so few critical thinkers exit their walls.

It’s why, when you attend class reunions, you run into a bunch of normies. Those who think corporate greed was responsible for the post-COVID prices spike. They also believe artificially low interest rates are godsends for business investment while steady inflation is a sign of a healthy economy.

You only need to spend a few seconds with most of these cats to catch the gist.

Markets are the only solution to public school’s failures

Regardless of how one tries to frame them, public schools will always fail a contingent of students. Kids who are gifted enough to think, create, and buck trends and norms only suffocate in a market-based setting if there isn’t enough demand in a specific niche.

But with homeschooling, one-on-one tutoring, and learning pods, even the most niche learning styles and personalities can thrive. Still, with public school dominating the educational landscape even if they’ve lost some ground, we can’t maximize market-based solutions, and nonconforming students will suffer.

One reason I wrote my young adult fantasy, The Arcane Prophecy, was to highlight one gifted student’s ability to thrive in alternative settings. While Yote Diamondback fared well in a traditional atmosphere, she doesn’t realize what full potential looks like until she attends the Arcane Elemental Academy and witnesses market-based education firsthand without the parasite that is public schooling.

Catch the first three chapters of Book I, The Arcane Prophecy, right now, and see how Yote ends up at Arcane. If you’re looking for retaliatory fiction that bites, you’ll love this book’s brief introduction.