On 06/09/10, I started the forum thread "Proposal: NASA Academy of the Physical Sciences" at:
http://giftedissues.davidsongifted....sal_NASA_Academy_of_the_P.html#Post77811Though it was locked on 11/29/10, many people are still reading that thread. In fact, that thread now has more than 140,500 Views according to the forum record.
Some of what follows will be familiar to those who have read my previous thread. My basic thinking regarding gifted education is the same, but the core of my proposed solution has changed significantly.
What I have come to conclude is this: K-12 public education in the United States is so entrenched in its ways that the needs of gifted students will not be met until the entire system is effectively changed, both in its philosophical essence and in its everyday practicalities. Though philosophy should supersede all other considerations, the truth is simply this: money is the first and only consideration that matters. In other words, if you cannot pay for it, it will not happen.
With that harsh reality in mind, I was determined to permanently solve the money problem, and not just for a fortunate few, but for everyone. I thought if the struggles to pay for K-12 public education in the United States were eliminated, "We The People" would finally put philosophy of purpose in its rightful place as the first and only consideration that mattered, and that the needs of all gifted students across America would thereafter be met without fail.
Big problems deserve big solutions, so I resolved to go BIG by proposing two amendments to the U.S. Constitution: one that would effectively pay for K-12 public education in the United States into perpetuity and one that would forever define the philosophical framework on which K-12 public education in the United States would be built.
Of course, I am but one person who answers to no one — a committee of one. My "money" amendment is short and sweet, and I doubt if anyone could improve on it. But my "philosophy" amendment goes on and on, and it would certainly be changed considerably by countless others before it ever became an official proposal. Even so, I have provided a legitimate start that includes everything that should be included at a thoughtful beginning such as here and now.
PROPOSED "MONEY" AMENDMENT:
One Percent Ownership of Patents and Copyrights
Re: Article I Section 8. [8]
The United States shall have one percent (1%) ownership of each and every copyright and patent issued and registered by the United States government. The ownership shall be limited to the pre-tax gross revenues generated by any and all uses of that which is protected by U.S. copyright and patent law, and all such ownership shall be without exception. All revenues earned from such ownership shall be used to fund the free public education guaranteed to citizens by law, with all revenues from patents supporting Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics education exclusively and all revenues from copyrights supporting either Arts and Humanities education or Physical Education and Health education exclusively according to the general categories that create the revenues (i.e. computer-related patents support computer science education, music copyrights support music arts education, sporting event copyrights support physical education, and so forth).
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The above is "Proposal #4" at:
http://steven-a-sylwester.blogspot.com/2012/01/restated-and-proposed-amendments-to-us.html or at: bit.ly/zPQ2MV
A long commentary that explains the financial details of "One Percent Ownership of Patents and Copyrights" can be read at:
http://steven-a-sylwester.blogspot.com/2011/12/this-deserves-macarthur-genius-award.html or at: bit.ly/v48deL
The whole commentary describes two different related proposed amendments. The second part of the commentary describes "One Percent Ownership of Patents and Copyrights." Read it!
PROPOSED "PHILOSOPHY" AMENDMENT:
Public Education
Re: Article. I. Section. 8.
Section. 1.
The Congress shall fund, oversee the administration of, and nominate students to the six tuition-free United States military academies located at: West Point, New York, for the Army; Annapolis, Maryland, for the Navy and the Marine Corps; Colorado Springs, Colorado, for the Air Force; New London, Connecticut, for the Coast Guard; Kings Point, New York, for the Merchant Marine; and Offutt Air Force Base near Omaha, Nebraska, for the Cyber/Biologic Defense.
Section. 2.
The Congress shall require the States to provide thirteen years of tuition-free public education for all United States citizens and all otherwise legal residents from age five through age eighteen. Public education shall be according to three national standards:
1) Every student shall be literate at no less than age-appropriate-grade-level (plus or minus one year) while being actively challenged and fully facilitated to achieve personal potentials in all core academic subjects, including those of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (“literate” being defined as educated, cultured, and lucid within an American social, philosophical, and historical context as taught in a thirteen-year standard curriculum that explores America from 1492 to the current time, with an ability to read, write, and effectively communicate in the English language using current computer technologies);
2) Exceptional students shall be individually advanced to the academic level at which they can succeed while being challenged; and
3) Students whose academic skills competency and knowledge proficiency are measured in the aggregate minimally either two years below or two years above age-appropriate-grade-level shall be designated as Special Education students and shall receive educational funding at twice the normal rate (competency and proficiency testing shall be done when requested by a teacher, parent, or student).
