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I'm a college freshmen, recently graduated from a K-12 PPS education, throughout which I was a part of the 'TAG program'. I struggled to find stimulation during school days throughout Elementary school, ultimately giving up after our 'TAG' activities included drawing and coloring symmetrical figures for an hour or two a week, or drawing the path of a pool ball bouncing off the walls of a pool table. These are merely examples of the tedious work we were given as TAG students.

Not only were these activities few and far between (not to mention inconsistent and more often nonexistent), but even when our group of bright young students was given an assignment or project separate from the rest of the class, we would still finish early and return to boredom. As I said above, these activities seemed all too often to serve no purpose further than to keep us contented, while things were business as usual inside the classroom.

As is often the problem not only with TAG but similar programs (i.e. honors/accelerated classes in high school), the problem was not always that there wasn't more advanced work to do and material to learn, but that the supplemental work given was more of the same - busy work, designed to take more time and not necessarily stimulate the growth of more knowledge - mere size over actual substance.

The real problem, however, is not going to be solved by complaining, nor will anyone make real progress dealing with the TAG program on a case-by-case basis. I was able to be successful and ultimately stimulated in school at least partly due to a few well-timed exchanges with other students and teachers who had advice on how to 'beat' this system. Obviously, this isn't the ideal situation, and PPS (TAG included) needs to work harder to publicize opportunities to get ahead, get involved, and for both students and parents to be proactive in students' education. If these intelligent, motivated students can be made aware of opportunities that already exist, then the support of parents, teachers, and administrators will follow.

As for the poster who commented that those who have left the PPS system would be unlikely to weigh in on this conversation, just because PPS has a long way to go, and the TAG program hasn?t done a whole lot to help these successful students, doesn?t mean that there aren?t some really good things happening in PPS, and that there aren?t truly passionate, dedicated people working as teachers and administrators. I know tons of students who wouldn't have traded their experience in PPS for anything else, myself included, and that's no coincidence - which isn't to say that it was perfect, but that education is what you make of it. What is left for us is to teach students (and their parents) how to contour their own education to their own personal needs.

posted 5 years, 3 months ago
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