LighthouseKeeper,
Yes, you are correct in observing the irony � much more than you can possibly know. I am the very last person who should ever design the NAPS program and be its champion, because I have a whole lifetime of hostility that I battle against at every turn. But I am doing it all at this point because no one else has yet done it � and it needs to be done!
To understand it all is to understand two things: 1) the concept of triage, and 2) the painful realities of necessary compromise.
Unless NAPS can be fashioned as an innocuous parasite that lives off the good graces of public research universities, it will never happen. The NAPS program has to have such an invisible presence that the "Why do this?" question easily gives way to the "Why not do this?" question. There is no good reason to "not" do NAPS in my opinion, but people tie themselves in knots over the "Why do this?" question.
My take is that the vast majority of Americans will dismiss and even openly shun any ongoing displays of intellectual brilliance, because such displays diminish their own self-worth � and these are the same people who stand in loud praise and enthusiastic ovation for all displays of athletic brilliance. It is crazy, but that is the political reality NAPS is up against. Even in this forum, I sense there are those who are willing to sell some gifted young people short who are not gifted in the same way as their own child(ren). It breaks my heart, but it strengthens my resolve, too.
Personally, I would throw out the term "gifted" altogether if I could, because it confuses the thinking of too many people. "Gifted" is so nice and so precious a term to so many proud parents who then so deeply insult the sensibilities of so many wannabe parents whose children are so ordinary that the only thing that results from it all is seething hatred. And I can understand that response, even though that response is entirely wrong in every respect. The "gifted" children are not to blame, yet they are the ones broadsided by the ensuing hatred in too many cases. How else can you explain the battle in this? Why else would society freely choose to deny extraordinary educational opportunities to those young people who are fully capable of doing the work?
NAPS is designed to serve the needs of only a small group of young people who are simply different than the rest of us. Truly, they are birth-defected: both blessed and cursed by a circumstance beyond their control. For damn sure, if we force them into being mediocre like the rest of us � even for just the while of high school � we will likely succeed in torturing at least some of them for their entire lives thereafter. Some people finally give up, including some intellectually brilliant people who become crippled by a lack of opportunity at a very early time in their lives. It is beyond sad.
So I accept the irony, and force myself to go beyond it. Triage and compromise � somehow, make it happen.
Steven A. Sylwester
