There have been several discussions here about Universal Preschool and the QRIS's many states have in place or are implementing.

Here is WI, the Governor Walker is trying to expand a school choice program that give vouchers to some students to go to private schools vs. public schools. It's pretty controversial, because it takes money away from public schools, essentially.

Does anyone care to share their feelings?

How about No Child Left Behind?

http://www.nea.org/home/NoChildLeftBehindAct.html

This is the perspective of the NEA, which I believe is the public school teacher equivalent of NAEYC..

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I have some REALLY strong feelings about our public school systems.

If I had to do any of it over again with my own kids, I would ONLY homeschool them.

The NCLB act did NOTHING to improve our schools IMHO.

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WE NEED TO CEASE THE HEMORRHAGE OF SPENDING IN THIS COUNTRY!!!!!!!!!


The government obviously has lost sight of the fact that there is a difference between needs and wants.

The idea of using tax payer money as incentive to send kids to private schools is ludicrous.....absolute insanity.................

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The radio the other day was saying Detroit has closed 132 schools in recent years and is the most violent city for 3 years in a row. Once a thriving, respected city now gone.

I wonder where all these children go now or that many people have just left?


We homeschooled for years but when I started childcare totally fulltime again we made the choice to put them in school. They are an honor roll student and get extremely high regards from all the staff and was hand chosen for several of the classes they do. I put the foundation into them and they are now old enough to take it from there.

When we homeschooled though, I still had to pay property taxes and part of it funded the schools. So it really is no different then taking tax payers money for kids going to private schools. Every homeschooling is supporting public schools whether they want to or not through taxes. I received no write off for homeschooling but could for sending them to school. It came down to really incorporating my childcare into my homeschooling also and writing things off.

I'm not a radical homeschooler though because we had some homeschooling and some in public schools. I know there are definetly things I couldn't teach my kids as they got older and feel that God let us know the correct time for them to go to school.

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My dd just told me their were cutting cursive from the schools next year.
That's just the thing to do....leave out an important part of learning to write, replace it with nothing and then say they're better off.

I homeschool one of my kids and my step dd and one of my dd's goes to public school. Homeschooled dd does 4 times the work as the other two in less than 4 hours per day.

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I think the cursive is pretty much going in all schools. With so much being done on computors, phones, etc. the figure the kids won't be writing on paper much longer.

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Want to hear the "funny" part? He's a republican... ok, not so funny...

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I'm sorry but overuse of computers doesn't change the fact that kids need basic skills to build on. I won't even get started with spelling and grammar, times tables, long division, reading books which they also don't "need" because of computers.

When do we reach a point where we realize that they do need these skills because it's still their brain that needs to do the thinking rather than letting a computer do it for them?

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I don't think it's all the fault of one side or the other, they're all morons. It does reek of the right though lol. If the government is taking all rich's money why not give some of it back to what they want in life via programs for THEM. Can't say I've heard many from the left demanding private education for their kids

The political system in general is broken. Otherwise normal people have to schmooze like crazy to get in and then forget what they're there for. It all becomes about appeasing a choice few instead of making actual improvements and that's where these ridiculous ideas come from.

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What they need to do is stop teaching kids for test and teach them for life. I always knew I wanted to be a teacher but I heard all of the things teachers have to do to become accreddited and all the budget cuts and state hiring freezes; and then of cause you have deadlines that you have to teach them certain things just to pass stupid meaningless tests. When will the state learn some kids are just not good at taking written test! That doesn't mean there is something wrong with the kids or even the teachers- It means there is something wrong with the system.

The way the country is going there is going to be no more public school everyone is either going to have to have one parent stay home to homeschool, send them to a daycare or community center where they can homeschool, or try to budget their money to send their kids to private school- They possibly may be able to save some charter schools. Some parents are just 'unschooling' all together where they take their kids out of school and don't even give them a planned curriculum they just take them on field trips and do arts and crafts.

I have been thinking about just homeschooling my future kids since I plan on doing daycare long-term anyway and they will attend my preschool anyway- only down side is that it will affect my numbers if I have alot of kids (Ideally I want at least 2 but I am willing to go up to 4). My fiance said he wants our future kids to go to the same private school he went to and I said 'if you think you can afford it, then go right ahead.'

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I haven't seen the movie but Michael talked about it and everyone I talked to about it said,yep thats they way the worlds going.

The movie was "Matrix" I believe.

