Friday, June 10, 2005

It's not Flattery. It is Persuasive Speaking!

Curious whether any of my elementary school teachers were still around, I went poking around the county school system's gifted and talented website to see if they were still working. Couldn't find anything informing me one way or the other. However, I did find this incredibly funny phrase chart translating parental statements into bureaucratese for the purposes of gifted and talented advocacy.

Reproduced as follows:
Language of Advocacy(Adapted from the work of Carol Morreale.)
In talking to school personnel, legislator, or other parents:

(Big old blank space cuz it's in a table format, and Tables were introducted to HTML after I last studied it and I don't know how to fix this)



















































INSTEAD OF SAYING:


 SAY:

My child is bored in school. All students should be able to learn at their challenge level.
We must pay attention to the educational needs of our future leaders. To become successful adults, all students must learn the value
of struggling to achieve one's goals.
How can we compete globally if we don't accommodate our "best and brightest"
students?
 We need to assure that all our students will reach their greatest
potential in learning.
Our gifted kids need special programs. High ability students may need out-of-class opportunities to experience
appropriate challenge.
High ability students may need out-of-class opportunities to experience
appropriate challenge.
I support all programs that allow students to learn at their own level
and pace.
Kids in special education are getting too big a slice of the financial
pie in our schools.
 Let's study what works for kids in special education and make
similar opportunities available for students learning beyond their grade
levels.
Students with high academic ability cannot have their learning needs
met in mixed-ability classrooms.
Students with high academic ability need to be with students of similar
strengths so they can feel OK about themselves the way they are, rather
than feeling they have to hide their abilities to "fit in" with other kids
their age. 

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