Wednesday, April 05, 2006

No Child Left Behind? Ask the Gifted

No Child Left Behind? Ask the Gifted

The substance is there - with limited budgets, districts are looking to cover themselves on the low-score and while gifted programs lose out. But the color is priceless as a gifted class takes an Ellis Island field trip:

"Ms. Braverman is a perfect teacher for the gifted, since she herself likes to do 12 things at once. While the buses headed north on the New Jersey Turnpike, the students eating their bagels, Ms. Braverman put on the video she always shows for this field trip, 'An American Tail.' ('The story of Steven Spielberg's family's journey to America, except the characters are cartoon mice,' Ms. Braverman explained.) The thing the children love about Ms. Braverman is that as many times as she has seen that video, she still thinks it is hilarious when the mouse says the streets in America are paved with cheese."


Way back when, our gifted program consisted of getting skipped a grade, with drastic social consequences. Seems a shame to step backwards...

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