John Cloud, writing for Time, asks, Are We Failing Our Geniuses?:
To some extent, complacency is built into the system. American schools spend more than $8 billion a year educating the mentally retarded. Spending on the gifted isn’t even tabulated in some states, but by the most generous calculation, we spend no more than $800 million on gifted programs. But it can’t make sense to spend 10 times as much to try to bring low-achieving students to mere proficiency as we do to nurture those with the greatest potential.
If you look at education as an investment in human capital, then it certainly does not make sense to put the greatest effort where it has the least return. But that’s clearly not how education policy gets made.
Here’s what holding back gifted kids can do to them:
At the University of New South Wales, Gross conducted a longitudinal study of 60 Australians who scored at least 160 on IQ tests beginning in the late ’80s. Today most of the 33 students who were not allowed to skip grades have jaded views of education, and at least three are dropouts. “These young people find it very difficult to sustain friendships because, having been to a large extent socially isolated at school, they have had much less practice … in developing and maintaining social relationships,” Gross has written. “A number have had counseling. Two have been treated for severe depression.” By contrast, the 17 kids who were able to skip at least three grades have mostly received Ph.D.s, and all have good friends.
Compare that to the prevailing view amongst parents that they should hold their children back to give them every advantage over the other kids in their grade (from When Should a Kid Start Kindergarten?).