In 1996 my son and I set out to make a
modest family web page in Rhode Island. Since then, that one page
grew into more and more pages. We quickly realized that there was an
insatiable hunger for any information on highly gifted children. So
I searched
for anything we could find on the subject and obtained
permission by the authors to showcase their works. We
wanted to personalize the site as much as possible,
so I started to make my own graphics while Joseph put together a
homework helpsite. I added a
family album and a guestbook. As I was doing that, I
found more and more resources for gifted children and
especially for those with learning disabilities. Most
of all I found out that our story wasn't all that
uncommon. I became a local advocate in our district and then moved
to the state level. I received support from teachers,
psychologists administration throughout the states school system and
began to save some children - many in fact with the exception of my
own son. In the middle of it all, we decided to homeschool. And from every new article that made me
say, "Hey! They're talking about my kid!",
a new web page was born. And now this site is
a valued resource. It has been my hope
from the beginning to shed light on this problem in
our society that just seems to be continually swept
under the carpet. Through this entire process I have completely
refused to display just any article because it has the word "gifted"
in its title. It must speak "truth". You will find many other
resources on other websites. And that's great. But I will not
advertise a psychologist I have not at least spoken to. I will not post an article I
do not agree with and I will not advertise a book I have not read.
If you'd like to send a book or article for review, I will be happy
to add it to our list if we agree with it's contents. Also, if you know of an exceptional resource
not listed here that does not let politics get in the way, please
let me know.
Whatever the case, with more and more of these
children homeschooling or going off to college every year, we may see changes yet. Let's hope so.
And now we're in California. I had to go
out and work just like all those other people in the real world. I
became a very good computer technical support analyst and web
designer. And if that
wasn't enough, I am now an Entertainment Coordinator! So, I have more things to talk about!
