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    StevenASylwester
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    Rod,

    Thank you. Of course, you are correct in your assessment.

    If you want to be involved in making it happen, let me know.

    Steven A. Sylwester

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    Originally Posted by StevenASylwester
    The NASA angle is a clever way to avoid public hostilities toward smart kids.

    ...Until someone discovers the ruse and there's a backlash of outrage. It perpetrates the perception that there's a group of silver spoon fed uberkinder that is being groomed for replacing those "Pentagon-based generals and admirals and the highest ranking personnel in the various U.S. intelligence agencies". I understand what your concerns are and the reasoning behind it. It just stinks of entitlement and payoffs.

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    Entitlement?!

    PoppaRex, think this through: Every child living in the United States, including even the child of illegal immigrants, is required to be schooled from 1st grade through 12th grade. The child can be home-schooled, schooled in a private secular school, schooled in a private parochial school, or schooled in a public school � or in any combination of those many options during the twelve required years of schooling � but the child must be schooled somehow and somewhere to the approval of state authorities who are empowered to monitor such things. A child who does not go to school according to state requirements is considered to be a truant, and that child and that child's parents can be legally made to suffer terrible consequences for truancy. The requirement to be schooled is so determined and so ironclad that the state is obligated to provide a free public school education from 1st grade through 12th grade for any child who chooses that schooling option, including the profoundly mentally disabled child who is literally incapable of learning anything at all. So in truth and in every actuality, twelve years of schooling is a requirement that is also an entitlement if the free public school option is chosen. Many argue that twelve years of schooling should be treated as an entitlement in all cases, and that that should be accomplished through an equitable voucher system whereby private schooling of any sort could be paid for at U.S. taxpayer's expense. Regardless of the outcome of that argument, as it is, any child can choose to receive a free public school education through 12th grade.

    The question then becomes this: Exactly what is an education, and what is the obligation of the state to every child who is required to be schooled?

    PoppaRex, your "it just stinks of entitlement and payoff" comment suggests to me that, in your opinion, the state's only obligation to the child who is required to be schooled is to provide a standard mediocre curriculum that is designed to suit the needs of a 50th Percentile student, and that no child deserves special consideration of any sort under any circumstance either above or below that 50th Percentile standard.

    In my opinion, the state has an obligation to provide an appropriate, meaningful, and challenging education according to the child's academic and nonacademic interests and according to the child's potential as determined by standard testing measures for every child who is required to be schooled for as long as that child is required to be schooled, meaning for twelve years. Therefore, if a child has the ability to excel at the university level while still in high school, that child should be entitled to enroll in a public university at taxpayer's expense until the twelve years of free public schooling for that child is entirely spent. That is what should be the state's obligation because that is what is fair and equitable to all students, including the genius students whose needs are presently being overlooked or ignored.

    PoppaRex, there is no "ruse" and there are no "silver spoon fed uberkinder." Get real, and show some compassion to those who deserve it through no fault of their own. What is real is this: I was born without a left hand, which is a birth defect. What is real is this: A genius child is born that way, which is a birth defect. The term "gifted" masks an awful truth, which is that gifted children often suffer through the same unending calamity as that suffered by birth defected children, because genius is a birth defect that sets its victim apart from almost everyone else. I have witnessed ragged grief and painful tears expressed by my own daughters over this, and I have known those emotions firsthand and intimately at the very deepest levels of my own being at many times throughout my life because of my lack of a hand. There is nothing cute about it when a child bitterly laments and offers to God the entirety of her intelligence in exchange for just one honest friendship.

    PoppaRex, you are wrong � very, very wrong! I cannot make you know what it is like, I can only beg you to believe me. Genius children deserve the NAPS option, and they deserve it as an entitlement. And I do not apologize for that one bit � not now, not ever!

    Steven A. Sylwester

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    Steve.
    I concur with everything you said with the exception of your suggesting that school are designed to suit the needs of the 50 percentile. In my humble opinion schools and teachers are being forced to meet the needs of the least common denominator, at the expense of the average, let alone gifted children.

