Diana Reeves’s comments about educating gifted children are true (“Gifted students,” Commentary, June 9): Accelerated programs for superior students seldom exist.

For example, the former accelerated program for West Warwick High School was discontinued a few years ago. Similarly, East Greenwich’s Cole Junior High School has combined gifted, mediocre and “challenged” students into the same classes. To justify the lowered standards, the school system has perpetuated “feel-good” nonsense, trying to show that gifted children benefit from class immersion with less-capable students. Actually the amalgamation of varying abilities forces the teachers to concentrate on the least capable to prevent their being left behind. The better students, as a result, are deprived of intellectual stimulation.

I have found that the “dumbing down” is not restricted to public schools. My son attended a private school, where I had to battle its administration annually to attract sufficiently challenging math instruction. While still in prep school, my son was accepted to Brown University as a special student of math. Instead of rewarding him for math accomplishments, the prep school attempted relentlessly to place obstacles in his path. It attempted to delete the advanced math grades from his overall average.

Also his Brown course schedule obliged him to miss certain sessions in other subjects at the prep school. Instead of accommodating him for sessions missed, the school tried to prevent him from getting credit for entire courses, regardless of grades. Notes for the missed classes were available for my son but withheld from him. Those important notes were provided by the East Greenwich Special Education Department to another student with a hearing loss, entitling him to be accompanied by a “scribe” for all his courses. Permitted to do so by the Special Education Department, the child withheld the notes from my son, justified by some educational bureaucratic gobbledygook. The school also approved such withholding of notes. Therefore, every obstacle possible was used to prevent my son from benefiting from the excellent math instruction provided by Brown University. Our family eventually prevailed in overcoming these obstacles.

My wife and I attended a parents’ session at MIT in which I explained our problems trying to encourage advanced math education at Brown University for my son. After I spoke, hands from other parents from various states went up. They, too, had run into similar problems. Apparently, the resistance to advanced studies for capable students is countrywide.

Other countries successfully encourage their brightest to excel. Unfortunately, our country discourages their advancement.

BARRIE SHORE

East Greenwich