In politics, which unfortunately is the ground to be played on if an amendment to the U.S. Constitution is what is being proposed, lies and truths mixed in generously with endless overstatements and occasional understatements are the sifted ingredients in the bowl before water is added and the muck of it all takes shape.
It is interesting to note how the word "muck" is defined by Webster's Dictionary: "1 : soft moist farmyard manure 2 : slimy dirt or filth 3 : defamatory remarks or writings 4 a (1) : dark highly organic soil (2) : MIRE, MUD b : something resembling muck 5 : material removed in the process of excavating or mining."
I say: let us hope for "4 a (1)" and look past its sources. If you want your garden to grow to the sky and be abundant in its harvest, plant your seeds in "dark highly organic soil."
JonLaw, if you are unwilling to create "anxiety" in the minds of others, you will never succeed in politics. The problem here is that the general population does not care about the educational needs of any one particular child, especially if the needy child happens to be very smart and from a middle class or upper class family. Consequently, the issue of gifted education has to be blown up to a global scale at least, and probably to a cosmic scale, too.
The so-called "Mothers From Hell" were responsible for achieving "Special Education" funding in U.S. public schools, that is: double funding per student for those students designated in need of "Special Education" interventions. The creation of "Special Education" in U.S. public schools was done through the political process; it did not come as manna from heaven — as a grace from God. The "Mothers From Hell" earned their name.
Any parent of an extraordinarily brilliant child — a true genius — knows full well the curse that can sometimes be found at the heart of a blessing. Someone who has never known a genius (and that is most people) cannot even imagine that curse, and will vehemently deny that such a curse could even exist. To them, a blessing can only be a blessing, and so the parents of such a child should be content to count their blessings without complaint.
The battle cannot be fought where the gifted children are made to be whipping boys and whipping girls by those who do not know their plight. The battle must be fought at a national level, and it must be fought as if the very future of the United States of America were at stake, because in all actuality that is the true fact of the matter.
Steven A. Sylwester
