Help Keep Gifted

Education A Priority

(The following letter has been received for publication.)

To Newtown’s parents of gifted children:

Gifted education in the state of Connecticut is not mandated. That having been said, to have a program to educate the “whole” gifted child is a budget luxury. For the 18 years that I worked with the gifted child in the Discovery Program, gifted education was supported by the superintendent and the Board of Education. In part this was due to a credible program that addressed the effective and education needs of an intellectually gifted learner in grades 4–8.

To this end, I write you to reinforce and heighten your knowledge as a parent of the gifted child. It is you, and only you, who can maintain a high quality of gifted education in this town; it is all of you, and only all of you, who, as a cohesive parental group, must see that the GATES program be supported and expanded.

In my opinion, your focus needs to be on the following issues:

1. Scheduling — Quality gifted education cannot be successful during lunch/learning lab time. The children, by the time they buy their lunch and reach the GATES room, have next to no time to be instructed. Years ago we abandoned that scheduling.

2. Scope and Sequence — All the four fourth grade teachers, the sole .8 fifth/sixth teacher (recently upgraded from .5 to .8 – Bravo!!) and the one .5 seventh/eighth teacher must meet regularly to articulate curriculum.

Your voice at parent meetings, your letters of concern to administration, and your presence at Board of Education meetings is essential. It is you, and only you, who truly can sustain a momentum of advocacy for gifted education. The administration and Board of Education have endorsed the need to educate your child well. There is no room for complacency in the mission state that all children can and will learn well.

I am now finally settled on Main Street, and offer you my time to sustain your enthusiasm for quality gifted education in the schools; please allow me to help. I have spoken several times at Board of Education meetings. They always have known how passionate I am about the gifted learner.

Respectfully submitted,

John Vouros

The Dana-Holcombe House

29 Main Street, Newtown                                           August 31, 2005