[Ohiogift] Praise for the proposed revisions to the Operating Standards

[Mark Bohland]

Sent to all on the list: 

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Good Day to You,


Thank you for your kind attention, and your service to our state. 

I
am a father and a grandfather of academically gifted children and
grandchildren, so it may be of some surprise that I write not to pan but
to praise the proposed revisions to the Operating Standards for
Identifying and Serving Gifted Students. (rule 3301-51-15) 

The annual
academic growth of all students is a value held dear to us, for all can
learn; and the proposed operating standards must certainly be designed
to affect the greatest possible academic growth for gifted students.


While we mandate minimum hours of direct services for struggling
students, the proposed operating standards eliminate minimum hours of
service, but gifted students are different from struggling students, so
certainly they need nothing designed specifically for them. It must be
in the best interest of academically gifted students in Ohio to have no
time mandated to help meet their needs. 

Yes the physically gifted
students - the athletes - are mandated by their teachers, their coaches,
to experience many hours of specialized services per week, but
academically gifted students are different from physically gifted
students, so certainly they need nothing designed specifically for them.
It must be in the best interest of academically gifted students in Ohio
to have no specialized program or curriculum mandated to help meet their
needs. 

The musically, and artistically gifted students have specially
trained teachers to help meet their individual needs for musical and
artistic growth, but academically gifted students are different from
musically and artistically gifted students, so certainly they need no
professionally qualified teachers who understand their nature and needs.
It must be in the best interest of academically gifted students in Ohio
to have specially trained teachers mandated to help meet their needs.


The government of the State of Ohio recognizes the value of our gifted
students, and bemoans the fact that a full third of our college
graduates move somewhere else to begin their careers. Ohio is
experiencing "brain drain," but certainly moving away from, rather than
toward, mandating a free, appropriate, public, education for
academically gifted students is what will encourage those students to
stay in Ohio and plan to send their own children to our public schools,
rather than fleeing to Indiana or Texas. It must be in the best interest
of academically gifted students in Ohio to ignore the needs of the very
young people we want to keep from fleeing the state at their earliest
opportunity. 

And finally, while annual academic growth of all students
is a value parroted by us, for all can learn, we hold preeminent the
value of closing the achievement gap. We parrot growth for all, but we
know in the darkest recesses or our being that such gap closure is not
possible if EVERY student, (especially the academically gifted) receives
a free, APPROPRIATE, public, education. It must be in the best interest
of the State of Ohio, and academically gifted students in Ohio, to
IGNORE their needs, and provide for them the LEAST appropriate education
that we may close the achievement gap, and create a society of equally
ignorant citizens. 

Therefore, I can only praise the proposed revisions
to the Operating Standards for Identifying and Serving Gifted Students
in Ohio. But when will a time come for our children such as now?


Grandpa (PawPaw Mark) Bohland 
7250 Steam Corners Road 
Lexington, OH
44904-9692 
Maranatha Photography 
www.MPhoto.com [1] 

419-884-1693 --
800-669-8512 
 

Links:
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[1] http://www.mphoto.com419-884-1693/
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