I think one thing Muffy's posts illustrates is our methods for predicting which child is going to ultimately become a Harvard scholar, millionaire businessman, Nobel Prize winner, professional athlete, famous novelist, great spiritual leader.....SUCK! There are so many variables. When schools start narrowing the prospect pool by judging, identifying and predicting which students are going to make the greatest societal contributions in the first few years of formal schooling, it really benefits no one. It just widens the gap between the haves and and havenots, creates glass ceilings that must then be broken, and feeds resentment among groups. And for what?

Our school district yielded to parental concerns regarding the influx of urban children into our local schools lowering their standards and quality of instruction. Now the school does this elaborate (BS IMO) assessment procedures to group the best and the brightest together to protect them from the percieved decline. Guess what OUR SCHOOLS ARE DOING WORST, not better. This includes the "smart" kids. Since the ability tracking has started, their scores have gone down too. 4 of the 5 high schools in my area are on "Corrective Action 2", these were considered really good schools just 10 years ago. What ever they are doing...it is not working for ANY group. The gifted kids aren't getting any more gifted and the bottom-feeders are still on the bottom.