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One only needs to browse social networking sites to see proof of that in today's adults already. The whole your/you're, their/there/they're thing drives me absolutely INSANE!

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I feel like this is proof that we as a people don't believe in the potential of our public schools to be reformed. What we need is for all public schools to be on a level playing field where the poor schools aren't reduced to using decade-old textbooks. The teacher's unions should make room for more accountability and we all know it is unfair that public school teachers are over-worked and underpaid. It breaks my heart knowing that I may not be able to afford for my son to go to private school when the time comes but it still won't be an excuse for him not to succeed. There is work to be done in the classroom AND at home and parents have to be accountable as well. I'll stop rambling now.

BTW, has anyone seen the documentary "Waiting for Superman?" about our school system in America? An amazing, thought-provoking and inspiring film.

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Proposal to Congress...May 2010:


In brief:
ESEA should promote innovation, high expectations, and encourage development of 21st century skills in public schools.
ESEA should end the obsession with high-stakes, poor-quality tests by developing high-quality assessment systems that provide multiple ways for students to show what they have learned.
ESEA should help provide great educators and school leaders for every student.
ESEA should promote public education as a shared responsibility of parents, communities, educators, and policymakers.
ESEA should provide increased funding to all states and school districts to meet the growing demand for globally-competitive education of U.S. students.
























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Have you seen 'freedom writers' and 'Lean on me'- they were both based on true stories (though I heard that lean on me was very loosely based). I went to public school and I turned out fine (never drank, smoked, did drugs, didn't have a bf or anything until college). And many successful people went to public school and turned out fine too. One of my friends went to private school almost her whole life and got kicked out around 10th grade (a nun slapped her wrist for not holding the pen right; so she slapped her back). And once she got into public school she did start doing drinking, doing drugs, and smoking and having sex- but I think that had more to do with the fact that she was sheltered her whole life to only be tought about academics and not 'street smarts'. My fiance also said that he thinks he was sheltered in privates school because he did get scammed on the internet once and he said that most of the kids at his school were really spoiled and wild (sex, drinking, drugs, ect.). And I told him if he could afford it to go ahead because I aint paying for it because I think that public school can teach you things that private school can't like how life isn't fair and there will always be someone who is richer than you and worse off than you- not enough diversity as far as incomes when it comes to private school.

I think the problem is we are overloading and overestamating (and in some areas underestamating) what children are capable of for their age group when it comes to academics and putting so much pressure on them to do well on test that the schools are almost literally shoving the information down their throats and they are choking.

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Bingo!!! Me too:-)

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I do think it's important to find a balance, though. Yes, basic reading and writing and math are important. BUT, our kids are not growing up in the same world we did, either. Technology changes so quickly, our heads spin. Or children, on the other hand, keep up with the montly, almost daily changes.

I think we tend to get nostalgic about how things used to be (believe me, I do to), but we can't teach children the same way now that we did 50 years ago.

I do believe a balance can be found, though. While I absolutely believe our children need technology in the classroom, I also think that it should be introduced later. Not before 3rd grade or so, ideally. Before that, they should have what all of us here always say...lots of time to play, simple toys, etc. Then, the first few years of school should focus on slowly building on that; reading, basic math, etc. THEN introduce the tools and gadgets and shortcuts. My hs daughters class could do 80% of their work on their computers...but those are high-school kids, not kindergartners. But, those kids also paint, sculpt, rebuild engines, show horses, fix laptops, build solar powered toy cars, make guitars out of old cigar boxes, and a whole lot more..(charter school)

What do you think?

I think part of the problem is lack of parent education about it, again. Parents think (and marketers count on that) that if their 3 year old doesnt know how to use an Ipad or LeapPad or whatever, they will be left behind. Also, many parents are overloaded themselves, and parking the kiddos in front of a gadget gives them downtime...after the 487 "activities" their child has particpated in that week. lol

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I agree with this. Kids don't need to know how to write in cursive, they need to be fluent in typing skills. I say cover it but to drill it over and over is unneeded as we are a technical society now. No matter if we like it or not, we are moving forward and we no longer chisel on the stone walls to communicate. I feel its important to know about it but not to be a master at it- keyboarding is what is needed at this point in time. Who knows what will be next-

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I don't feel this way- overuse or underused. It is happening, we can either go with the flow of things or buck it all the way. I am for the future and moving forward. I love visiting the little house on the prairie days but I wouldn't want to live in them day in and day out. Change and progress is hard for all of us to understand and technology hit us all fast. I don't want to go backwards- but some days I would like to slow things down or visit the prairie.

