Are We Failing Our Geniuses?

[deadmessengers]

Here's another point of evidence demonstrating that No Child Left Behind is perhaps the singlemost destructive piece of legislation pimped by the Bush maladministration over the last 6 years. I found this linked from Slashdot a little while ago:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1653653,00.html

One point they bring up: Since NCLB, we now spend 10 times as much educating the mentally retarded as we do the intellectually gifted, despite similar numbers of students in each group. This is yet another indication of how threatened Repugnicans are by intellectualism.

[Demeter]

1. The costs ratios are accurate

To educate the gifted child, you need some gifted adults. To educate the disabled child, you need saints. I have one of each, and I speak from experience.

[snappyturtle]

2. Yes! As a former teacher I find it despicable that we literally

hold back some of the brightest minds while catering to those "left behind". There has to be a balance. I've seen some very bright students who actually become class nuisances because they are truly bored and left unchallenged.

[Turner Ashby]

3. The child has now become the adversary

in most of our schools. I have a very bright child who happens to have very bad asthma. He has passed every one of the required tests so that was never a problem. However, we moved in the middle of the school year and at the same time, he became very ill, and went in and out OF THE HOSPITAL. The hostility from the new school was unrelenting. The flashing amber light was obvious: DANGER!! Child that might flunk standardized test. He went from an honor student to a child who was allegedly functioning a grade level below and needed testing for "learning disabilities".

Fortunately, for my child, I am not a parent who takes it easy. I called a meeting over the "testing". The school was cranking up with the vouchers, and the testing, etc, when all of a sudden, they called off the meeting. The reason was quite obvious. The standardized test results for the year from his other school came back. He was a year ahead on the test. Mysteriously, the teacher was unavailable for two weeks, and then school was out. Now, I am home schooling him until middle school.

The "education" system under No Child Left Behind is a recipe for destroying any child not absolutely average.

[snappyturtle]

5. I am so sorry to hear of your problems. From what I have learned

from current teachers is that schools are operating in light of and in fear of the "testing". These teachers do not like the testing.

The "education" system under No Child Left Behind is a recipe for destroying any child not absolutely average.
It seems to me we were much better off when schools could group students according to their abilities. In the old system those students who needed extra help got help; those who needed more challenging curriculum got that. Instead, the government is forcing schools to get all students at the same level, for many students that means a sub-standard level, to pass the tests! Schools which consistently fail or score low are penalized. To me, the NCLB system is a recipe for continuing the downward spiral of public education. It's part of the plan to separate the wealthier students from the poorer students: an end to solid public education and the beginning of privatized schools for those who can afford them.

I applaud your efforts in trying to bring the testing into the daylight and for home schooling. Isn't it a shame that today's public education system has failed you and your son? And, by the way, WELCOME to DU! :hi:

[Maraya1969]

6. Welcome to DU Turner. Sorry you have to deal with the idiots.

[electron_blue]

4. well, the brightest of the bright tend not to vote Republican. Many of them go to

universities, get PhD's, vote Democrat, etc.

Get the picture???

[bemildred]

7. We have never done much for our geniuses.

I don't believe that, for the most part, we would even know how. The most sensible thing would be just to treat them in a humane way and allow them to do what they like. But that is much too sensible of course, and it wouldn't do for mere ordinary people to be allowed to just do as they like, eh?