The Consensus is …

I sent my new blog out to a few writers and people in the gifted community for their opinions (I know that I stated I do not care), because I know these people and honor their opinions.

I am Political Because of My Parents

The consensus, all in all, was that I am political, but I am reflecting my experiences and opinions, and I am on-track for what needs to be stated. No news about me being political (it is my parents’ influence since they had us march with Cesar Chavez, march against the Viet Nam War, and took in foster children (and I have taught public school my adult life)), but I was a little worried about freaking out someone in the community, but I have no worry according to the comments I received.

Fanaticism and Fanatics in Every Community

Every thing I do draws some criticism, but usually from the fanatics in the gifted and public communities. No one ever talks about the HTG fanatics, but trust me they are there, we all know them, and most people back channel talk about their fanaticism in sound bites, nothing extensive to me at least because I do not respond. Trust me they write A LOT on our boards, they usually say really crazy things and publicly talk about other people’s children by name, or act like they are faint over some comment, when their comments have been even more extreme. This is true in every setting, I am sure. So, it will be interesting to see how those comments reveal themselves.

Now I feel a little more comfortable to just write from the heart.

Disclosing

I have a lot of material that I have acquired over the years that a lot of people have sent me representing different organizations, and individually, saying really crazy things. The Supreme Court case is really about vouchers in public colleges and universities (that a child’s ADA follows the child to their public school (old Brown v. concept with a 21st century application)), but I guess if you have a special interest, or a button to push in this arena, the case could do just that in some way.

In the end if these are special needs, how will these people look? I really believe these are special needs, so whatever the decision, I am entitled to my personal opinion, and as a long time educator, my professional opinion.

I first phoned organizations like the National Education Association (NEA), California Association for the Gifted (CAG) (they would not help, but a few years later after lots of legislative work put out a highly gifted issue), (National Association for the Gifted (NAG), world, states (Ohio was fabulous), and a hundred more starting in the early 1990’s, but no one would help (and each one has a funky story). It is interesting when these organizations would not provide leadership that they are so quick to cast a stone at the vacuum and absence of their own lack of leadership. If they wanted to see a legislative or legal outcome a certain direction then they should have provided leadership that direction, not criticism.

Let us take the NEA for example, (just one of many, but one of my favorite), makes me compare gifted education and the sorts of things that were said about Brown v. between 1954 and 1964. Michael D. Simpson’s (NEA Assistant General Counsel) comments have that same feel (see below: electronic correspondence 09-2004). Loren Grossman says about this sort of thing that:

——– Original Message ——–
Subject: Is the time right for supporting the civil rights of the highly/profoundly gifted?
Date: Sun, 23 Sep 2007 17:39:22 -0700
From: Loren R. Grossman
To: <LeilaLevi@HighlyGifted.org>

Leila,

I have been contemplating your question about the likelihood of whether or not the US Supreme Court will grant your petition for writ of certiorari (cert) in Levi’s case when they reconvene for the fall term this next month. We have joked that the only way the old conservative supremes will take on this case is if one of them has a grandchild who is both highly/profoundly gifted and not being appropriately served, due to the lack of protection under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. I found it beyond ironic that the letter you received in 2004 from general counsel to the National Educational Association (NEA) Michael Simpson stated that:
“As you may know, NEA has long opposed private school vouchers for reasons too numerous to reiterate here. For present purposes, suffice to say that NEA would oppose any effort to obtain court-ordered vouchers through litigation. For this reason, NEA will not be able to provide any assistance in your pending lawsuit. I hope this responds adequately to your recent inquiries.”

Contrast the American Federation of Teachers’ (AFT’s) response to the NEA’s response to making racial integration the law of the land, where John Ligtenberg acting as AFT Counsel (Illinois) & Selma M. Borchardt (Of Counsel, Washington, DC) filed an additional Amicus Curiae brief in the Brown v. Board of Ed case in 1953, stating:
“The American Federation Of Teachers feels that desegregation on the American scene is successfully proceeding in various ways-by voluntary community action, by legislative acts, by judicial review, by military and religious authority and by individual initiative. In all of these cases the question of appropriate method, timing and who should take the initiative, arises. We believe that the public scholl [sic] being one of the molders for our citizens of tomorrow should take the lead; we believe the time is now-we believe we have the ‘know-how’-we believe the most logical authority is the Supreme Court” (pages 22-23). Retrieved September 23, 2007, from
http://www.reuther.wayne.edu/Brown/brownbrief.pdf

What a difference 50 years makes! Loren
(electronic correspondence received 09-2007).

——– Original Message ——–
Subject: RE: The Case
Date: Thu, 16 Sep 2004 15:30:29 -0400
From: Simpson, Michael [NEA]
To: <LeilaLevi@HighlyGifted.org>

September 16, 2004

Dear Ms. Levi — This is a follow-up to the telephone conversation you and I had two weeks ago, as well as a response to your telephone call to NEA’s Government Relations Department on August 31st. I have reviewed the documents about your lawsuit posted on the Hoagies’ Gifted web site, which you referred me to, along with several newspaper articles. As I understand it, your son is quite gifted and enrolled at UCLA when he was 13. The state refused to pay his college tuition because he already had graduated from high school, and the state claims that it is not obliged to provide a free public education beyond that level. Legislation that would have created such an obligation was vetoed by the governor in 2002, apparently because he felt that it would be too costly.