I think these skills are being learned just at a much faster rate and if they are not learned the way to learn them is more at a finger tips touch, the kno how of where to find the information is easily assessable to most

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I don't know if I answered your question with my few cents but here is my view......I think the skills are being learned but maybe not to the extent that they were drilled into us as kids. Kids know about cursive and maybe practice it here and there but they are not writing sentences over and over.

Other then to write out a check I never use cursive writing in my daily life. Checkbooks are being cast aside too. So you kinda have to go with the flo or be left in the dust.

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Our school got rid of cursive about 2 years ago. It is frustrating. I had to teach my youngest how to sign his name. If they don't learn cursive, they can't sign legal paperwork.

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Can you share what are those feelings?

I've said this before, I have my little one, would like to home school, not sure I can though. Have my own reasons, mainly religious. But would love to know the thoughts of others.

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Its getting to the point that you can print your name on legal documents because of the no cursive thing.

Saw an entire episode on Judge Judy about this.

If your signature is printing then thats how you sign.

I write 90% of my stuff in cursive and am CONSTANTLY told how nice my hand writing it. I don't think its anything special but it must be because I'm told over and over how nice it is.

When we homeschooled we did cursive handwriting for 4 years everyday doing practice out of cursive workbooks. It was the favorite activity of the day!

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As a die hard homeschooling advocate, I probably should stay out of this conversation, but.....

What the problem is that when one is taught what someone else thinks he needs to learn, the information will only stay there until the test, then poof, it's gone. If that student wants to learn something, then the information will stay much longer because it is something he is interested in, it has a part in his life. Testing does not prove that a student is more educated. It just proves some students do well on tests. And that some don't.

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I agree completely!

If I had it to do all over again, my kids would have been homeschooled then private school in the later grades. I would have worked three jobs to make it happen...hindsight is 20/20

I think that vouchers are the best idea ever. It will force the public school monopoly to compete for the students $$. It gives families who cannot afford private school and are locked into the public school system a CHOICE as to where their kids can go.

In your state, you get vouchers. Our state, spending money we don't have to fund Universal Pre-K. I need to move....

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I don't disagree this, but voucher represents the $$ already being spent on a child. The parent gets to take $$ and CHOOSE the school that they want their child to go to.

Right now, your taxes pay for the public school. If you choose to send your child to a private school, you pay for that in addition to funding the public schools. In a voucher system, your tax dollars follow your child. Not an incentive, just choosing how your money is spent. If you are happy with the education that your child is getting at a public school, you are free to choose that. Then the dollars would stay there.

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For me personally, I had a child who wasn't considered a traditional learner. Had we had charter schools available at the time, I would used it vs public school (or homeschooled FOR SURE).

My child was passed from grade to grade with NO proven abilities. I begged and pleaded for my child to re-do two different grades and was emphatically told no because the testing showed he had ability.

My child was bullied all the way through school too and the "No tolerance" rules they had on paper had absolutely no value in actual use. Everything sounded great on paper but never actually solved anything.

My child learned to hate school from the very beginning. No teacher cared to take the time to get to know my child on a personal level. They cared only about the test scores. One teacher actually told me that now that she was tenured, she really didn't care anymore and as long as a "troubled kid" was passed to the next grade level, she was grateful that the kid was no longer her problem.

Anyways, I will stop now as I can feel my blood pressure rising as I type. I am just VERY grateful that I no longer have kids who are young enough to be in school and if I ever have grandchildren, I will encourage my children to home school.

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except, the vouchers aren't just for families that can't afford public schools. I thought that at first, too, that public schools need to "compete" better.

But, it means the public schools (whose budgets are constantly being cut) get even less money. So, what do they compete with? It would be the same as what our state is doing with the QRIS. Expecting more, but not paying more to the people who actually have to do more work.

And, since vouchers are mostly used in poor school districts, the poorest schools would have less money to work with, while a few of their students got to go to private schools, creating a bigger disparity in education.

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Well thanks for sharing. My son is "special needs" I say it like this because he is just as normal as any other boy his age is, just has sensory issues and they said he falls in to that category. I don't worry much about him because I know he is smart, but he has a thing he does with his hands that draws peoples attention , they don't know he has sensory issues so people just might think he has other kind of delays just by looking at him when doing this. I am afraid that when school starts, I will start getting calls and ask for meetings because teachers won't understand him. I've seen this very same thing in preschool before. When I was pregnant with him, there was a boy at the center were I worked that teachers just labeled him as developmental delayed because he did almost the same thing that my son does. Then is the bullying part, I just know that if he does not stop doing his hand thing before school starts, kids will make fun of him Decisions, decisions....

