[lykahb]

In USSR they actually recognized gifted students and placed them into specialized classes and schools where they would thrive. They treated it as a matter of national security. The math circles and dedicated schools with STEM had the state support. The "equity" applied to the later stages of life - an engineer or a scientist would earn not much more than a blue collar worker.

[potato3732842]

>In USSR they actually recognized gifted students and placed them into specialized classes and schools where they would thrive. They treated it as a matter of national security.

I remember decades ago my undergrad statistics teacher pulling up some data on collegiate club (like chess and poker, not like ultimate frisbee) winnings in competition.

I forget what the point of the lecture was, something about data distribution types, but the takeaway was that Miami Dade Community college consistently punched above its weight class since it educated a population that was on average subject to more USSR style "identify those gifted in a niche and develop their skills" than the baseline.

That said, there's a reason those people were attending community college in Miami...

>an engineer or a scientist would earn not much more than a blue collar worker.

The blue collar trades were preferred because you had more opportunities to get stuff to barter, better still if your job involved going out and about and doing things, you could meet many people to transact with.

[nradov]

In the USSR, engineers were effectively paid less than laborers in meat packing plants. The latter could steal food to sell on the black market. Engineers couldn't walk out with much more than pencils.

[GlibMonkeyDeath]

Grouping students by ability was also common in the US (for the same national security reasons) up to the 1980's.