I must say up front that I have not read The Genius in All of Us: Why Everything You’ve Been Told About Genetics, Talent, and IQ Is Wrong, by David Shenk. I’m only writing about the Talk of the Nation NPR show “Not Too Late To Tap Into ‘Genius In All Of Us‘” discussing it. [...]
The IEP Process – Special Education Advice for Parents (Part I – The Beginning)
Learning about special education is a daunting journey. I’ve been doing it for over four years now and I’m still learning. I can barely remember the very beginning and how confusing it all was. That’s why when I read a call from Karen Nowicki (an integrative coach) for tips for parents with children on IEPs, [...]
Ethnic background and attitude toward Special Education
While I have known for a while that some parents will look the other way when a child is struggling and will not have the child tested because they’re afraid or ashamed of the “special ed kid” label, I had not realized that minority families seem to be much more wary of that, until I [...]
Change.gov is closed, whitehouse.gov is up(dated)
I slightly panicked when I went to change.gov today and saw only a plain-looking box referring everyone to whitehouse.gov. I was afraid all the links I created to change.gov in my previous posts were broken. (“Citizen’s Briefing Book at change.gov” from January 13, 2009, and “Citizen’s Briefing Book update” from January 20, 2009) But I [...]
Citizen's Briefing Book update
The Citizen’s Briefing Book, which I mentioned in the post “Citizen’s Briefing Book at change.gov“ was closed on Sunday, January 18, 2009 (see “Wrapping up the Citizen’s Briefing Book“ entry on the change.gov blog). My comment “Revamp the Javits Gifted and Talented Students Education Program” got only 210 votes overall and two comments. My two other [...]
Labeling kids
Way back in December a Washington Post article “Montgomery Erasing Gifted Label†caught my eye and I’ve been planning to write about that. (“Montgomery Erasing Gifted Label: Implications Concern Some School Parents†by Daniel de Vise, December 16, 2008) Of course this is old news by now, and covered widely by various blogs, including, naturally, [...]
IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) – U.S. Department of Education Web Site
As the U.S. Department of Education web site titled “Building the Legacy: IDEA 2004†(http://idea.ed.gov/) says – “The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is a law ensuring services to children with disabilities throughout the nation.†The original law, titled the Education for All Handicapped Children Act was passed in 1975. Then in 1990 the [...]
Gifted and Special Education in Texas
Going over the news I’ve bookmarked a while ago I found a brief story from FortBendNow.com “FBISD Gifted and Talented Academy Students Connect with Real World,†by John Pope that talked about gifted students “learning about the nutritional perspectives of various cultural food items, including those representative of the Latino, Indian and Asian cultures.†FBISC [...]
Eagle Hill School’s graduation speech delivered by Dr. Edward M. Hallowell
Dr. Edward M. Hallowell, a former instructor at the Harvard Medical School, one of the foremost experts on ADHD in the world, and the founder of the Hallowell Center for Emotional and Cognitive Health, was invited by the Eagle Hill School in Hardwick, Massachusetts to deliver this year’s graduation speech. (March 2, 2011 – Eagle Hill [...]
Bartlesville, OK – Gifted/Talented Committee members fail to show up for meeting
I found the following story quite amusing – A Bartlesville Public Schools Gifted and Talented Local Advisory Committee meeting […] didn’t take place because the only person who showed up was Vicki Walker, BPS director of special services. (see Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise “Gifted/Talented Committee members fail to show up for meeting,â€) Interestingly, according to the Bartlesville [...]