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My 2nd son had very soft musle tone and a speech articulation issue. However, I suspected he was very bright, because his vocabulary was huge. At 4 or 5, very few people would have noticed, because he couldn't pronounce words well. He also was physically a bit unaware, so he looked, to some people, "retarded". I actually had a dear family member say that word (and it is the correct medical term, although not a popular choice of words).

His speech therapist and I decided that it would be VERY easy for people, specifically teachers, to make assumptions about him, so we had an IQ test done by the school physcologist. His IQ in kindergarten was estimated at 135-140, with over-the-test limits scores in pattern analysis and quantitative reasoning.

Still, he struggled to learn to read (imagine trying to "sound out" words you can't actually say). Eventually, with some help, he learned to read well, although he still doesn't read for pleasure very much.

He was NEVER a good "student". He did very little homework (but got A's on almost every test), and got less and less interested in school as he got older. But, he graduated via a virtual highschool about 6 months early.

He went into the army, and is almost done with his first 3 years (in December). He reached his goal of becomming a sniper scout (because of his crazy math abilities). When he's done in December, he plans on taking the money he's saved and traveling the world alone. He wants to go to see the Great Wall of China, among other things. Then, he may go to college or he may start a business.

I'm not telling you all this to brag. I'm telling because I found out with all my children, especially him, that even young children are individuals. Some are great students, some learn in typical ways, many don't. Most really shine when they find something they are interested in and become passionate about. I wish I would have known that sooner with my sons, because I would have done a better job of advocating for them. I also would have told quite a few people to butt out...lol.

So, find out what your son IS good at and what's he's interested in, do whatever it takes to make sure he gets to do that to the fullest, and don't let anyone judge him for his quirks just because his are on the outside.

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It's not about the children anymore, its all about money.

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I am coming at this from a completely different perspective. I am British born and went to a British public school up until the age of 10, then moved to Belgium and went to an expensive private school. I say "expensive" because it was a school I would not have been able to afford to go for had not the company my father worked for paid for it. It had all the bells and whistles -- and I hated it. My point is that regardless of what school your child goes to, every child is different and what works for one may not work for another. My children went to a Catholic school for four years and are now in public schools. While the schools aren't perfect (and I hate that they teach to the test), both my children have flourished. Kudos to all of you because I think the most important thing is how involved you are in your child's education regardless of where he or she is educated.

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I can relate to this... on the other side. My teachers were constantly trying to force me up to the next grade because of my advanced reading abilities but my mother didn't want her 6 year old sitting in a class full of 8 year olds for obvious reasons. So, as an alternative, I was always sent to read with higher grade levels from 1st grade up to 3rd but did the rest of my day with kids my own age. I hated it. I was smaller than everyone and they all called me "skinny minny" bc I was a tiny little thing and obviously didn't belong. Thankfully, when I got to 4th grade my school implemented a TAG Program (Talented and Gifted) where I was able to spend half of the day with advanced learners from all around the school district where we went on field trips to NASA, read advanced books and did awesome science projects. I spent the last half of the day in the regular classroom which was nice because it took little time for me to catch up on the work. It was the best thing that ever happened to me educationally. However, by the time I got to junior high, the school district eliminated the program because of budget cuts. In turn, when I finished my work early I would talk too much and annoy my teachers. Eventually, they started giving me busy work (crossword puzzles, etc.) to fill the time while everyone else finished. I saw this as being picked on by teachers bc I had extra assignments that nobody else had to do. Ultimately I began to hate school and teachers up until high school where I was finally challenged again with AP/IB courses. I've always wondered if my school experience would have been different if I was at a charter school or private school... The next school district over was able to keep the program, but my mother couldn't afford to pick up and move. Sometimes it comes down to where you are. I'm just ready for a final decision on the whole voucher issue. I see the pros and cons of both sides but I feel like there has to be some way to make it more fair. The money will ultimately be redirected away from already poor school districts but the people who will receive it need it the most. You can hardly ever please everyone. Ahhh... decisions, decisions..

