I really enjoyed reading about this article because it put a good perspective on life. It was neat to realize that this mother, although having two completely different children tried to treat them very equally. She hated to say it, but she made a good point that maybe some of the money that we are giving to disabled individuals, should be spend on individuals that are very gifted to help them exceed to farther places in life. By giving money to gifted students, they have the potential to figure out information about helping cure different disabilities.
I thought it was interesting to see how there is no government money given to gifted education until recently there was a federal grant available. I think that there is maybe too much money and emphasis given toward "No Child Left Behind" and that there should be more money given toward students and individuals that have a greater potential in their career path.
Overall, I really enjoyed this article and I could relate it back to another Developmental Adapted Physical Education course I am taking, because we have been talking about the Rehabilitation Act, in Section 504. We have been discussing treating everyone equally and giving everyone an equal opportunity.
I also found this website that helped me better understand the No Child Left Behind Act. It describes in detail different aspects to No Child Left Behind. http://www.nea.org/home/NoChildLeftBehindAct.html
I agree completely with this because I really think the government should spend a little more money on gifted children. There is too much emphasis on No Child Left Behind that some people forget about the gifted people that could really help our world solve problems. I like how the mother tries to make her argument equal because she does have 2 children of different disabilities. She still emphasizes that the government needs to pay more money for gifted children and not pay so much attention to the disabled children.
ReplyDeleteI also agreed with this article. I believe that this mother really shows us how we view equality in such a narrow-minded way. After reading this article, some people would be disturbed that this mother would even suggest that there was too much focus and money being given to children with educational disabilities. Many people would not even notice the element of inequality in this situation because we are taught by society that the proper response to people with disabilities is to help and pity them. But what is a proper response to those people who know more than we do, who are gifted? We are not taught this response, and as a result we tend to just ignore them because we are unable to understand them. I believe that if we acknowledged them more, like the mother suggests, that we could learn some amazing things.
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