Reply #43: You're not listening and trying to [View All]

obfuscate.

I gave one example, which you called bullshit on for some unknown reason. It wasn't ever one teacher, I first gave one example and you called bullshit, in ignorance. The bullies I first spoke of were teachers, if you were paying any attention. Yes he was bullied by teachers and students. Many teachers and many students, over 4 years time.

Your next obfuscation was to try to say I said too many things so none could be true. Then you changed what I said to "my child was forced to sit in silence for 6 hours" and I didn't say that. My child was forced to "learn" things he already knew for 6 hours per day. Imagine being in a room for 6 hours a day (we'll bring it down to a level you can understand, since you've apparently never met any smart kids.) having to relearn the abc's for years and years and never being allowed to progress. That's what it felt like to him. He was very excited to finally be able to go to "real school" as he termed it. Unfortunately for him, "real school" was set up to cater to the other end of the spectrum through normal. It was also a language immersion school (in my silly attempt to make sure there was a challenge for him) so half the day the subjects were taught in another language. Unfortunately, again, the instructor was from Japan, teaching in the japanese way... which means that no one is allowed to stick out in any way... all must conform, so his needing to learn at a higher rate and level resulting in her bullying him to try to make him conform, ie, dumb it down.

The fact that you know very few 8 year olds ready for algebra is of no consequence. They are out there and in fact my son was ready for that at 5. Yet, he was forced to "study" addition and subtraction for many years because that is all that was being taught. Yes, he's very different. If we can accept that we are all individuals, why can you not accept that children are all individuals too? He was doing addition and subtraction in his head as we drove around before he was two. Yes, he's different. He taught himself to read at 3. Yes, he's different.

You are very ill informed about gifted programs if you think they're available everywhere. They are not! You're assuming that I didn't look for that. My state mandates that every child is to be taught at their rate and level of learning yet that is absolutely ignored if your rate and level is higher than normal. The districts in this state have been sued endlessly by parents like me to try to force them to educate the gifted and nothing every changes. I tried public and private schools and was finally forced to take him out entirely and facilitate his education from home. We called it home schooling, as many do, but what actually happens is that we're out in the community every day, all day, accessing programs, co-ops, libraries, classes, etc. that he would not normally have access to if he was locked away in school all day.

You should educate yourself before assuming you have any knowledge at all about what happens outside of your purview. The teachers union assured that those bad, punishing teachers remained in school and my child was forced out to find an education elsewhere. I was told by the district superintendent that the only way to I could affect change was to sue them and they'd drag it out forever so it would never benefit my son. Nice.

Why would you assume that I didn't fight for him? Why assume that I didn't try everything possible to get him an education in the usual way? Ah, because we cannot place the blame on your precious teachers or their union. There are good teachers and bad and many in between. No one should be guaranteed employment in the way teachers are, at the expense of children.

I found the gifted counselor at the local University. She was a gifted student herself (and obviously a gifted adult) who understood the damage that could be done if I left him with the teacher he had. She had a brother who committed suicide because the bullying never ended... yes, feel free to call bullshit on that too. So, no, she was not a member of the a teacher's union, although she may have been at some time earlier in her career. She convinced the school to skip him two grades. It took him only 3 weeks to be at the head of the class, again, as that didn't resolve the rate of learning issue and only boosted the level almost imperceptibly, due to the last 30-40 years of dumbing us down.

My child entered college at 16 knowing 5 languages and beginning a 6th. (I speak one. I didn't teach him all that he knows, I simply facilitated his education because the public schools, with the help of the union denied him the right to learn). And yes, he knew more than just many languages. Yes, he's different. We are all different. You cannot deny the existence of people just because they do not fit into your mold. School is broken, and the teachers union is not contributing to fixing that, they're holding onto the status quo with everything they've got. It's not ok.