    You commented on educating persons with intellectual challenges � the cost of doing so is staggering - A day program for a person with intellectual disabilities can easily cost the State and Federal Government $35,000 per year or more, for life (that is just the �day program� component of their care and support). As a tax payer, I have no problem supporting people with additional needs, HOWEVER, there are countless children out there with academic needs that are being overtly and covertly overlooked, who if enabled could benefit our Nation beyond expectation. Supporting gifted children is more then a feel good, entitlement type of option; it is absolutely necessary for our Country � plain and simple, if we don�t harvest these resources, its over! The world is changing and we must get off the dime and start producing talent � we need large NUMBERS of highly talented people in the work place.

    Let me pull out the violin for a moment, but before doing so, let me assure you that I am not a gifted individual. On the other hand, my 8-year-old son is very different from other kids. His brain works differently, sometimes for the better and sometimes not. We took him for testing and were told that he is very gifted and should �find options for him�. In school he has no challenges � he is the first to finish his work, first to put his hand-up, gets all A�s and hates going to school. He told my neighbors that he couldn�t stand school because he feels trapped all day doing nothing. The solution is to move him into a corner of the classroom and give him worksheets on subjects more advanced then the other kids. So while the other kids are sitting together with the teacher, my son is isolated doing worksheets (Please keep in mind, I do not fault the teachers, they are wonderful and trying their best but I do fault the system). My son loves to be social but it�s getting harder and harder for him in school to identify with kids the same age, so I find him now socializing with the fifth and sixth graders during recess. Last week he came home from school very, very upset, believing he was stupid � �Dad, I�m the most stupid person on earth, I just Can�t explain things to other kids so they understand things� � he was talking about a complex question that the teacher asked his classmates and when none of the other kids knew the answer, my son tried to explain it to the other kids, for an extended period - his answer was correct but the other kids could no appreciate the right answer, even after the teacher worked with them. Recently I took him for the Johns Hopkins SCAT exam (Computer based exam offered on computers at various test centers). After the exam, he came out of the test center and as I went to give him a hug he started to cry and said �Dad, I just loved this test, please, can I do it everyday, it makes me use my brain and I love that, please let me come here again� (he got high honors by Hopkins for his test results � which I am told is very difficult to achieve). There are countless other children in similar circumstances, not just my kid, countless others!

    Lets start focusing on the needs of our Country � lets offer meaningful, robust and advanced educational opportunities for the countless students that not only will personally benefit by such opportunity but will, in turn, benefit our Nation. If this Country does not do something soon, it will be to late (take a look at Central America - that could be us, the US, in 20 years, at the rate we are going). Our resource is the talent of our collective children and we need to harvest this talent now more then ever.

    Steve, soldier on!

    Last edited by rodc; 06/26/10 08:56 AM.
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    Steven, I apologize for my terse post as it is obvious I goofed in making my point.

    Entitlement was the wrong word. I believe that any program which caters to a few will be plagued with corruption issues. Funding via a back door policy sets the stage. There�s enough of that ongoing today.

    Certainly I understand that your feeling is that there is a critical need to meet the needs of advanced students. I could not agree more. What I don�t agree with is the method. Addressing one (tiny) segment of the educational system is simply going to create an outcry that could destroy that option for a long time.

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    PoppaRex, your "it just stinks of entitlement and payoff" comment suggests to me that, in your opinion, the state's only obligation to the child who is required to be schooled is to provide a standard mediocre curriculum that is designed to suit the needs of a 50th Percentile student, and that no child deserves special consideration of any sort under any circumstance either above or below that 50th Percentile standard.

    How did you jump to that conclusion? I believe exactly the opposite, that �No Child Left Behind� needs to be transformed into �Every child to his ability�. I think your proposal does not address the critical early years where children need to be identified as to their potential and allowed to track accordingly. Of course there�s the problem of how one identifies the potential of a child and how stringent does that become. Hopefully it is flexible enough to recognize that potential changes due to circumstance and development, that a child does not become pigeon-holed at day one and is forever stuck with some prophesy.

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    that child should be entitled to enroll in a public university at taxpayer's expense until the twelve years of free public schooling for that child is entirely spent. That is what should be the state's obligation because that is what is fair and equitable to all students, including the genius students whose needs are presently being overlooked or ignored.

    Have you read your own proposal? I believe you are talking about something beyond the states responsibility to fund K-12. You are talking about a separately funded system. I believe there is very little money provided to fund the other end of the spectrum (at least such is my experience in Massachusetts). School systems are required to pay for special needs education from the same batch of funds that the rest of the children are schooled from. How is providing a special fund equitable? Don�t jump to the conclusion that because I don�t agree with your method that I think the current system is fine.

