Support specialized programs & schools made possible by optional attendance!

Gifted students deserves to be challenged and stimulated in school as much as any other student.

When I was younger, no one got along with me because I was too smart. Then I joined TOPS and now im worshiped as a god. One day I will rack up the courage to find my true love.

We need such programs to stay competitive globally. It would be morst silly to terminate those great programs in the sake of fake equity.

Despite not currently being in a specialized program, these programs are important! The 2 years that I spent in TOPS taught me a lot. The people in enriched programs earned their opportunities. Getting rid of these specialized programs is the opposite of equity. It is not equity to force everyone to learn at the exact same pace and level. Both below and above average students will suffer. It feels like certain people providing input to the TDSB Equity Task Force are just butthurt that they never got accepted into these programs!

SAVE SPECIAL PROGRAMS!!

Thinking of doing is so creazy,awful.

it is not fair for all kids to receive the same level of education. different kids have different passions, interests, and different abilities. the education system must do its best to provide all possibilities to meet different needs of our young students. in my opioion, school board should creat more programs to accomodate the needs of students. phasing out of the special desigbed programs is like shutting doors off to the students in need. the ministry of education must stop this immediately and review the qualification of director of TDSB. he should not setup the taskforce to in the first place. it is on the wrong direction and wasting tax payers' money.

Only if every school gets the same qualified teacher.

While I support greater equity across schools and within the schools, I strongly oppose phasing out Gifted program based on my own child's experience. I understand the proposal is to have these students blended into regular classes while still having some level of access to special programs, but this will inevitability result in a lot of gifted students losing interest in learning, since mostly likely the teacher has to take care of the needs of the majority of the students in the class and the gifted students will find the class too slow and boring. This was exactly the case when my son was taking some electives in G9 and G10 in which he was integrated with regular program kids (He was in Gifted programs G4-G8 and now at the TOPS program). He complained that most of the class time was WASTED because they were learning things he already know and almost all the TOPS kids in that elective ended up not listening and doing something else. Could you imagine that especially in elementary schools when kids with great potentials are at the most inquisitive age but their learning drive was mercilessly killed because they found that learning is BORING? I agree that special classes created some type of division, but people have different ability levels, and the needs of children with greater ability also need to be accommodated. Equity doesn't necessarily mean treating everyone the SAME way, it should mean equal consideration/accommodation for ALL the students, including both fast learners and slow learner. It is ridiculous to sacrifice the needs of these talented kids under the name of equity just to make some people feel better about themselves.

TDSB is crazy for even thinking of doing this.

In grade eight, I went on a visit to what is now my high school and knew then and there that this was where I wanted to go. I got into a specialized program (TOPS), but I would've applied to go there anyway (optional attendance) because my parents and I just knew that, after my frankly terrible middle school experience, it would be the best fit for me. Please, please, please don't rob future students of that choice. Kids and their families know what they want out of high school - give them the chance to pursue it, now and forever.

Claud deserves to stay!

Claude Watson program is such a good program for kids with potentials in arts. It will be such a pity to cancel it. Kids with talent in arts deserve the right to be educated differently from normal kids

It's not just about being smarter than the normies. Some of us use optional attendance programs to get away from middle school bullies and to be with like-minded people

How dare tdsb shut down specialized programs is talented kids being treated as talented kids wrong??

smh

This isn't equity. Equity is giving people the help they need. Why make advanced students suffer? TDSB is spending too much of its time and money on things that they don't know about

:'(

You can force all students in Toronto to the same low standard. But how to compete with other Canadian students? How to compete with the world?

This is insane... People who want this should think of who this impacts, positive and negative!