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
