Playing Favorites: Gifted Education and the Disruption of Community [Paperback]

Mara Sapon-Shevin (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 308 pages
• Publisher: State University of New York Press (March 31, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0791419800
• ISBN-13: 978-0791419809
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 1.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,781,789 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't confuse "equal" with "fair", July 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Playing Favorites: Gifted Education and the Disruption of Community (Paperback)

In a roomful of people, one person chokes on his food. "Fair" would be to give him the Heimlich Maneuver. "Equal" would be to give everyone the Heimlich Maneuver.

"Equal" would also be to give no one the Heimlich Maneuver, and that seems to be what the author is arguing in this sophomoric effort.

The reviewer immediately below posted a lovely point-by-point rebuttal, and I see no reason to duplicate those efforts here. But I do wish to emphasize that the author has based nearly all of the book on her one little study in one small Midwestern town, while ignoring YEARS of studies involving thousands of people all over the world.

One size does not fit all, not in clothing, not in fast food meals, and not in education.

I'd give this book no stars if I could. The one thing it is good for is as concrete evidence of how many people, ignorant of the research, perceive gifted education. Part of the problem is in the word "gifted." If they already have a gift, why give them more? They truly do not understand that giftedness is very much a gift that can come with a rather steep price tag.

Back in the bad old days, our choking friend would have been SOL. Isn't it great that we now have the research and the technique to give him what he needs, and the wisdom to know that giving him the Heimlich is not playing favorites?

27 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A cliche-ridden, poorly researched work, February 7, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Playing Favorites: Gifted Education and the Disruption of Community (Paperback)

According to the author:

"This book is about something important that is happening in our nation's schools, a phenomenon called 'gifted education,' which identifies certain children as eligible to receive particular kinds of educational experiences, often segregated from their 'nongifted' peers."

Her view of this "phenomenon" is clear and unequivocal:

"These programs speak to us of unequal educational opportunities, racism, elitism, and exclusion."

In the remainder of the book she attempts to justify this conclusion. And whether or not you believe that she succeeds will probably, at least in part, depend on your own experience with, and knowledge of, the characteristics and needs of gifted children.

It may also depend on the social and political views you hold. There is little doubt that the authors' conclusions were influenced by her own views, because she says so:

"Of course I have values and beliefs about this issue, and they have inevitably guided my choice and interpretation of this topic."

There is also little doubt what her beliefs are:

"...gifted education [is] being used to further reify social and class stratification."

Unfortunately, the evidence presented to support her views consists largely of anecdotes, which, at least on the evidence presented above, may have been selectively collected or reported. According to her:

"The major portion of the data presented in this books is drawn from a study I conducted during the 1987-1988 school year in a small town in the Midwest. For that study, I interviewed thirty-six of the forty teachers in the school district, as well as a [unspecified] sampling of parents and students in the gifted program."

To some I suppose this may sound substantial. But the research on gifted children, their development and their education consists of hundreds of studies of thousands of individuals (children, parents and teachers) for periods of up to several decades. Sapon-Shevin ignores the results of the bulk of this work, much of which directly addresses and rebuts many of the criticisms that she makes.

One issue she spends discusses critically at some length is the difficulty of defining and measuring "giftedness". While there certainly are differences in both opinion and policy on this issue, there is also much agreement. (And the fact that people or policies set different cut-off levels does not negate the concept of "giftedness": after all, does the concept of "tallness" lose its utility just because we wouldn't all agree on who to call "short", "average" and "tall"?)

Sapon-Shevin's arguments are all based on her ideas of what is socially just and ethical and her conception of what schools should be about. They totally ignore the documented fact that the existing system often does not serve the needs of one, easily identifiable, group particularly well.

Perhaps one of the most significant flaws in the book is that Sapon-Shevin concentrates all her discussion on only a couple of the many types of provisions which can be made for gifted children: special classes and programs. One of the commonest provisions, grade skipping, is never mentioned. This should in no way threaten her "community of learners" and, indeed, if anything it should strengthen it.

Sapon-Shevin undoubtedly means well, but she has chosen her target extremely poorly. In most places, programs for the gifted get the smallest slice of the educational budget. Removing this would make not one iota of difference to the wider school community but would be a terrible blow to many bright and talented children.

13 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Misguided "logic", February 5, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Playing Favorites: Gifted Education and the Disruption of Community (Paperback)

This is probably one of the most negative books I have ever read on the subject of gifted education. The authors proceed through a series of emotional and illogical assumptions and statements about gifted students and what their needs are in our school systems. The suggestions the authors make to "help" these students by being "fair" to everyone, are harmful at best. This is just another example of the anti-intellectualism that seems to be running rampant in our society today.