Gifted Students: Real or Placebo?

The premise of the Gifted and Talented Education program is the idea that some students, for one reason or another, possess greater intellectual capacity than the average. While the GATE program has a history of producing academically successful students, it also begs the question of what came first, “the chicken or the egg?” Are these students inherently more gifted than others or is it some sort of placebo effect? That is, those students who are told that they are smarter have greater social incentive to mimic the outputs of the highly intelligent. Although there is no practical way to be certain of the GATE program’s effectiveness, the idea that we may be missing out on the genius we don’t recognize in favor of what is familiar is certainly a topic worth exploring. 

Studies have shown that gifted students have a higher risk of adverse mental health issues than the average student. On the other hand, students that participate in standard or remedial courses are more likely to remain stuck on that academic track — even if they are perfectly capable of performing at a higher level. It’s been proven that a student’s collegiate performance is proportional to the rigor of their high school curriculum, which means that underestimating a student can limit their potential.

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