On Tue, 8 Jan 2008 10:20:49 -0600, "Swingman" wrote:

"John E." wrote

As the father of a child saddled with both a learning disability and an
extremely high IQ, I'm naturally curious about your parameters.

I'm the father of one young lady with a severe learning disability and a
respectably above average IQ (and with a helluva lot of fortitude and
character), who is now a senior in college.

It would boggle most minds to observe the volumes of paperwork, hard drive
files, e-mail, letters, minutes of IEP meetings, faxes, documentation of
threats/praise/encouragement to teachers/educrats (for doing/not doing what
they were paid to do), and the constant vigilance and involvement that was
necessary during the "public school K-12" part of the above educational
experience.

IMNSH(and very experienced)O ... the "What" we need in today's crippled
public education system can be inarguably be summed up in one word ... the
only word that is the basis of ALL solutions:

"parents"

That covers more than just education. In a "Dear Abby" (or the
equivalent) a couple of days ago, there was an item about a woman who
had two 20-somethings living at home and who had just retired. She
told the kids she was going to start charging them $30/week rent to
help supplement her reduced income and they declined although
intending to continue living there. One said something to the effect
that he wasn't going to help her pay her mortgage.

My neighbor (who still has teenagers at home) and I (we're empty
nesters) were discussing that and we both agreed that there was a
severe lapse in parenting in those kids' lives and that the retired
woman didn't "deserve" what she got, but she's not entitled to be
surprised.

By the way, I am not at all unfamiliar with the concept that there may
be more to that story than was presented or published. But on the face
of it, there's a lesson which ties into this thread.

--
LRod

Master Woodbutcher and seasoned termite

Shamelessly whoring my website since 1999

http://www.woodbutcher.net
http://www.normstools.com

Proud participant of rec.woodworking since February, 1997

email addy de-spam-ified due to 1,000 spams per month.
If you can't figure out how to use it, I probably wouldn't
care to correspond with you anyway.