You have now sued the California Department of Education (CDE) claiming that the state’s failure to pay for your son’s college education violates the California Constitution (see below). You are represented by Richard D. Ackerman, of the firm of Lively & Ackerman. After filing your lawsuit, Mr. Ackerman issued a press statement proclaiming, “This case could open the door to a whole new breed of vouchers that would be designed to protect children that simply cannot be served by the ‘one size fits all’ approach that the CDE and federal government have forced upon California families.” Mr. Ackerman apparently believes that, if you win your lawsuit, then every California parent who is displeased with the quality of education that his/her child is receiving in a California public school could sue the state (or local school district) and demand a voucher for use in a private school. I do not necessarily disagree with his legal assessment of the possible outcome of your lawsuit. While it is not possible to predict the actual impact that a ruling in your favor might have on public education, Mr. Ackerman’s prediction is not too far-fetched. Indeed, another right wing law firm has filed similar lawsuits asking courts to award private school vouchers for the alleged failure of the public schools to comply with their constitutional obligations to provide an adequate education. While you may not personally agree with Mr. Ackerman’s ultimate goals in this litigation (I do not know), it is at least possible that a court ruling in your favor could do real harm to public education.

As you may know, NEA has long opposed private school vouchers for reasons too numerous to reiterate here. For present purposes, suffice to say that NEA would oppose any effort to obtain court-ordered vouchers through litigation.

For this reason, NEA will not be able to provide any assistance in your pending lawsuit. I hope this responds adequately to your recent inquiries.

Michael D. Simpson
NEA Assistant General Counsel

References:
Article IX, § 1 California Constitution
A general diffusion of knowledge and intelligence being essential to the preservation of the rights and liberties of the people, the Legislature shall encourage by all suitable means the promotion of intellectual, scientific, moral, and agricultural improvement.

Article IX, § 5 California Constitution
The Legislature shall provide for a system of common schools by which a free school shall be kept up and supported in each district at least six months in every year, after the first year in which a school has been established (http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/.const/.article_9).

Also read the decision in Hartzell v. Connell (1984) 35 C.3d 899, which concludes that mandatory education must be free to all California children. A district may not charge fees for any academically related activities (http://webhost.bridgew.edu/mread/Documents/Hartzell.doc).

I have phoned looking for professional help and support, but maybe donations from this blog are a more realistic approach. Special needs families are more willing to help a little bit at a time, over time. Everyone can help a little bit every month and I hope they do.

Harsh Realities: The Financial Impact on My Family

Working for Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), and under a really funky high school administration that has driven the school’s rating from a raising 4+ to a 2 (and still slipping), has had a financial impact on my family. Anyone who follows the news knows that LAUSD is no longer paying their employees (since January of 2007) and since I have a grievance filed, suffice it to say, I cannot discuss it beyond this point.

And why did United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) take so long to not take action about the employees not being paid for almost a year? Let us hope that Linda Guthrie is our next union president.

Or maybe a lot of people will come out and support my gallery opening (http://www.dcafineart.com/) on Sunday, October the 14th, from noon to 5:00pm, at 3107 Pico Blvd, Santa Monica, CA, and buy a piece of art to help me make a living and support my work.

The Adolescent Results

Levi is no longer in school, he now has a job, I had to take a leave from my doctorate degree, and life has changed dramatically. Being a 16–year old male, and this harsh new reality, Levi will no longer speak to me. He wanted me to sign for a $26,000 education loan but I was too afraid, and he is no longer speaking to me.

I have maxed out my credit cards, drained my savings, and I am hoping the Supreme Court hears this case.

Light in the Mine Shaft

Jane is now helping me with my websites (I do not have time working full–time, the show, and this case) and she believes people care and will donate.

My Art Opening

See you at my gallery opening (http://www.dcafineart.com/) on Sunday, October the 14th, from noon to 5:00pm, at 3107 Pico Blvd, Santa Monica, CA, or in the news if the case goes forward. Check out my art work at LeilaLevi.com .

Posted in civil rights, Politics, National Education Association, Leila's Art, Brown v., leadership, education, advocacy, gifted, supreme court ~ Comments Off

Over the years, when I have moments that I feel like I have a profound spiritual vision of the struggle raising and trying to educate Levi, I think of Brown v. and the incredible motion at which this country vibrated in 1954 and 1964, I think my of my parents and how they lived by example of civil rights, I think of all the students and parents I have tried so earnestly to help, motivate, and inspire, and I see my life laid-out so clearly that it feels unreal.

I often feel melancholy about how much I have given and I watch movies like Powder. I listen to music like Seasons of Love and Affirmation. They affirm me and bolster my spirit.

I still muse over how splintered the highly, exceptionally, profoundly, and terminally gifted (HTG) community is. I wish they could envision and center on just one vision, no matter how small; I know they could accomplish it. I sometimes think the stress of raising a special needs child without a support system has an affect on them and they cannot see their own trees for the forest. Everyone I talk to and know well from this community seems to be suffering from a form of posttraumatic stress syndrome.