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Wisconsin has an open enrollment system. Esentially, you can transfer from your school district to another one as long as you provide your own transportation. This allows my daughter to go to a charter school in the next school district over. She is a sophmore this year. The charter school is project-based. So, with careful planning by the student and guidance by the teachers, the kids are able to plan and implement projects to meet the state curriculum standards. There are 40 spaces in the program, and the kids each have a "cubicle" like you see in offices. Math is structured (they use Kahn Math Academy online). Several students are also taking AP classes online.

My daughter is a completely different girl than she was before this. She SHINES in this program. My son will start next year (he's a 6th grader this year, and it's a 7-12 program). I hope it's the same for him. He's my little "McGyver", if you remember that show. He does not do well in a traditional classroom. He has not been "tagged" (lol...get it?) as gifted, but he has a very unique mind and it causes him all sorts of trouble at school; mostly not doing his work.

I so badly wish this school would have been around for my older boys...

I think that charter schools is one way that schools can be more competative and customer-service focused. The money is still staying with the public schools (vs. vouchers, which go to private schools). However, the school can better meet the needs of those students who are not "typical".

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I'm only going to comment on the cursive comments. I have been teaching all of my kids cursive, but it isn't used much anymore if at all. As for signing your name... Have you seen people's signatures? Most of the time they aren't legible anyway. As long as you sign it the same way each time you are ok. I had a dcd that signed his name with the first letter of his name and a line. Even when I sign my last name it is pretty much the first letter, a line and the last letter.

I agree with a pp who said teach it but don't necessarily drill it for any length of time. I think keyboarding is a much better use of time than cursive.

K

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Have you ever read this?


Is It A Cheetah?
By Stephanie S. Tolan
It's a tough time to raise, teach or BE a highly gifted child. As the term "gifted" and the unusual intellectual capacity to which that term refers become more and more politically incorrect, the educational establishment changes terminology and focus.
Giftedness, a global, integrative mental capacity, may be dismissed, replaced by fragmented "talents" which seem less threatening and theoretically easier for schools to deal with. Instead of an internal developmental reality that affects every aspect of a child's life, "intellectual talent" is more and more perceived as synonymous with (AND LIMITED TO) academic achievement.

The child who does well in school, gets good grades, wins awards, and performs" beyond the norms for his or her age, is considered talented. The child who does not, no matter what his innate intellectual capacities or developmental level, is less and less likely be identified, less and less likely to be served.

A cheetah metaphor can help us see the problem with achievement-oriented thinking. The cheetah is the fastest animal on earth. When we think of cheetahs, we are likely to think first of their speed. It's flashy. It’s impressive. It's unique. And it makes identification incredibly easy. Since cheetahs are the only animals that can run 70 mph, if you clock an animal running 70 mph, IT'S A CHEETAH!
But cheetahs are not always running. In fact, they are able to maintain top speed only for a limited time, after which they need a considerable period of rest.
It's not difficult to identify a cheetah when it isn't running, provided we know its other characteristics. It is gold with black spots, like a leopard, but it also has unique black "tear marks" beneath its eyes. Its head is small, its body lean, its legs unusually long -- all bodily characteristics critical to a runner. And the cheetah is the only member of the cat family that has non-retractable claws. Other cats retract their claws to keep them sharp, like carving knives kept in a sheath --the cheetah's claws are designed not for cutting but for traction. This is an animal biologically designed to run.
Its chief food is the antelope, itself a prodigious runner. The antelope is not large or heavy, so the cheetah does not need strength and bulk to overpower it. Only speed. On the open plains of its natural habitat the cheetah is capable of catching an antelope simply by running it down.
While body design in nature is utilitarian, it also creates a powerful internal drive. The cheetah needs to run!

Despite design and need however, certain conditions are necessary if it is to attain its famous 70 mph top speed. It must be fully grown. It must be healthy, fit and rested. It must have plenty of room to run. Besides that, it is best motivated to run all out when it is hungry and there are antelope to chase.

If a cheetah is confined to a 10 X 12 foot cage, though it may pace or fling itself against the bars in restless frustration, it won't run70 mph.
IS IT STILL A CHEETAH?
If a cheetah has only 20 mph rabbits to chase for food, it won't run 70 mph while hunting. If it did, it would flash past its prey and go hungry! Though it might well run on its own for exercise, recreation, or fulfillment of its internal drive, when given only rabbits to eat the hunting cheetah will run only fast enough to catch a rabbit.
IS IT STILL A CHEETAH?
If a cheetah is fed Zoo Chow it may not run at all.
IS IT STILL A CHEETAH?
If a cheetah is sick or if its legs have been broken, it won't even walk.
IS IT STILL A CHEETAH?
And finally, if the cheetah is only six weeks old, it can't yet run70 mph.
IS IT, THEN, ONLY A *POTENTIAL* CHEETAH?

