Our excellent public school district in northern California is in the process of dismantling our GATE program because it "isn't fair."
What isn't fair is having a child waste their time in school without
learning something new every day.
NAGC -
Gifted Children's Bill of Rights (Del Siegle, NAGC President, 2007-2009)
NAGC - webpage beginning with the idea of
learning something new everydayHere I'll add that I'm aware of teachers/schools who require students to complete a graded assignment in which they write something new they learned that day. When a child truthfully states they did not learn something new that day, their grade suffers.
Therefore most children are quickly intimidated into "creative writing" in which they craft a lie about something new they've learned.
Nobody seems too concerned that we will then have no honors classes in junior high and nothing in high school.
YIKES! I'm concerned.
Is the cancellation of the GATE program honors classes well known or is it being kept rather quiet?
Are parents feeling intimidated into silence and/or coerced into not gathering?
Have parents been told that there are plans to teach children in their zone of proximal development (ZPD) without the formal, former GATE program honors classes?
Is something essentially being renamed to make it more "politically correct"?
