Where is the challenge?

In response to the Oct 11 Bangor Daily News article, “Education speaker critizes programs for gifted,” I agree. I am a junior in high school and have been labeled a gifted student throughout high school. In the gifted and talented program in which I was enrolled, I was challenged. I was given something that I could accomplish and feel good about, unlike the average class work that was given to us daily which could be completed in an inkling of time.

After sixth grade, however, the program stopped for me. The program no longer existed because of lack of funding. I now find my classes, with only a few exceptions, requiring minimum amounts of high-level thinking. I cannot help this as I am required to take these classes in order to further my education in college.

Maine schools are wonderful. Generally, however, the schools aren’t equipped to make us think. When we get out in the real world, we are able to (do) anything that is placed in front of us. But when we’re asked to be creative, or use our heads to think, a look of pain spreads over our faces. Why doesn’t the government spend more money on students instead of budget cutting us back to the stone age of technology?…

In my last high school, the college preparatory track was as high as you could go. I was in the top of my class. When I moved, my new high school had a track similar to my previous one, but it was an honors track. Because of the difference in names, I am forever caught in a college preparatory track.

Unchallenged, I lead a day at school that is monotonous and far from enriching. It’s not just me. Quite a few people I know who I am friends with are not challenged enough and find other means of amusement or fulfillment. A lot of us draw, write, or do drama. That’s not enough. Give us a break; teach us smething we can use.

I understand that teachers and students have limitations. However, those limitations should be explored and pushed to their full potential, not left to sit rotting in the dust bins of time. Rachel Ward Presque Isle.