Thirteen years of tuition-free public education shall not be defined by the completion of a thirteen-year standard curriculum that ends in high school graduation in every case. Some lower-tier Special Education students will remain functionally illiterate despite all teaching efforts while some upper-tier Special Education students will graduate from a community college or a public university before their nineteenth birthday and shall thereby receive their college and/or university education on a tuition-free basis.
The term “tuition-free” applies only in the case of public education institutions, including any school designations that encompass any part of the spectrum from kindergarten enrollee through master degree recipient, that is: inclusive from primary school through public university. It does not include graduate studies at the doctoral degree level.
Students who enroll in private schools of any sort shall receive government vouchers that are the equivalent of their local public school tuition if the private schools they enroll in are accredited by the government. Government accreditation of private schools shall only regard standard subjects that are common to local public schools and shall not regard religious subjects of any sort. A homeschool student shall receive government vouchers to rent textbooks and an educational computer hardware and software package if those items have been approved and accredited by the government for homeschool use, if the student is fully registered according to the laws governing homeschool status and is government-approved in that status, and if the total worth of the vouchers for the student does not exceed the local public school tuition cost.
The government vouchers shall pay the vendor or the private school directly in all cases, and in no case shall government vouchers be redeemable for cash by either a student or a student’s parent or legal guardian.
Section. 3.
The Congress shall require the States to identify all exceptional students who are intellectually either moderately-to-highly gifted or exceptionally-to-profoundly gifted by standard academic measures (“moderately-to-highly gifted” being in the top two percent or 98th percentile and “exceptionally-to-profoundly gifted” being in the top one percent or 99th percentile). The United States shall recognize its most gifted citizens — its geniuses — as a natural resource and a national treasure, and shall maximize the potential of that resource and treasure through its public education system in every individual case beginning at the earliest possible opportunity. However, no interventions shall ever be made against the will of the student, regardless of the student’s potential to excel; the Pursuit of Happiness shall stand as an unalienable Right of every individual citizen, even the citizen who is a minor child.
The Congress shall forbid any notion that the purpose of public education is to socialize the citizenry. The purpose of public education shall be to make citizens literate in useful knowledge, confident in factoring new information into old thinking, and competent in self-directed analysis, so that public education might inspire joy and courage in its graduates through the benefits that derive from life-long learning habits, a purposeful informed participation in America’s future, and an enduring appreciation for political dissent and for the American free enterprise system. Public education in the United States shall work to cultivate this flower: that, in every citizen’s life, the gift to America shall be the citizen and the gift to the citizen shall be America.
Section. 4.
The Congress shall establish a national three-year merit-based public high school for the nation’s most intellectually gifted science-minded high school students. The national public high school shall be simultaneously located at no less than 150 public research university campuses nationwide, shall be tuition-free without exception, shall have highly selective enrollment with requirements and standards that cannot be challenged, and shall use the same intensive accelerated-learning curriculum at every site without exception. The defined curriculum shall offer courses in mathematics, computer science, and the physical sciences of chemistry and physics according to standard prerequisite streams, with the high school students enrolling in university classes with university students at times during all three years.
The offered majors shall be limited to:
1) Mathematics through at least Elementary Linear Algebra,
2) Computer Science through at least the standard university sophomore-year computer science sequence course for computer and information science majors that is taken concurrently with the Elements of Discrete Mathematics sequence,
3) Chemistry through the Organic Chemistry sequence and Organic Analysis, and
4) Physics through the standard university sophomore-year physics sequence course for physics majors that covers physics of waves and statistical thermodynamics.
All students shall take the same six Advanced Placement courses: English Language, United States History, United States Government & Politics, and Chemistry during the sophomore year and English Literature and Economics during the junior year. United States History and United States Government & Politics shall be combined as one course. All students shall concurrently take the university calculus sequence and the university calculus-based physics sequence before graduating. There shall be no electives other than choosing a major.
