Many people
strongly assert that government should invest a large part of their budget into
education for gifted children because they firmly believe that the children
will make a great contribution toward the development of society. On the other
hand, naysayers claim that special treatment for talented students can bring
out inequality and make bigger gap between social stratums. In the essay, I
will discuss both sides and then, I will suggest my standpoint on the issue.
Children can
naturally perceive the importance of diversity and learn how to communicate and
interact with people having different background while they are taught with
people of various abilities. In addition, they can understand better community
that is composed of multifarious social classes. Therefore, the children can
easily adjust to society and live in harmony with a variety of people. However,
it is probable that intelligent students can be standardized downward.
When it comes to
special education for the talented, educational institutions can maximize their
aptitude and produce more competent human resources by teaching them
separately. Besides, it is effective for government and nation to concentrate
on training a small number of selected young people because a minority of elites
lead and change the world. For instance, Grandes écoles of France, which choose a few
promising children and instruct them intensively in a good circumstance and
with enormous support, has improved the national competitiveness and
contributed to numerous fields by uprearing them as elites necessary for the
community.
Desptie of the positive effects on society that it has had, the educational
elitism can cause disparity in society. It can create the social ethos that
regard school prestige and educational background as important, which can
produces disharomony between social classes. Moreover, ordinary students have
to receive relatively low-quality education as government pour larger sum of
money into especial education for elites because educational budget and
resources are limited. Accordingly, social and educational polarization already
pervasive in modern society will be more deepening.
In conclusion, as
can be seen above, I personally think that elitism in education will cause more
severe problems than it can contribute. In contrast, teaching children of
diverse capabilities can provide them with benefits such as social adaptability
and communication skills, which are necessary for all people and cannot be
acquired from elite-oriented education. Hence, in my opinion, all
types of children should be educated together because education is essentially not more for some, but some for all.