What GATE offers, in theory, is differentiation. Which *should* be offered to every student. What that means is that if a kid has mastered the topic being taught – they can be given material that either explores the topic more in depth, or moves on to a more advanced topic. This would benefit ALL kids – including those that are struggling – they could be offered a more remedial version of the topic, so that they get something out of it – rather than being assigned work that they don’t understand.
My experience was very similar to KSM’s (probably a decade earlier…). I was not seminar – but many of my friends were… My “crowd” was the smart nerds. My best friend was never tested for GATE (they didn’t test every kid) but eventually they switched her to the high school counselor that handled GATE kids because she was in all the same classes, and excelling. At the time there was an assumption that GATE kids were college track, and the assumption wasn’t there for the other kids. (Some were… but it wasn’t assumed.)
I’m still friends with my high school crowd… so perhaps we were awkward and socially stunted… but the friendships remain. I went to my 30 year reunion last year – my friends didn’t. Looking at the success from a salary/fame point of view… my nerdy friends have done much better then the school population as a whole. (Harvard professor, JPL PhD, vp’s of various large tech companies… then lowly enginerds like me.)
GATE/Seminar… the program is only as good as the teachers. And some of the teachers are EXCELLENT. Others, truthfully, blow chunks.