A school system that defines giftedness (or talent) as behavior, achievement and performance is as compromised in its ability to recognize its highly gifted students and to give them what they need as a zoo would be to recognized and provide for its cheetahs if it looked only for speed. When a cheetah does run 70 mph it isn't a particularly "achieving" cheetah. Though it is doing what no other cat can do, it is behaving normally for a cheetah.
To lions, tigers, leopards -- to any of the other big cats -- the cheetah’s biological attributes would seem to be deformities. Far from the "best cat," the cheetah would seem to be barely a cat at all. It is not heavy enough to bring down a wildebeest; its non-retractable claws cannot be kept sharp enough to tear the wildebeest's thick hide. Given the cheetah’s tendency to activity, cats who spend most of their time sleeping in the sun might well label the cheetah hyperactive.

Like cheetahs, highly gifted children can be easy to identify. If a child teaches herself Greek at age five, reads at the eighth grade level at age six or does algebra in second grade we can safely assume that child is a highly gifted child. Though the world may see these activities as achievements, she is not an "achieving" child so much as a child who is operating normally according to her own biological design, her innate mental capacity. Such a child has clearly been given room to run and something to run for. She is healthy and fit and has not had her capacities crippled. It doesn't take great knowledge about the characteristics of highly gifted children to recognize this child.
However, schools are to extraordinarily intelligent children what zoos are to cheetahs. Many schools provide a 10 x 12 foot cage, giving the unusual mind no room to get up to speed. Many highly gifted children sit in the classroom the way big cats sit in their cages, dull-eyed and silent. Some, unable to resist the urge from inside even though they can't exercise it, pace the bars, snarl and lash out at their keepers, or throw themselves against the bars until they do themselves damage.

Even open and enlightened schools are likely to create an environment that, like the cheetah enclosures in enlightened zoos, allow some moderate running, but no room for the growing cheetah to develop the necessary muscles and stamina to become a 70 mph runner. Children in cages or enclosures, no matter how bright, are unlikely to appear highly gifted; kept from exercising their minds for too long, these children may never be able to reach the level of mental functioning they were designed for.
A zoo, however much room it provides for its cheetahs, does not feed them antelope, challenging them either to run full out or go hungry. Schools similarly provide too little challenge for the development of extraordinary minds. Even a gifted program may provide only the intellectual equivalent of 20 mph rabbits (while sometimes labeling children suspected of extreme intelligence "underachievers" for NOT putting on top speed to catch those rabbits!) Without special programming, schools provide the academic equivalent of Zoo Chow, food that requires no effort whatsoever. Some children refuse to take in such uninteresting, dead nourishment at all.

To develop not just the physical ability but also the strategy to catch antelope in the wild, a cheetah must have antelopes to chase, room to chase them and a cheetah role model to show them how to do it. Without instruction and practice they are unlikely to be able to learn essential survival skills.
A recent nature documentary about cheetahs in lion country showed a curious fact of life in the wild. Lions kill cheetah cubs. They don't eat them, they just kill them. In fact, they appear to work rather hard to find them in order to kill them (though cheetahs can't possibly threaten the continued survival of lions). Is this maliciousness? Recreation? No one knows. We only know that lions do it. Cheetah mothers must hide their dens and go to great efforts to protect their cubs, coming and going from the den under deep cover or only in the dead of night or when lions are far away. Highly gifted children and their families often feel like cheetahs in lion country.

In some schools brilliant children are asked to do what they were never designed to do (like cheetahs asked to tear open a wildebeest hide with their claws -- after all, the lions can do it!) while the attributes that are a natural aspect of unusual mental capacity -- intensity, passion, high energy, independence, moral reasoning, curiosity, humor, unusual interests and insistence on truth and accuracy -- are considered problems that need fixing.
Brilliant children may feel surrounded by lions who make fun of or shun them for their differences, who may even break their legs or drug them to keep them moving more slowly, in time with the lions' pace. Is it any wonder they would try to escape; would put on a lion suit to keep form being noticed; would fight back?

