Mom’s column: Divert special ed funds to gifted kids
March 9th, 2009
Writing Newsweek’s My Turn column, mom Stephanie Lindsley suggests that some of the federal funding for special education would be better spent on gifted children, whose work could eventually benefit society.
Lindsley’s daughter gets high scores on standardized tests; her son has autism. An excerpt:
It pains me to suggest taking some of the federal money designated for my disabled son and spending it on my overperforming daughter. My son will probably meet minimum standards, but most parents of autistic children describe goals for their kids in much more modest terms: being able to bathe themselves, get a job, or live semi-independently.
My daughter has the potential for much more. If she were given even a fraction of the customized education that my son receives, she could learn the skills needed to prevent the next worldwide flu pandemic, or invent a new form of nonpolluting transportation. Perhaps she could even discover a cure for autism.
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March 10th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
I read Newsweek and I am also a little freaked out by this. I think it’s because this Mom places achievement as the only means to value a life, or at least the strongest means.
I think her examples of preventing next worldwide flu pandemic or curing autism are grandiose in the extreme. Those particular examples make it hard to argue with her.
What if her examples were that her daughter may be a Fortune 500 CEO or President of the USA or President of the Red Cross? Why are those achievements more inherently valuable to society than making sure people can live independently?
When we start to compare people’s worth in order to justify spending, that’s when I get nervous. Who decides? What does that panel look like? When majority rules, it’s never good for the minority.
March 9th, 2009 at 9:04 pm
No, no, no, no, no! Why should my child be a scapegoat for the “gifted”? My daughter has Down Syndrome and her 14-year-old sister is also at the 95% percentile. She would never consider taking away her younger sister’s much needed assistance.
Along with being in the 95th percentile (and reading all the Twilight books on consecutive days), she also exhibits emotional and social maturity beyond her years as well as a huge desire to serve others. I’m not sensing that at all from Stephanie Lindsley.
March 9th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
I don’t know about Ohio but many states have the gifted program as part of special education, and there is a lot of money spent on students in the gifted program. Perhaps Ms. Lindsley should consider moving to one of those states.
Ms. Lindsley’s gifted daughter would have a chance at education with or without the law. If not for IDEA my beautiful daughter who has Down syndrome probably would not have been allowed to go to the public school.
I guess I want to try to understand what Ms. Lindsley means by work that might benefit society. I suppose it is in what we value.
All I know is that Rachel has always been in a regular classroom. We are five for five on teachers saying that they learn more from her than she does from them, students learn more from her than she does from them and that she brings value to the class that can’t be measured. I think society already benefits from Rachel and from the children with disabilities.