Sir: As a parent, I have a duty to speak out when I see that my child is not getting the attention she requires. I have discovered that our schools are organized on a false assumption, and since I have been unable to get through the thick layers of administration to someone who would listen to reason, I am forced to turn to your publication to reach the public at large, who are the ultimate authorities in all matters that concern the public at large.
My daughter Rumelia goes to Blandville Elementary, where she is treated as an average school student. But she is not average. My daughter is far above average. She is exceptional, and she needs a school that recognizes her exceptionality. Yet she was not placed in one of the programs for the “gifted,” and I have determined by constant and ruthless inquiry that the number of students so placed in our city schools is very small in proportion to the general population.
However, I have made a survey of parents in my neighborhood, as well as at social events, grocery stores, hookah bars, monster-truck rallies, and axe-throwing establishments, and I have found that almost without exception their children are exceptional. My estimate, based on my weeks of research, is that fewer than ten per cent of children are below average. And that is a generous estimate, since the only parent I spoke to who actually claimed to have a below-average child was Mamie Robinson, who said her son Tad was a bit dim, and I have to agree with her there, because all that kid ever does is sit around and read books all day, and how is he ever going to learn anything that way? But all the other parents I talked to said their kids were above average, and even allowing some margin for error, that’s still got to be nine out of ten kids.
So it is time our school board woke up and faced the fact every parent knows: the average child is above average. Children who are average or below are a small and pitiable minority.
You can see, therefore, the necessity of changing the entire basis of our educational system. Schools should be designed to accommodate the great above-average majority. A few dollars can be set aside for a facility for the average kids, but every child should be assumed gifted until proved otherwise by solid evidence, such as book-reading. The ordinary school program, which will be designed for gifted students, will focus on reinforcing in the students the idea that they are special and deserving. Occasionally one of the students from the school for the average can be brought in as an exhibit for them to sneer at, which should be effective in helping them learn to be special.
But none of this will happen unless we, the parents, wrest control from an apathetic and inflexible school board. That is why I have organized a march to the city Board of Education Building beginning Tuesday at 10 a.m. We will assemble at McCarmody’s Axe Bar on Bland Street, where each participant will be issued a torch or pitchfork, and then the Board will be made to feel the wrath of the multitude. The above-average majority will be oppressed no longer.
Sincerely,
Rumelia’s Mom,
Blandville