    I am a little wishy-washy on the emotional pleas and personal insight you provide, because they have no bearing on the program you propose. I suggest that you refrain from making assumptions about my abilities or what I and my family have been through. I am no stranger to the emotional pain genius brings and I assure you I can tug on your heartstrings so hard you�ll drop with a full coronary.

    You propose I get real? The reality is until the lower grades are structured in a way that exceptional children are provided the resources they need to flourish, I believe most kids in your program will be those of parents who can afford the $24,000 tuition at a private school for gifted children (and who want to ship them off to such a place). I have a 10 year old son who likely is gifted. Unlike my daughters, I will have him tested as he is heavy into science and math and I need to open as many doors as I can. I hate the thought of him growing to hate school as I did (Note School <> learning).

    I think we want to get to the same place. I just think you are jumping to the end while I see a need to start at the beginning.

    Rob

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    StevenASylwester
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    Rob,

    Thank you for clarifying your position.

    I am for starting at the point where it is feasible to start, and for placing obligations on the public schools in advance of that point.

    My proposal reads:
    http://nasa-academy-of-the-physical-sciences.blogspot.com/2009/11/overview.html

    THE SIX BASIC PREMISES:
    1. Starting no later than 7th grade, public schools should accelerate the learning of those students who display an extraordinary aptitude in math and science.

    * * *

    Sure, start in 1st grade, but it will not happen in these economic times.

    I edited the startling verbiage out from an earlier version of my NAPS proposal, but my intent and the reality remains plainly the same, which is: NAPS is educational triage � it is saving the best first, and it is saving the best first without spending more than the reasonably available resources.

    For the most part, NAPS functions on a redirection of state funds that would otherwise be spent educating the NASA Scholars in an ordinary public high school setting. The additional federal money is best thought of as a carrot to encourage the public research universities to: 1) host a NAPS site, and 2) conduct research using NASA Scholars and the NAPS program to improve math and science education in general.

    My proposal states regarding this:
    http://nasa-academy-of-the-physical-sciences.blogspot.com/2009/11/overview.html

    Each state will every year spend 85% of its average per high school student per year expenditure for each of its NASA Scholars to fund its in-state NAPS academies, and the U.S. government will add $4,000 per student per year funding to each of the 150 NAPS academies nationwide for a total federal funding of $61.2 million per year. The states will be obligated to collect their 15% per student per year expenditure savings into a Science Education Fund that will be exhausted every year through the issuing of major grants to upgrade public high school science classrooms with new computer technology, new laboratory equipment, and/or general facility improvements. The grants will range in size from $20,000 to $50,000 each, and will be awarded by a three-person review committee comprised of one science professor from each of the three public research universities where the in-state NAPS academies are sited. If a state expends $8,500 per high school student per year, its SEF will collect and then spend out $390,150 per year, which could result in 19 grants of $20,534 each.

    After the awarding of SEF grants every year, the state governors will consider the merits of all unfunded grant requests for their individual state, and will forward all deserving requests to in-state private industry leaders for their consideration and possible patronage. Special corporate tax credits will be given to companies that fund SEF grant requests. If the SEF grant review committee recommends improvements to particular requests along with encouragement to request a grant the following year (for example, if the request was for equipment that is being made obsolete by new technology), those recommendations will remain attached to the unfunded requests that are forwarded to industry leaders.

    States with more than three public universities will select the three universities that: 1) have the largest population base within an established to-and-from daily commute using public mass transit, and 2) do federally funded research on topics associated with gifted learning. All site universities should propose and do research that will improve the NAPS academies over time while also maximizing the benefits that can be had by other schools. Grant money from both federal and private sources will support select research over time.

    * * *

    By the way, like you, I too hated school. However, I absolutely disagree with you when you state: "... I believe most kids in your program will be those of parents who can afford the $24,000 tuition at a private school for gifted children (and who want to ship them off to such a place)." Gifted children can be born out of poverty from parents who are uneducated and uninspired. I have created NAPS for those gifted children especially.

    Finally. my NAPS proposal does not include "the emotional pleas and personal insight" because I rooted all of that out from my original versions. I agree: that stuff has "no bearing on the program" I propose. I offer that information in this forum only because it seems to be necessary to break the ice.

    Steven A. Sylwester

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    Steven, I guess we'll just have to disagree.

