Sorry. I apologize for my uncharacteristically flippant response above. (And thanks to the handful of people who shared some of the more... interesting... tidbits!)
Not sure how I've missed this most intriguing thread over the last couple of months, but I did. In fact, I never touched it until I saw Mark D.'s admonishment, at which point I figured I must have missed a doozy.
And never one to speed by a trainwreck, I decided to take a gander. Not a long, thoughtful, scholarly assessment -- just a gander... a skim... a cursory glance. But, honestly, that's all that was really necessary.
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Let me start by saying that I don't know any Bob Dylan songs... let alone have two favorites that could, by my naming them, define me. But I do have a special place in my heart for Barry Manilow, Ray Charles and Harry Connick Jr., if that helps any.
Furthermore, I'm only the product of a stenographer and electrical lineman, neither of whom have written anything more scholarly than a Christmas letter, but don't hold that against me, okay? (And don't even ask about my brother.)
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Unfortunately, it's incredibly difficult to comment on Steven's proposal without dragging Politics kicking and screaming into the middle. One characteristic I've thoroughly enjoyed about this group is that despite a diverse collection of political views, I rarely see any overtly political sniping one way or the other. Just like watching my favorite apolitical figure, Brian Lamb of C-Span, it's nearly impossible to guess who voted for whom in the last election... AND I REALLY DON'T CARE! All I've cared about is the incredible support that comes together to discuss everything from FSIQ to the tying of shoes... and everything in between.
Bottom line for me is that for all the holy heck so many here have endured while advocating for their children, I don't recall anyone (beyond an isolated cry) begging for greater government involvement from the top down.
Seriously. Think it through.
The parents I've "met" through Davidson in general -- and this discussion forum in particular -- have shared countless examples where the greatest successes in advocacy came at the local level... not by petitioning some massive bureaucracy squirreled away in DC. Besides, guvmint has proven time & time again that it either a.) doesn't like GT-ed, or b.) doesn't understand GT-ed... or both. And you are seriously asking us to buy into a federal agency taking on the responsibility for this? Did you Think it through?
Who knew that, back in the 80's, when I sold hundreds & hundreds of copies of Math Blaster and Reading Blaster, the proceeds would end up funding an organization like the Davidson Institute, which has helped so many gifted children and their families over the years... including my own. At the same time, think of the trillions of tax dollars that the feds have scraped off the top of people like the Davidsons. How much has all that helped our little ones? Personally, I'd like to see the Davidsons get a massive retroactive tax refund so that they could (should they so choose) do even more for this woefully under-served population. Seems to me that they've done infinitely more with their relatively small budget than any government acronym-laden agency could even hope to do.
Are government schools a total & complete failure? I guess that depends on how you define "total & complete," doesn't it? Are there little pockets of success scattered about here and there? Oh, yeah -- and, thankfully, we've stumbled upon one here locally. And as we look down the road a bit, I'm actually excited about some of the charter school options I've seen in our state.
But to my untrained eye, the success of these charter schools doesn't appear to come from the fact that they are bundled into the budget of some massive agency. Quite the contrary -- in any of the schools I've had a chance to explore (or learn about through the experiences of fellow parents) -- these schools do so well precisely because they are in one way or another partially (or entirely) removed from the nasty bureaucracy that cripples all the neighboring schools.
Now this may go dancing in the sticky-thicket of icky politics, but if you want to see a real federal solution, then advocate for the feds getting the Hades out of our way, and letting us keep our educational funding in our own pockets to spend as we see fit. This way, if someone wants to patronize a private-sector solution like the Davidson Institute, fine. And, if another group of people want to pool their money for a federal solution, they can knock themselves out in the process.
All you gotta do is send a first-class letter, or travel coast-to-coast on a train in this country to see what I'm saying.
Seriously... think it through.
