Censorship
Limit my thoughts,
My words,
My creativity.
You try to take away my freedom and
Put me in a box.
This shield of ignorance,
Is holding everyone back.
Why do you want to stunt knowledge?
Just because you don’t think this is “appropriate”
doesn’t mean it’s wrong.
Your tyrannical rain over freedom.
Is a dormant volcano.
Harmless at first sight,
But burning and festering at its core.
Freedom is essential.
Freedom is right.
Freedom is just.
Let the streams of ideas,
Words,
Imagination,
Flow
Without your dam of fear.
Don’t put up barriers.
Don’t try to control what everyone does.
Just let the world be the world
And people be people
And freedom be freedom.
Welcome to Gifted Voices
Thanks for visiting our blog! I am Elly Gilbert, a teacher and mother of gifted students here in Frankfort, Kentucky. I am part of a wonderful professional learning cohort called CTEPS (Classroom Teachers Enacting Positive Solutions- pronounced “steps”) that asked me to think of a problem in my classroom or school that needed to be solved. Before I made any moves, I asked my students for their input.
Their opinions were, as gifted students’ opinions tend to be, quite firm. They were almost violent in their response. “All our school cares about is getting kids to proficiency. We’re already there, so we just get shoved to the back burner. No one cares about us.”
Ouch.
As I began to research, I found that this feeling wasn’t limited to just my group of students. In fact, it is a pretty widespread concern. But, as the title of the program suggests, I wanted to enact a positive solution beginning in my classroom that made students feel valued by our school.
Step one in solving the problem is to provide students with a voice. This blog will serve that purpose. Some of what they say may step on our toes. That’s okay… we might need that nudge to make changes!
Hear them out. Respond to them. Let them know YOU HEAR THEM, TOO.
Gifted Voices 