    I prefer to look at the larger vision. It's always better IMHO to get the entire design worked out rather than building piecemeal and trying to retrofit later.

    Good luck.

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    Rob,

    You first wrote: "I have a 10 year old son who likely is gifted. Unlike my daughters, I will have him tested as he is heavy into science and math and I need to open as many doors as I can."

    Then you wrote: "I prefer to look at the larger vision. It's always better IMHO to get the entire design worked out rather than building piecemeal and trying to retrofit later."

    My recommendation to you is that you set your "IMHO" aside in favor of a much more selfish motivation that works hard to achieve something beneficial for your own son. Look around, and then move toward a solution that can be personally self-serving. Why? Because you will fight your fight for maybe four or five more years, and then you will give up defeated. I speak from experience. It always seemed to me in my naive hope that middle school would be different than elementary school, and then that high school would be different than middle school, and then that college would be different than high school. Well, guess what? None of it is different � from start to finish, it is all the same!

    Ponder this very deeply, schools administrators � principals and their assistants and their higher-ups � are all people who loved school all the while that they were students. For them growing up, schools provided the answer. What does that mean? Sadly, it means that almost all school administrators were NOT gifted children. And, unfortunately, the same holds true for almost all teachers.

    Why would people who have lived their whole lives loving school have any desire whatsoever to change it? The answer to that question is simple: They would have no conceivable desire at all to change school, they would likely battle against changing school, and they would likely win any battle fought regarding school because they together hold all of the power positions in the fight.

    Rob, I do not need good luck because my children are done with the K-12 grind. You are the person who needs good luck.

    Steven A. Sylwester

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    Steven, there are few times in history where government has made a decision within 5 years. I'm afraid my son and I are on our own regardless which path is taken.

    When I grew up I had a dad who never passed the 4th grade and a mom who didn't make it much further. The difference between my son's education and my own is that he has a mentor in me and my wife. It's not a matter of luck, it's a matter of hard work.

    I�ll give you one last thought to mull over. There was a period of time where I spent time with kids who were institutionalized as mentally ill. These kids were not all druggies or sociopaths. Some were kids from messed up homes with lousy parents. Some of them were absolutely brilliant and nearly all of them broke my heart. One thing that stuck with me was how even in such a dismal place (we are not as much out of the 1800�s as we may think) some of these kids still hung onto the hope of finishing school and making something out of themselves. They couldn�t deal with the day to day stresses, couldn�t understand what was happening, couldn�t make a decision for themselves yet they hung onto that ideal. I think part of me knows that mine and yours will end up OK and you and I really didn�t have it as bad as we like to portray. Yes, it�s my humble opinion that we owe it to ALL kids to build a system that allows them to reach their potential. I kind of like that thought.

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    So what kind of young person would become a NASA Scholar? For example, a young person like Grigori Perelman in his youth would:
    http://www.notablebiographies.com/supp/Supplement-Mi-So/Perelman-Grigory.html

    From Wikipedia:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grigori_Perelman

    Grigori Perelman was born in Leningrad, USSR (now Saint Petersburg, Russia) on 13 June 1966, to a Jewish family. His mother gave up graduate work in mathematics in order to raise him. His mathematical talent became apparent at the age of ten, and his mother enrolled him in Sergei Rushkin's after-school math training program.[6]

    His mathematical education continued at the Leningrad Secondary School #239, a specialized school with advanced mathematics and physics programs. In 1982, as a member of the USSR team competing in the International Mathematical Olympiad, an international competition for high school students, he won a gold medal, achieving a perfect score.[7] In the late 1980s, Perelman went on to earn a Candidate of Science degree (the Soviet equivalent to the Ph.D.) at the Mathematics and Mechanics Faculty of the Leningrad State University, one of the leading universities in the former Soviet Union. His dissertation was titled "Saddle surfaces in Euclidean spaces".

    * * *

    Why all the fuss about Perelman's genius? Consider:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poincar%C3%A9_conjecture

    * * *

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/01/AR2010070106247.html

    Russian mathematician wins $1 million prize, but he appears to be happy with $0

    By Marc Kaufman
    Washington Post Staff Writer
    Friday, July 2, 2010

    Who would turn down a $1 million prize for solving a math problem?

    Perhaps the smartest man in the world.