This metaphor, like any metaphor, eventually breaks down. Highly gifted children don't have body markings and non-retractable claws by which to be identified when not performing. Furthermore, the cheetah's ability to run 70 mph is a single trait readily measured. Highly gifted children are very different from each other so there is no single ability to look for even when they are performing; besides that, a child's greatest gifts could be outside the academic world's definition of achievement and so go unrecognized altogether. While this truth can save some children from being wantonly killed by marauding lions, it also keeps them from being recognized for what they are -- children with deep and powerful innate differences as all-encompassing as the differences between cheetahs and other big cats.

That they may not be instantly recognizable does not mean that there is no means of identifying them. It means that more time and effort are required to do it. Educators can learn the attributes of unusual intelligence and observe closely enough to see those attributes in individual children. They can recognize not only that highly gifted children can do many things other children cannot, but that there are tasks other children can do that the highly gifted cannot.

Every organism has an internal drive to fulfill its biological design. The same is true for unusually bright children. From time to time the bars need be removed, the enclosures broadened. Zoo Chow, easy and cheap as it is, must give way, at least some of the time, to lively, challenging mental prey.
More than this, schools need to believe that it is important to make the effort, that these children not only have the needs of all other children to be protected and properly cared for, but that they have as much RIGHT as others to have their needs met.

Biodiversity is a fundamental principle of life on our planet. It allows life to adapt to change. In our culture highly gifted children, like cheetahs, are endangered. Like cheetahs, they are here for a reason; they fill a particular niche in the design of life. Zoos, whatever their limitations, may be critical to the continued survival of cheetahs; many are doing their best to offer their captives what they will need eventually to survive in the wild. Schools can do the same for their highly gifted children.

Unless we make a commitment to saving these children, we will continue to lose them and whatever unique benefit their existence might provide for the human species of which they are an essential part.

[Note: please disseminate this widely if you find it useful. Proper attribution would be appreciated, however -- Stephanie S. Tolan] (c) 1996 Stephanie Tolan, Used by Permission.
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This page last updated on 11/29/97 by Valerie Bock

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I have not read all the posts, only the op and a couple of others, so forgive me if I repeat someone. From the few I read I'm not with the majority (again!)
I think vouchers for poor kids to go to a private school is a great idea! When I look at what the private schools around here use $ wise per pupil to run their schools vs. what the public schools spend per pupil it's ridiculous. The public schools spend so much more-and the results are terrible in our city public school system.
The biggest argument I here about the money imbalance is public schools have to provide special education. Well, our city private school system has an awesome special education system-so that is no excuse.

My kids go to a private school that we pay tuition for. Our school is really exceptional b/c it was started by some Christian "hippie's" in the early 80's to offer affordable Christian Education to those that would otherwise be unable to afford it. The school has a waiting list and classes are kept intentionally racially mixed. Parents are expected to pay a min. of $500/year tuition, but how much we pay is based on our income. Donors cover the cost beyond what parents can pay.It's the only way we could ever afford it.
plug for out school http://pottershouseschool.org/

We are not "poor" (anymore) but still could not afford the costs of a regular private school. We pay public school taxes just like everyone else-that's just part of living in a community and I don't have a problem with that.
What I do have a problem with is that our schools are failing, yet just a few miles away in the suburbs the public schools are thriving and have all of the latest up to date technology. Our city schools are mostly black/Hispanic students. The suburbs are generally white. It's just another way our country exhibits institutional racism. I'm for anything that gives students and parents that really want something better in education what they need to get it.

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I agree with everything, except that the vouchers are not only for "poor" students. It is a lottery system, from my understanding. So anyone can throw their name in...

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Just read this last night in the paper after reading all the posts on here. Sounds pretty much like it will be a no go though.

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/201...209818/-1/News

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I didn't read all of the replies. I work at a private school here in Florida that accepts a Parent Choice Scholarship. It sounds like what you are referring to, but it is paid mostly through Corporate tax dollars. In Florida, by accepting the scholarship, private schools can educate children cheaper than the public school and give them a smaller class size. I think the scholarships are great. I've never had my children in the public school, but Yet my taxes are going there. Now, at least my dollars can go where I want my kids to go. Some people say, "Oh, it's taking money away from the public school." Well, so far....do you like how that money is being spent? Do you think they are doing a good job so far? (Some counties do a great job...others...well....)

Ultimately, I feel homeschooling is best. My husband and I both work at the our kids school. If we didn't, I would probably home school.

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