Notes on the Idea of the Class (My Perfect GT Program)

I have been assigned, as my classmates have, to assist in the reform a program for gifted and talented students using the experience of my position of a nine-year student. I have also been assigned to design a classroom, which I will do. But first I will turn my attention to the curriculum of the program.

The GT program is created to provide the necessary services to gifted and talented students. It may seem counter-intuitive to state that these students need services, but discrimination against the students, their need for challenging education, and apathy they may build require that additional help be given to these people.

Gifted students require challenging education which includes their areas of interest. This makes all of these students special-needs students of a sort. The Gifted and Talented program must act as a way to satisfy areas of interest, especially those unavailable in the standard school curriculum. Independent projects such as the existing Fall Project of the class under reform must become a regular portion of the class. These considerations will be taken into account later into these notes.

The purpose of government is to unite its subjects in morality, and the best governments are governments by reason, for reason is among the most moral ends, and a government by reason must be led by those trained in the science of leadership. The purpose of a government is to unite people in morality, and some moral requirements can only be assessed using the background of other studies. Thus, the leaders of a society cannot just be experienced leaders, but experienced people from the empirical sciences and philosophy, with the power to negate decisions from the leaders.

Selfishness may still prevent experienced leaders from rationally leading a society; thus the people affected by a decision must be the third group involved in decision-making. Additionally, a petition system – a system in which, if a certain amount of people approve a draft of a law, it must be discussed by the government – may be quite useful.

So you may be wondering: what does all of this babble about government have to do with a classroom? Well, in order to ensure that a large number of people are trained to lead, to work, and to further knowledge, the government must provide a way to train them. This necessarily implies a new power structure, led by teachers already experienced, over students gaining experience. This structure, though it exists for a different reason (to educate rather than to unite), must still be governed by reason, and thus the students, at least those of the higher grades as is being discussed, must form a consensus with teachers and other educators on the methods of education. Every classroom is a separate power structure that must follow this rule. All changes to the classroom, including the one being discussed here, must be made as though the classroom is simultaneously a republic and an oligarchy.

Now to apply the special needs of gifted and talented students. Currently, the gifted/talented program is somewhat unfocused. It wants to be a place for extracurricular study, a center for social justice, and a seminar class all in one. The focus of the GT classroom should be on extracurricular study; the existing Fall Project and Tech Challenge should remain, with additional required Opener Projects being added as time will allow. Counseling must remain, as should the seminar class, but advocacy for social justice must entirely be the responsibility of the students.

Flexible scheduling has been suggested. I support this. High school students often waste their time by working bell-to-bell on indoor classes; if even one class allowed for faster learners to spend time elsewhere, that would be great.

To wrap up: the GT center must create a student leadership body with no membership restrictions in order for it to be governed by reason. Additionally, it ought to provide more independent research projects than it does, taking away focus from social justice projects, while retaining counseling.

Notes on the Physical Classroom (My Perfect GT Classroom)

The remainder of the assignment remains; designing the classroom. I don’t have many thoughts on what should ultimately be left up to the teachers, conferencing with architects. Obviously a class area is needed, but the GT center may also add a laboratory, makerspace, and computer area if rights will allow to serve those interests.

I would not recommend switching to Chromebooks. Their uses are minimal in comparison to a Windows system. I would recommend instead deploying Linux laptops. System76 and AdoraDeal offer relatively easy-to-obtain and cheap ones. Plus, it would be a first for the entirety of the district.