    Three months ago, a famously impoverished Russian mathematician named Grigori Perelman was awarded the prestigious $1 million Clay Mathematics Institute Millennium Prize for his groundbreaking work -- having solved a problem of three-dimensional geometry that had resisted scores of brilliant mathematicians since 1904.

    Thursday, the institute announced that Perelman, known equally for his brilliance and his eccentricities, formally and finally turned down the award and the money. He didn't deserve it, he told a Russian news service, because he was following a mathematical path set by another.

    The president of the Clay Institute, James Carlson, said that Perelman was a mathematician of "extraordinary power and creativity" and that it was he alone who solved the intractable Poincar�'s conjecture. "All mathematicians follow the work of others, but only a handful make breakthroughs of this magnitude," Carlson said.

    Still, while he had been hopeful that Perelman would take the prize, he was hardly surprised that he did not. Perelman had already turned down several of the world's top awards in mathematics. And when he solved the Poincar� conjecture, he ignored the peer-review process and simply posted his three-part solution online. That was in 2003.

    It took other mathematicians two years to determine that he had indeed solved the problem.

    "The community knew about Perelman, and that's why they took him seriously," Carlson said. "But what he did is definitely not the way things are normally done."

    Immediately after his postings, Perelman was invited to lecture at several top American universities, and did so with aplomb. Speaking in fluent English, he wowed his math colleagues and, after returning to Russia, continued to communicate via e-mail with some about his work. Within several years, however, he stopped responding and left the math world, Carlson said.

    "I went to St. Petersburg almost two years ago and I did get him on the phone," Carlson said. "I told him I'd like to meet, but he said it 'wasn't necessary at this time.' "

    Perelman lives in a bare-bones apartment in St. Petersburg with his elderly mother; a poor and reclusive man with long, wild hair and, in his photos, a look of fierce pride. Carlson said that when he spoke with Perelman, the man had quit his research and teaching job at Russia's top institute and did not appear to have other employment.

    The Poincar� conjecture, named after prominent French mathematician Henri Poincar�, involves a complex problem in the field of topology -- an important area of math that studies the enduring properties of objects that are stretched or otherwise deformed, but not torn or otherwise reconstituted. Scores of prominent mathematicians tried to solve it over decades but failed, leading to its characterization as the Mount Everest of math.

    The $1 million prize was to be the first of seven Millennium awards given out by the Cambridge, Mass.-based Clay Institute to mathematicians who master long-unsolved problems. The program was established in 2000 and an award will only be made if one of the seven selected math problems is resolved.

    Perelman, 43, did not show up for the early June ceremony in Paris where his prize was to be awarded. Author Masha Gessen, who wrote a book about Perelman, told the prize committee earlier this year that Perelman would not attend the Paris event, but said he had not decided whether to accept the prize money.

    The Poincar� conjecture was updated over the years and one of its modifiers, William Thurston, said at the ceremony in Paris that "Perelman's aversion to public spectacle and to riches is mystifying to many. I have not talked to him about it and I can certainly not speak for him, but I want to say I have complete empathy and admiration for his inner strength and clarity, to be able to know and hold true to himself. . . . We have learned from Perelman's mathematics. Perhaps we should also pause to reflect on ourselves and learn from Perelman's attitude toward life."

    In 2006, Perelman turned down another coveted award in mathematics, the Fields Medal, which honored "his contributions to geometry and his revolutionary insights into the analytical and geometric structure" of topology. The journal Science credited Perelman with the scientific breakthrough of 2006, the first time a mathematician had been recognized.

    Still, Perelman was quoted by the Interfax news service this week as saying he believes his contribution in proving the Poincar� conjecture was no greater than that of American mathematician Richard Hamilton, who first suggested a pathway toward the solution.

    The Clay Institute was founded in 1998 by Boston businessman Landon T. Clay and his wife, Lavinia. Its mission statement says the institute was formed "to increase and disseminate mathematical knowledge." On its Web site, the institute says its leaders will make an announcement this fall about how the prize money will be used to benefit mathematics.

    * * *

    As I stated in my Reply #79040 on this thread: "Get real, and show some compassion to those who deserve it through no fault of their own. What is real is this: I was born without a left hand, which is a birth defect. What is real is this: A genius child is born that way, which is a birth defect. The term "gifted" masks an awful truth, which is that gifted children often suffer through the same unending calamity as that suffered by birth defected children, because genius is a birth defect that sets its victim apart from almost everyone else. I have witnessed ragged grief and painful tears expressed by my own daughters over this, and I have known those emotions firsthand and intimately at the very deepest levels of my own being at many times throughout my life because of my lack of a hand. There is nothing cute about it when a child bitterly laments and offers to God the entirety of her intelligence in exchange for just one honest friendship."

