As some one who spent the majority of my primary education in various learning disabled programs I have to entirely disagree with you. These programs allow people like me to become productive members of society, without them many people who can achieve great things would never learn the basic skills they need to succeed.
What we call "gifted" has nothing to do with "gifts" during the elementary education phase. It has to do with a child's learning style properly fitting the surrounding environment. These children succeed because they fit the system. Others, like me, who have an "impedance" mismatch with the educational environment struggle to gain basic skills such as reading, writing and arithmetic.
However, if those basic skills can be mastered and the environment can be altered to fit these "disabled" students they can become highly successful. I consider myself to have succeeded in academia despite not learning to read till the third grade. If I had not been placed in the proper program I would have likely failed to learn to read, write and do arithmetic for a much longer period of time.
While "gifted" students need assistance and programs designed for their needs as much as "disabled" students it makes no sense to reduce already limited resources available to programs for disabled children. These children can become productive, highly successful individuals if given the proper support.
What we call "gifted" has nothing to do with "gifts" during the elementary education phase. It has to do with a child's learning style properly fitting the surrounding environment. These children succeed because they fit the system. Others, like me, who have an "impedance" mismatch with the educational environment struggle to gain basic skills such as reading, writing and arithmetic.
However, if those basic skills can be mastered and the environment can be altered to fit these "disabled" students they can become highly successful. I consider myself to have succeeded in academia despite not learning to read till the third grade. If I had not been placed in the proper program I would have likely failed to learn to read, write and do arithmetic for a much longer period of time.
While "gifted" students need assistance and programs designed for their needs as much as "disabled" students it makes no sense to reduce already limited resources available to programs for disabled children. These children can become productive, highly successful individuals if given the proper support.