What’s So Great About GATE?

It has been 23 years since my children were eligible to enter the Gifted and Talented Program at Washington elementary school. Yet I see that this same program is not just still in existence but comes with much of the same controversy.

Those many years ago, my wife and I chose not to have our children test for this program. We felt then that it was an elitist program for parents who were predominately from upper income and who felt that maybe their children would be slowed in their education by having to affiliate in classes with non-white children.

It also seems it was never about the children, only about the GATE parents. Go to any school activity either social or athletic and you would hear the parents ask one another, is your child in GATE, mine is. This narcissist attitude does not seem to have changed.

Yet, although my children did not attend that program, they were educated by the amazing teachers, at Washington such as Mrs. Van Wickle, Ms. Dawson, Mrs. Honnold, Mr. Harvey, and others. In the end my children, somehow without GATE, graduated from high school and college with honors and today are successful adults. It is time to close the GATE program and take those resources to all classrooms