If a parent has a child who has special needs because he is particularly SLOW, it is up to the parent to satisfy those needs, not the taxpayer.still agree with that statement???
Posted on 06/19/2008 3:04:31 AM PDT by amchugh
His experience reflects a challenge felt in classrooms nationwide. Six years after the No Child Left Behind law was enacted, the lowest-performing students continue to improve while children in the top tier have hit a plateau, according to a report due out Wednesday.
The findings renew concerns about how schools challenge their brightest students at a time when federal law, backed by sanctions and financial consequences, forces many districts to focus time and money on students at the bottom rung of the academic ladder.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
Top tier kids have been ignored for years. Gifted Talented classes do not address the needs of these kids to be challenged.
Isn’t part of this related to the fact that there’s always more room for improvement at the bottom?
This is not a bad result, and fully to be expected.
The best that can be hoped for is that public schools will tend to the needs of the masses. The notion that they would provide high-level instruction to the particularly talented is just not realistic.
If a parent has a child who has special needs because he is particularly advanced, it is up to the parent to satisfy those needs, not the taxpayer.
Of course, my solution is to just blow the whole system up and make all parents responsible for the education of their own children... But what do I know?
Perhaps the “top tier” students need teachers who are smarter than the students.....
Unfortunately -— recent experience is showing that too many “teachers” thought the “Leave no child behind”, meant “Leave no child’s behind alone”.
If a parent has a child who has special needs because he is particularly SLOW, it is up to the parent to satisfy those needs, not the taxpayer.still agree with that statement???
Yes. Imagine a baseball player who is 5 for 15 and another is 0 for 15. The first is batting .333 and the second .000. Now they each go 5 for 5. The first guy is 10 for 20 or .500. The second guy is now 5 for 20 or .250.
The first guy's average went up .167 and the second guy's went up .250.
Hey, that's not FAIR!
Of course it is harder to improve when you are near the top of your class. Imagine a kid whose average is 99% and other whose average is 50%. Let's say each wants to improve his average by 2%. In the absence of 'extra credit,' it is impossible for the 99% kid to go to 101% but it is possible for the 50% kid to go to 52%.
Hey, that's not FAIR!
Or look at your same example a different way.
You have 2 batters, let’s say one is batting .333 and the other (more realistically) .133, over a period of several years.
Then they both go to a special batting training camp where some super-duper batting coach applies his wizardry to teaching them both how to improve their batting.
The first one goes up to .353. The second one goes up to .233.
Would anybody be surprised by that kind of “disparity of improvement”?
No. Of course not.
Question: Which children are going to grow up to start businsses and employ all the Epsilon and Delta union members at the bottom of the pyramid? The gifted and talented children or the retarded children?
Further Question: How many of the items you see around you that are making your life easier and more fun were invented by retarded kids?
Final Question: How much of the great art, music, drama and literature of the ages has been produced by sixteen year old third graders?
The education of our brightest children is a responsibility of the family.
If you wait for the government school to do it you will be sadly disappointed.
As I see it, this is simply another effort to undo the NCLB.
The teachers HATE that they are tested and the results go home to the parents. The teachers HATE that their schools are rated and the results to home to the parents.
Most gifted programs are simply used to keep the kids our of classrooms where they may get bored or, heaven forbid, actually be smarter than their teacher.
It’s easier to put them in “self directed study” than to try to teach them.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.