Remember how a few months ago I wrote about the fight in Pennsylvania to save their Governor’s School of Excellence for the Arts, a summer program for gifted students? How actor Kevin Bacon had even weighed in? Well the same thing is happening here in Maryland (minus the high profile celebrity speaking out.) As a GT advocate explained in a recent call to action
The Maryland Summer Centers will cease operation after summer 2009, as there was no funding for the Summer Centers included in Governor O’Malley’s 2010 budget. Please take a moment to email the Governor to ask that he provide funding for the Centers to operate in 2010 and future years. You may not be helping your own child, but you will be helping the hundreds of children who do participate in the Summer Center program. For many gifted and talented children, the Summer Centers are the only opportunity they have to receive the kind of appropriate instruction that will enable them to reach their fullest potential. The Summer Centers may also be their only opportunity to be with other children who share their abilities and interests.
This morning the Post came out with an editorial in favor of funding the Maryland Summer Centers. At first reading I was excited. The Post actually was speaking out in support of gifted students! In the thousands of column inches written on education, how often do gifted students ever warrant a mention, let alone an editorial?
But on second reading, I felt deflated. It was … the tone. Starting with the opening paragraph. So weak.
IT’S HARD TO argue that Maryland’s summer centers for the gifted and talented are essential. After all, those selected for the program are high achievers, and would remain high achievers even without this opportunity. Nonetheless, it is regrettable that the only statewide program targeting this unique population is on the chopping block.
“Would remain high achievers even without this opportunity. Nonetheless…” Really? Can the Post really say? My kids have never attended one of these programs, but I have heard countless testimonies from kids and adults who have attended similar programs, such as CTY, who say that these opportunities made an ENORMOUS difference in their achievement, in their social and emotional well-being, in their lives. So gee, thanks Post editorial board for that less than supportive statement. “It’s hard to argue…” Hell yes, it’s hard to argue when the ostensible thought leaders in our country somehow think that gifted kids don’t need any support, will do just fine, thank you very much.
The Post goes on
Without question, the state is right to place a priority on the needs of struggling students; resources should go to help the children furthest behind.
Um, I think a lot of things are worth questioning. Let’s have that discussion. We may, at the end of the day, come to the same decisions as to where resources should go, but to blithely say that current resource allocations shouldn’t be questioned?
The Post does concede that “there is evidence (and Maryland is not alone) that gifted students don’t get the attention that would enable them to really thrive,” but you get the sense that the only reason they’ve come out in support is that the amount needed to fund the program is such a pittance. Were more resources involved I’d be less confident that they’d be worrying about the state’s need “to serve all its students, no matter where they fall on the continuum.”
What is so discouraging about this whole situation is the drip drip drip of it. It’s like death by a thousand paper cuts for gifted kids. The cutting of a summer program here. The cutting of electives there. The elimination of GT classes in middle school. The lack of differentiation and a curriculum that meets the needs of gifted kids. The drive to do away with gifted identification–to erase the very term “gifted and talented’ from the policies meant to guide gifted education in favor of pie in the sky declarations encompassing the achievement of “all students.” Et cetera, et cetea, et cetera.
Where does it all lead? Parents doing anything they can to find alternatives.
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Read A Summer Vacation Of Intensive Learning: Supporters Try to Save Centers Program
If you haven’t yet written to the Governor to ask him to fund this program, please consider doing so while there’s still time for the 2010 RFP process to start in late August.
Online: http://www.governor.maryland.gov/mail/
(Please use the Correspondence Topic “Education Issues” and a Subject of “Maryland Summer Centers”.)
or by U.S. Post:
Governor O’Malley
100 State Circle
Annapolis, MD
21401-1925
Yes, gifted students need something to inspire them. Whether it is a camp, a librarian, a teacher, or something that they find on their own (such as C. using your coworker as a resource for an internship), they need it.
Agreed. And one thing I didn’t mention. These state supported summer enrichment programs are inexpensive when compared to comparable programs such at CTY, TIP, etc. Which means they provide a real opportunity to less affluent students…the very students people are always talking about wanting to reach.
Unless a child is squarely in the middle of the spectrum, they lose out in MCPS. The county is squeezing from both ends. The under-achievers, those with learning disabilities, are also getting the shaft. It makes me shake my head in disgust. I don’t understand why the county continues to receive such accolades when clearly they are doing a tremendous disservice to hundreds of children.
Me either. I think people really don’t *want* to know. My theory is that people come to DC as young professionals, marry, can’t imagine staying in DC schools or afford private, so move into MoCo…paying premium to do so, fully. The parts of the county where people are congratulating each other on their “good” schools….they’re really congratulating themselves on the relatively higher SES (and all that goes with that, educationally speaking) of their area.
Thanks for pointing this opportunity out. I thought of it while driving down River Rd out to the Beltway, noticing scores of newly planted trees and shrubs along the median and drainage ditches. Landscaping apparently gets budgeted.
Reminds me of the joke about the guy who bums a dollar off a passerby in front of a casino. “Gamblin’? oh no, I won’t use it for that. I GOT gamblin’ money. I need money for food.”