frustrations with public school

why must we hold back and not encourage gifted children to become the best they can be in their own skins? granted, they may not fit in with the pack ... but what makes fitting in with the pack so good? why force our kids to fit in with the pack instead of teaching them how to accept their uniqueness and accept the uniqueness of others? and why do we feel the need to apologize for our gifted children???

in researching ways to advocate for rj, i came across this article on a site about gifted children:

http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/apology.htm

i know this article was published back in 2003, but i'm just starting to face the issues she lived thru as i try to find the best possible education for my son. it saddens me that we feel the need to apologize for our children who excel. if our child is a skilled soccer player, it's a gift; if our child is academically skilled, we're looking down on other kids? and the argument against her example of ana finishing work quickly ... we applaud the system for providing resources to bring developmentally challenged kids 'up' to 'normal' ... but we have to accept the system bringing our child 'down' to 'normal'? each child has their own unique set of gifts, yet, as public schools seem to stand today, we seem to be doing our best to suppress those gifts and bring each child into these artificially created definitions of 'normal' instead of doing out best to bring out the best in each child. granted, many schools (especially public) do not have the resources to do this, but it forcing everyone to a standard definition the right solution??? and because a child has a special skill, we can't encourage them to be proud of it and their uniqueness without appearing to be disparaging others? it's a sad situation.

-s