Should gifted students go to a separate school?

Re:Should gifted students go to a separate school? by TeMPOraL on Wednesday January 25, 2017 @01:08PM (#13484053)

Even if you were to create a special "school for smart people only" and magically teleport all geeks there, I wouldn't be sure it would eliminate the problem of geeks being bullied. Bullying seems to be an emergent thing that comes up naturally in the sort of environment a school is - as long as kids have a "hierarchy of popularity", there will be some people at the bottom of it, and those are your bullying targets.

Being a geek is a reason to find yourself at the bottom of the hierarchy, but so is being overweight, wearing glasses, being shy, being in a religious minority, etc. The particular reason doesn't matter to the bullying process, it's a free variable. I'm pretty sure that a school full of geek kids will find their own reasons to bully some of its students.

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Re:Should gifted students go to a separate school? by jlebar on Wednesday January 25, 2017 @01:25PM (#13484252)

> Even if you were to create a special "school for smart people only" and magically teleport all geeks there, I wouldn't be sure it would eliminate the problem of geeks being bullied.

First, note that the standard the school has to meet isn't "no bullying", but rather "significantly less bullying". I presume this is what you mean.

Anyway: What is your evidence for this claim? Have you ever spent time in such a school and compared it to a regular school?

Data point of N=1. I went to a special "school for smart people only". There was dramatically less bullying than the regular-people school I came from.

But anyway the researchers are providing actual scientific evidence of this effect, and you appear to be arguing against it using, apparently, intuition based on no evidence whatsoever. "Yes, these experts say X, but that sounds unbelievable to me; therefore they must be wrong."

Surely you do not endorse this sort of reasoning.

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Re:Should gifted students go to a separate school? by ebola1717 on Wednesday January 25, 2017 @01:38PM (#13484407)

I went to a "double academically talented" middle school, and got bullied there, more than in my elementary school. Nothing to do with "smartness" or "geekiness" - middle school kids are just horrible lol

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Re:Should gifted students go to a separate school? by hawkice on Wednesday January 25, 2017 @01:12PM (#13484101)

I don't disagree per se, but instead of this happening, it frequently does not. I suspect it is because we are massively under-serving these kids, and they are all essentially bullying refugees. They know exactly how bad it is. Maybe if the torturous experiences were less universal they'd fall into those patterns much quicker.

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Re:Should gifted students go to a separate school? by crushton on Wednesday January 25, 2017 @04:37PM (#13486436)

Intellectual bullying is also a thing. Having the social intelligence not to be bullied or to form strategic alliances with bullies is useful and less likely to happen for these precious gifted geeks if they are placed together in an unrealistic safe haven. We are all in this world together. If anyone on this thread believes IQ determines social value they need to be bullied a bit more.

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Re:Should gifted students go to a separate school? by bartwe on Wednesday January 25, 2017 @08:53PM (#13488079)

Because bullying kids boosts their social intelligence and learns them important lessons ? Bullying had a far greater impact on me then any class in those elementary school years, but i can tell you it has the inverse effect you suggest.

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