NORTHERN PLANNER

There was a fascinating discussion Radio 4 about how intellectually gifted children in the UK may get a raw deal. Apparently far more money and time is spent on the not so gifted. Schools in the Uk have classes of mixed abilities where they can’t move on until everyone gets the hang of what you’re doing now. The debate over segregating kids has been going far a long time, but is it really fair to force kids of different mental abilities together in classes when only the good footballers get into the school team? Or the best looking girls get the pick of the boys?

There’s a lot of attention paid to how kids get bullied for being too fat or too thin, but little about how they’re singled out for liking learning. I’m not talking about the stereotypical nerd, but kids who are afraid to put their hands up and admit they know the answer. Why has it got so bad? How did we get to a culture that ridicules people that like to think?