Dude,

My proposed amendment includes this language:

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).

* * *

The notion of "gifted" is something different than "accomplished" or "piled on" or "pressured." A child can accomplish a lot through relentless determined effort and endless practice, but I am not someone who would ever say that genius can be manufactured, no matter how much will power is put to the effort by the child or a parent.

In other words, though both Mozart and Beethoven were certainly victimized by their fathers' ambitions for them, I contend that both of them certainly had superior natural gifts that were truly extraordinary. The ambitious fathers might have been key in unlocking the musical genius, but the genius was fully there nonetheless and anyway.

Understand this: anyone involved in sports would not be interested in taking advantage of my proposed amendment, and that is a whole lot of people.

Steven A. Sylwester