    Furthermore, as I stated in my NAPS proposal:
    http://nasa-academy-of-the-physical...11/first-model-university-of-oregon.html
    "NAPS will put an enormous academic and emotional strain on its NASA Scholars, especially during the junior year. Therefore, it is absolutely essential that each and every scholar can relate in a genuine supportive way with his/her classmate scholars especially, but also with scholars from the other two grade levels and with the �high school� teachers. Because emotional maturity is not always on a par with intellectual maturity, gifted adolescents in the transition to adulthood need friends who can understand them. Gifted adolescents are adolescents at risk who are sometimes very vulnerable to social challenges, and they tend to know this about themselves. But, in usual settings, they are alone with their fears. NAPS academies will have the opportunity to create a safe haven in which truly extraordinary young people can experience what it feels like to be ordinary, at least during the while when they are among peer classmates; the importance of this cannot be overstated: a NAPS site will either succeed or fail in its primary purpose by whether or not it can succeed in making its scholars feel ordinary."

    * * *

    Finally, as I stated in my letter to The Pauling Blog:
    http://paulingblog.wordpress.com/2008/06/26/pauling-and-the-nobel-prize-trip/
    "Though I am proud of my academy idea in its entirety, I am especially proud of the Colloquy honoring Linus Pauling. I believe the Colloquy will be the most inspiring and life-changing learning experience of all for some academy scholars, and I look at it as something Linus Pauling would be proud to have his name on. Being awarded The Linus Pauling Medal at a �NASA Academy of the Physical Sciences� will be a high distinction that will certainly earn some academy scholars significant university scholarships.

    If you have not read through the Colloquy description in my document, please do so. And then remember back to being in high school. The academically-minded high-achieving grade-driven student who will be the typical academy scholar will be entirely flummoxed by the Colloquy in the beginning, because all of the usual motivations are gone: it is Pass / No Pass with no need whatsoever to please or impress the teacher, but with every need to impress and influence peers with clear thinking, precise articulation, and persuasive argument in achieving a growing agreement toward a common goal of identifying and advancing an idea for the good of humanity.

    A careful read of the Colloquy description reveals the telling endgame decision that will seriously challenge some academy scholars: Do you abandon the growing consensus of the group effort when the rules allow you to revert to being a lone wolf again, or do you stick with the group effort (even if only in a supportive role) to make the shared solution the best that it can be?

    In the world of ideas, there are those who create, invent, or form ideas, and there are those who make ideas happen � the doers. The idea people need the doers more than the doers need the idea people; the doers can muddle on because they will always accomplish something in the process, but the idea people and their ideas will die lonely deaths if they cannot persuade the doers to actually make things happen. The Colloquy will identify both the idea people and the doers, and sometimes the doers will be those who are most deserving of praise and recognition � and should be those who sometimes receive The Linus Pauling Medal for their efforts.

    Again, I think Linus Pauling would be proud."

    * * *

    I hereby award Grigori Perelman the first Linus Pauling Medal ever awarded � not as an actuality, but as an abstract thought that recognizes who he is in relation to the world he must live in. Perelman is not crazy. Rather, he is who he is � a deeply principled man.

    Grigori Perelman would have benefited from feeling "ordinary" for three years while he was a teenager. That "ordinary" feeling felt during a fleeting but memorable time in his life would have been a blessing that might have endured throughout his adulthood, and might have given his principled thoughts enough of a balance that he would now be willing to accept the prizes that he well deserves. It is sad. But he is not failing himself now in his actions; it is we who have failed him � and the others like him who struggle because they live in a lonely parallel universe that very few people understand and can even imagine.

    The Crime Against Humanity is this: In America in 2010, young people like Grigori Perelman in his youth are now attending local public high schools, and are enduring the normal curriculum at those schools because there is nothing else for them. But the greater horror is this: we as the voting adults in our society are responsible, and have continuing complicity in that crime until something like NAPS becomes a reality.

    How long will we wait until we finally do what needs to be done?

    Steven A. Sylwester

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