The national public high school capstone shall be a non-graded senior-year-long Colloquy on the topic: Morality, Ethics & Society: Science & Technology in the 21st Century. The Colloquy shall be student-directed according to established rules; shall result in United States Constitution Amendment Proposals, World Treaty Proposals, and Philosophy of Science and Technology Definition Statements; and shall conclude each term with deserving students receiving a Linus Pauling Achievement Award honoring the American scientist and peace activist who is one of only two people to have won more than one Nobel Prize in different fields, and the only person to win two undivided Nobel Prizes: the 1954 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his research into the nature of the chemical bond and its application to the elucidation of the structure of complex substances and the 1962 Nobel Peace Prize for his role in peace and disarmament campaigns establishing The Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
Though the defined curriculum does not offer life sciences courses, such courses can be taken optionally during summer term if offered by a host university. National public high school students shall be limited to attending only at their home host university during the fall-through-spring school year, but can attend at any national public high school host university on a tuition-free basis during summer term. The student shall pay any costs for summer term other than tuition costs, except the United States shall pay all costs if the student is requested to enroll in a particular course or program by the government.
The national public high school shall operate under the aegis of the National Aeronautic and Space Administration with cooperation from the non-military intelligence agencies and from the United States Cyber/Biologic Defense Academy, and with oversight from the Congress. The national public high school shall not answer to local school boards or to the States in any way. The national public high school graduation requirements shall supersede State high school graduation requirements without exception.
Section. 5.
The United States Cyber/Biologic Defense Academy shall have no physical fitness requirements whatsoever. It shall at all times maintain a Stephen Hawking Rule which declares that the mind alone shall determine eligibility and no physical defect of any sort shall be disqualifying. The Cyber/Biologic Defense shall be disciplined and uniformed, but shall not undergo any traditional basic training that includes strenuous whole-body strength-related activities of any sort, including marching. A brilliant wheelchair-bound person is eligible to enroll in the United States Cyber/Biologic Defense Academy and to serve in the Cyber/Biologic Defense at any rank of command, including Chairperson of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The term “cyber/biologic” refers to all things related either to transmissions of any sort in cyberspace known and unknown, including any hostile activity on the Internet, any manifestation of computer hacking, and any potentially harmful computer data manipulation, or to hostile biological actions that could be property-damaging, disease-causing, and/or life-threatening in any way, or to both simultaneously in any evil pairing. The term “defense” must naturally have an offensive component to be whole.
The United States Cyber/Biologic Defense Academy shall have access to all national public high school student transcripts and shall be welcome to freely recruit national public high school students.
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The above is "Proposal #6" at:
http://steven-a-sylwester.blogspot.com/2012/01/restated-and-proposed-amendments-to-us.html or at: bit.ly/zPQ2MV
I have not written a commentary for "Public Education" — someday maybe, but not yet. To a large extent, "Public Education" is self-explanatory in most regards. Yes, there are too many details for a proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution, but all of those details spell out all of my intents very clearly. Furthermore, everyone here should know that the first details others would quickly omit are those details found in "Section. 3." and "Section. 4." — probably all of both sections in fact. If readers here want to stand firm for the needs of gifted students, I have shown what those needs look like on paper — and I would personally fight for every detail I have included.
Though there is clarity and simplicity in all of the above, and though all of the above is probably enough to achieve my intended results, there are yet two snakes in the grass that must be dealt with eventually. Those snakes are 1) health care costs and 2) the unfunded liabilities in public employees pension funds. Understand this: both of those snakes are actively destroying funding for public education on an ongoing basis, and that destruction is negatively impacting gifted education in very bad ways. I have found snake-killing solutions, but they would be heartbreaking for some:
http://steven-a-sylwester.blogspot.com/2013/05/oregon-pers-funding-violates-fifth.htmlhttp://steven-a-sylwester.blogspot.com/2012/02/heritage-blog-rejected-comment-truth.htmlTo fight for gifted education one student at a time is a hopeless lost cause. Never-say-die tenacity works for awhile when parents advocate relentlessly for their own child, but even that war is eventually measured by the pity of "what might have been." Ultimately, the solutions have to be "everyone wins" solutions. My recommendations are these:
http://school-usa-proposal.blogspot.com/ Steven A. Sylwester
