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.
