[jlebar]

Here's a radical idea: let [gifted kids] have childhoods!

As a child who experienced both "regular" and gifted education, I can say with some certainty that: My "childhood" began when I entered gifted school.

Before that I was bullied, I didn't fit in, I wasn't challenged, and I was unhappy.

It was my personal experience and the experience of many of the students around me at gifted school that this was what we wanted. We were happy and grateful to be around "our kind". Precisely because we could be the kids we wanted to be.

That feeling certainly wasn't universal. It wasn't for everyone. And I will readily grant that schools -- even gifted schools -- are prison-like and could be improved.

But I reject the notion you seem to be arguing that these programs are prima facie harmful (or at best not helpful), as compared to the standard-education alternative.

[scientician]

I definitely did not intend to make any argument supporting the standard alternative. My argument is that the standard model is harmful, and gifted programs are only slightly less harmful.