Review by Choice Review
Sapon-Shevin proposes that we return to the heterogeneous classroom as the primary source of children's communal and intellectual needs. According to the author, each child, no matter how exceptional, should have a place in that community. The full inclusion movement is predicated upon increased funding for staff development and support personnel, yet federal money for gifted students currently stands at $9 million dollars, hardly meaningful when distributed nationwide. Sapon-Shevin argues that labeling "de-skills" regular classroom teachers by reducing their responsibility to teach all students. However, techniques proposed by gifted education advocates for working with gifted students in the regular classroom, such as acceleration or cross-age ability grouping, are dismissed as elitist rhetoric by the author. No considered instructional or curricular alternatives are offered save having more able students assist their classmates. This contentious volume adds an important philosophical perspective to the debate about labeling and addressing the needs of gifted children and should engender questions about restructuring not only schools, but the community in which schools are located. All levels. R. F. Subotnik; Hunter College, CUNY
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
