When haven’t they? More to the point they made it a principle to make sure that they continued to enjoy their abilites to the fullest, at expense of others. Besides, I never argue that the ‘talented’ couldn’t or shouldn’t be able to enjoy the fruits of their abilities. It all depends upon what you call ‘talents’ of course…[/quote]
True, the idea of talent varies according to context, but in mine it was academic, and that’s the field I have the most experience in.
As for this enjoying one’s abilities at the cost of others thing being a choice, tell that to the kids in the education system currently. They get no say - which isn’t entirely a bad thing - in whether or not they’re granted leave to freely excel.
If you were that kid shitting in class and getting shit all the times, I guess your sense of self worth would be pretty low … and any form of positive reinforcement would be welcome.[/quote]
I have no problem with positive reinforcement, but when those kids are getting all sorts of commendation and attention while the more intelligent get ignored because “it might make the other kids jealous” (and yes, I heard that myself repeatedly), then things need to be rethought.
In elementary school? All I could think about was a) why the dumb kids were getting patted on the back while I and a small group of others who had done better than the rest of the class had been pulled aside and told to just sit down and be quiet so the other kids wouldn’t be made to feel left out, b) why that kid kept shitting himself (and why he would still join us in swimming lessons without having changed his pants), and c) how much school sucked (like most kids think 
) I don’t really think the kids, who are the ones that suffer when things are out of whack in the educational system, really have any say in “what extent they share the resources of the educational system”.
Personally, I liked my school, and despite the shittiness of the education system back home, I still gained useful knowledge by virtue of circumstance that a private education would never have given me. I agree with you, why can’t all schools be given the resources to give kids the best start to life? We don’t have enough teachers, because they get paid shit and work horrible hours, the system is underfunded, and now that we’ve got an accreditation system in high school where you can resit exams as many times as you want until you pass, educational qualifications are increasingly worthless
Who exactly is doing that? Turn on the TV and see people celebrated because they can stuff a knife down their throat… In what way are the talented being stifled? An example?..[/quote]
Well, the education system as a whole for one is doing just that; we’ve got teachers that won’t allow kids to celebrate winning sports games because it might hurt the feelings of the other team, we’ve got schools that hand out medals to everyone regardless of whether they win or lose (not that they’re allowed to even say anyone lost anymore. They just didn’t win, that’s all.) (and as a kid who sucked horribly at sports, I would’ve actually been insulted by that shit - I’m smart enough to realise I lost assholes, don’t patronise me.), we’ve got classes so overcrowded that the range of intelligence is so great that entire courses have to be dumbed down to the border of irrelevance so that the lowest percentile can stand a chance, we’ve got teachers pulling the smart kids aside and telling them not to bother answering questions or making any sort of effort lest they embarrass the other kids, we’ve got students who get 50% on their nth attempt at an exam getting certificates while the smart ones who ace it first time get ignored… there’s a lot wrong with the system. This bullshit has been going on long enough in schools that we’re now getting a generation of adults who have been so whipped into the “we’re all winners” bullshit that celebrating winning or success is actually frowned upon by a large number of people. Add to that the good ol’ New Zealand “Tall Poppy Syndrome” and you’ve got a recipe for eternal mediocrity - if there’s no acknowledgement of success, why bother even trying to succeed? And if mediocrity is acclaimed as a success in its own right, what drive is there to better oneself? If you never fail, how can you improve?
See answer above … define ‘talented’.[/quote]
Well, my post was more about the eduational system, so by that I would mean those that excel academically or athletically.
