It’s about time. Many of us know and are troubled by it–we have left the top half of our classes behind in our effort to bring up the bottom half. Yet, noone likes to talk about this, apparently, as it’s viewed as elitist… And, alas, many people believe that these students, often called gifted and talented (a label I do not like!) will be OK on their own, even without focus and effort and support by our schools. Well, it ain’t so.

I applaud Chester Finn for putting this vital issue out there, both for our national interest and for these students’ personal interests. It’s about time. We need to focus also on the top students in our land.

While his solution is to have more exam schools, I’m not convinced that is the way to go. No matter. The first step is to admit that we have a huge challenge. We’ll figure out what to do with that–once it’s front and center before us. Now it is.

“http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/19/opinion/gifted-students-deserve-more-opportunities.html?pagewanted=2&src=un&feedurl=http://json8.nytimes.com/pages/opinion/index.jsonp”

We all knew it, and now Robert Samuelson has written a good column about the fact that college is not for everyone. Nor should it be.

And, while we’re at it, high schools need to rebuild their technical, vocational programs, as well as their academic programs. One size does not fit all. Nor should it.

This is it. Teacher appreciation week. Here’s Charles Blow’s wonderful op-ed appreciation of his best teacher, his mother. I would add my mother to that list. She taught me so much–to be positive; to work hard; to expect to succeed; to be happy; to take life on, even when it’s hard–as we dealt with my father’s early death and had to move to three different countries–finally moving to New Jersey when I was in fourth grade. There, I will always remember my teacher, Mrs. Jones–who taught me math and history and science and English (long before pull outs or ESL or bilinigual education) by including me in everything and expecting me to learn English quickly. I did. I am forever grateful to her and to all the teachers I had. Most — by far–were wonderful.

As Mr. Blow write, it’s long past time for us to honor our teachers and stop blaming or demonizing them. Let us get that message before it’s too late for all of our students.

Here are the links. Happy reading and happy listening.

I’m glad The Atlantic piece has legs…. I’ll post the Education Week piece later. I am most grateful and hope that it moves the special education reform conversation forward.