In anthropological terms this is the theory of others. It is the same affect as an outside culture. Over time we cannot talk to our old friends, our family members, and school personnel. I have heard a hundred times from HTG parents that they are accused of lying and exaggerating the developmental progress of their children; left to feel like another species or culture, like they do not belong, like the anthropological term others.

So, it feels good to come together in secret communities, organizations, on-line communities, gatherings, and colleges where everyone there has virtually the same story, from birth! Wow! And for a brief moment, a blink of the eye, a heart beat, you belong and you feel community. It is healing; it is spiritual for so many to be with others. This whole experience of others borders on science fiction.

Then there is real life. I spent 10 years and hundreds of thousands of dollars exhausting remedy and strategy. I rewrote the entire California and United States Federal Education Code as one such remedy and strategy. It got me to the next step and I guess it was cathartic because it certainly made no change.

I sit here incredibly melancholy hours away from The Supreme Court making a decision if the geniuses of our species will be accommodated, or if we will sit through another hundred or thousand years of The Dark Ages of Education and the Development of Our Species.

Maybe I am being a bit dramatic, and maybe I am not. How would someone write about this a hundred years from now if it turns out geniuses should have been accommodated under special education and Brown v.

I feel really deeply about Brown v. because if you take the words HTG and place them carefully where one would use race, it is as clear as the past, what our future should be. And should a child’s education dollars follow them through public school through the age of 16 (compulsory education)? I tsk the fact that children are mandated to be in school through the age of 16, but a parent must pay for their public school; what kind of civil right is that? What the hell happened to Brown v. anyway? It never worked in my life. Maybe my hair is too frizzy and curly, and my name is too ethnic and it pushes buttons, or maybe it is just pushing around the lone woman with no ability to work while she sat with her olive skinned child. Or maybe differences that are just extreme enough bring out fear in those who are of the majority population.

Children sense extreme differences and they become fearful. They cry and fight out of the fight and flight of developmental theory of our species. I see it no differently in the schools, colleges and courts, at least that has been my experience, and so are we here because of fear?

Again, I am sure this blog entry is melancholy, but I cannot help it since I sit on the edge of the bell curve awaiting a decision about my life, my life’s work, my life’s value, the value of my child, the value of my species and the importance of their geniuses, and the question of special needs, differences, and others. I sit in a very lonely chair awaiting someone else to decide the public value of my life. I hold my own personal value, but how would you feel?

Seasons of Love

Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes,
Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Moments so dear.

Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes
How do you measure, measure a year?

In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights
In cups of coffee
In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife.

In five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes
How do you measure-
A year in the life?

How about love?
How about love?
How about love? Measure in love

Seasons of love, Seasons of love

HOMELESS WOMAN
Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes!
Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Journeys to plan.

Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes
How do you measure the life -
Of a woman or a man?

COLLINS
In truths that she learned,
Or in times that he cried.
In bridges he burned,
Or the way that she died.

ALL
It’s time now to sing out,
Tho’ the story never ends
Let’s celebrate
Remember a year in the life of friends
Remember the love!
Remember the love!
Remember the love!
Remember the love!
Seasons of love!
Seasons of love!

HOMELESS WOMAN (while ALL sing)
Oh you got to got to
Remember the love!
You know that love is a gift from up above
Share love, give love, spread love
Measure, measure your life in love.

Affirmation Lyrics, by Savage Garden

I believe the sun should never set upon an argument
I believe we place our happiness in other people’s hands
I believe that junk food tastes so good because it’s bad for you
I believe your parents did the best job they knew how to do
I believe that beauty magazines promote low self esteem
I believe I’m loved when I’m completely by myself alone

I believe in Karma what you give is what you get returned
I believe you can’t appreciate real love ’til you’ve been burned
I believe the grass is no more greener on the other side
I believe you don’t know what you’ve got until you say good-bye

I believe you can’t control or choose your sexuality
I believe that trust is more important than monogamy
I believe your most attractive features are your heart and soul
I believe that family is worth more than money or gold
I believe the struggle for financial freedom is unfair
I believe the only ones who disagree are millionaires

I believe in Karma what you give is what you get returned
I believe you can’t appreciate real love ’til you’ve been burned
I believe the grass is no more greener on the other side
I believe you don’t know what you’ve got until you say good-bye

I believe forgiveness is the key to your unhappiness
I believe that wedded bliss negates the need to be undressed
I believe that God does not endorse tv evangelists
I believe in love surviving death into eternity

I believe in Karma what you give is what you get returned
I believe you can’t appreciate real love ’til you’ve been burned
I believe the grass is no more greener on the other side
I believe you don’t know what you’ve got until you say good-bye

I believe in Karma what you give is what you get returned
I believe you can’t appreciate real love ’til you’ve been burned
I believe the grass is no more greener on the other side
I believe you don’t know what you’ve got until you say good-bye

Posted in Brown v., anthropology of the gifted, civil rights, leadership, gifted, education, advocacy, supreme court ~ Comments Off