In perhaps the most glaring example to date of our government’s descent into socialist madness, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction is attempting to remove all American history prior to 1877 from its textbooks, replacing it with a “global studies” curriculum.

No history before 1877?! What is going on in our schools today? This is another reason why the chances for success in public schools are dwindling…

Read the full story over at the GetLiberty.org blog.

The proposal is getting mixed reviews. Some parents are happy, as they feel it brings more credibility to the programs. Others worry that students who are now benefitting from being in Gifted programs, may fail to qualify under the new standards. Personally, I’m undecided about this. I can see it both ways. Obviously, a Gifted program must be more difficult than a regular program, otherwise the term “Gifted” becomes watered-down and loses meaning. On the other hand, how do we say that a student who scores in the 90-95% percentiles can’t benefit from participation in a Gifted program? Especially now that normal school curriculum is so focused on NCLB requirements, borderline students are at risk of being lost in the shuffle, and that’s not good for anyone.

The best approach might be to use percentile scores as the objective part of the evaluation, and introduction a subjective part as well. The subjective part could include recommendations from teachers, administrators, parents, etc. Before my daughter could enter the Gifted program in 2nd grade, she was required to complete a project of her choosing and it was evaluated by the Gifted facilitator of the district. There’s more to being Gifted than just scoring high on tests.