[geeks] Education (was: Mainframe on eBay)

[William Enestvedt]

Jonathan Patschke wrote:
>
> -Everyone- is differently-abled....
>
> To try to adapt -everyone's- cirriculum (which is what they're in the
> process of doing in TX and some other states) to meet the needs of
> people who were born with learning and/or developmental disabilities
> that require special attention disenfranchises society as a whole.
>
   Allow me to interject, if you will.
   I know a dad with a near-autistic son and a gifted daughter (she
being the older of the two kids). The parents get to go to _two_ sets of
meetings for individualized education plans, often during the same
"parent-teacher meeting" week, and the whiplash is exceptional. :7)
   Both parents are smart -- raised by bright people and bright
themselves, valuing family and education -- but there's really no middle
ground for them. It's my only reason to hope the NCLB Act isn't
window-dressing: if those two kids each get the opportunities and
attention that they need, then it won't turn out to have been a huge
scam/sham.
   Short of home schooling my own three kids, there's not much I can do.
The oldest on started first grade this year, and she's already reached
most of the goals for the year's curriculum. However, the school
provides a second teacher in her classroom to help out the mainstreamed
kid with a visual handicap, so the main teacher exercised her common
sense and declared that the morning, when Mr. Field is there, will be
used for reading & math & writing,a nd the afternoon, when he's off in
another classroom, is when they have art and computer time and such.
   I think it's brilliant: the teachers are working together to make the
most of the reasources they have, regardless of what the schedule was
last year.
   My wife's already signed up to volunteer in the classroom, and I'm
thinking about stepping up to do some work o their computers. But if I
hadn't seen this kind fo creative use of what's at hand, I would still
despair of what the public schools were capable of delivering.
-wde
P.S. Disclosure: I'm a product of public schools as well as private,
including some years in a magnet program. I seen it all, Ishmael-style.
:7)
--
Will Enestvedt
UNIX System Administrator
Johnson & Wales University -- Providence, RI