Alva's parents did remove him

from the expensive private school, but they started home-schooling Al

with a combination of hands-on vocational and academic instruction using

area craftsmen to teach vocations and themselves and tutors to teach academics.

After much expense, time and

effort, Al's parents succeeded. The child who was diagnosed by the education

experts as hopelessly retarded went on to become the world-renowned inventor

and businessman, Thomas Alva Edison.

We've learned so much more

about psychology, early childhood development and different learning styles

since the time of young Mr. Edison. Education experts and orthopsychiatrists

of our enlightened age would not make such a glaring misdiagnosis of mental

acuity and drug or institutionalize genius in a facility for children

with special needs. Right?

A few years ago my co-worker,

Larry, sent his bright, eager-to-learn little boy to a government elementary

school in Henry County, Ga. The first week was great, but everyday thereafter

the joy to learn was disappearing and he was growing moody and temperamental.

under duress.

Larry called the Henry County

elementary school and was advised that Larry's son had been diagnosed

as "mentally deficient with strong anti-social behavioral tendencies"

and that he'd been placed in a "class for children with special needs"

i.e., a class for feeble-minded troublemakers.

This diagnosis and placement

had occurred without Larry or his wife being notified by the school authorities.

Larry and his wife were understandably angry and demanded to have a conference

with the principal, their child's teacher and the psychologist or psychiatrist

who'd diagnosed their son as mentally retarded, etc. A conference was

arranged.

At the conference were Larry,

his wife and their son versus the principal, two teachers and the psychiatrist

who'd made the mentally deficient diagnosis.

Round One: The school authorities

strenuously objected to the presence at the conference of Larry's son,

saying that irreparable psychological damage could be done to the boy's

psyche and self-esteem. After a few minutes of verbal sparring, Larry's

son was grudgingly allowed to stay.

Round Two: The teachers cited

the child's small size, poor coordination and anti-social behavior which

had prompted their recommending that the boy be psychologically evaluated.

Round Three: The psychiatrist

affirmed the teachers' observations and begged Larry to remove the boy

from the conference because the worst was yet to come. Larry refused.

The government psychiatrist

then revealed the horrendous symptom which had caused Larry's son to be

diagnosed as mentally deficient: "The child looks goofy." Therefore,

the child must be goofy!? (Larry's son did have the disconcerting ability

that allowed each eye to independently follow two different objects at

the same time. For instance, if you were talking with the boy, one eye

might be focused intenfly on you, but, the other eye could be rapidly

moving as it tracked the flight of a butterfly.)

Final Round: Larry advised

the education experts that while his son did look different and was physically

uncoordinated, mentally, the boy was advanced. Larry asked the experts

to select any magazine or newspaper in the office for his son to read.

The experts refused, again citing their concern about damage to the boy's

self-esteem.

Larry then handed his son that

day's Atlanta Constitution, asked his son to turn to the editorial page

and read aloud something at random. The boy started reading from a column

from the editorial page and the experts exclaimed:

"He can read!(?)"

That day, Larry and his wife

removed their darling son from the clutches of the Henry County Government

School System and placed him in a private Montessori style school.

How many other brilliant but

"different" kids are now in classes for feeble-minded or are

in juvenile prisons because their type of learning did not fit with the

government school's one-size-fits-all style of education. I submit that

our government schools are "goofy."

Bill Bryan

Peachtree City