I'm cheering for you Val! This clearly would create a wonderful atmousphere, except when schools use it to say - we have a program and it works for every kid except yours. How can you tell us that your child is still bored with a single grade subject acceleration? And what about the kids who are reading at High School Level but writing at agemate level?
I guess that was my point: with disabled kids, the schools have NO CHOICE. The law says the schools must give them individual attention, regardless of what you could call
Level of Disability. This is why you hear about kids who have their own aides in class or kids whose private school fees are covered by the public school budget. The law recognizes that kids describable as profoundly disabled (PD?) have a right to individualized intervention.
The learning requirements of PD kids and HG/PG kids are mirror images: each group requires individualized education plans. At this time, schools
can't tell the parents of a PD child that "we have a plan that works for all these other kids, and your child will have to do the best he can with it." They'd be breaking the law!
While it is true that some schools do a lot better than others with IEPs, the fact is that kids with disabilities have the law on their side. Bright kids are at the mercy of the system.
Another poster said that it was up to other parents to do the advocating on behalf of their kids, but my point is that the change will only happen when a large chunk of the parents (and advocacy groups) of ALL talented kids stand together, which was exactly what happened to help disabled kids.
Short of another Sputnik scare, which might only help gifted kids for a limited time, I'm not convinced that anything will change substantially until a lot of people stand together.
I know it's not easy to implement! But a solution needs to be defined before it can be implemented.
Val
