Headline, July19, 2013

'''THE EDUCATION OF -ANGEL-

 MILAGROS MALDONADO'​''

The second life-changing experience came at a school on 103rd or 104th Street and Columbus Avenue. I was assigned as a sub in a third-grade remedial reading class   -by far an easy assignment. You could do stuff on the board, pass out worksheets, and then sit there and read the Daily News.

A little girl named Milagros Maldonado came up to the desk and said, 'I don't need to do this. I already know how to read.' All I wanted to do was finish the day, but I said to her,''Well you know these things are done by people older than you who are looking out for your own best interest, and they think you are better off here.'' And she said,'No, I can read anything.''

There was a reader on the teacher's desk, and she grabbed the reader and said, 'Ask me to read anything.' I cracked it open to story called : The Devil and Daniel Webster, which is an extremely difficult piece of American Victorian Prose. An she read it without battling an eyelash. I said to her,''You know, sometimes, Milagros, mistakes are made. I'll speak to the principal.

I walked into the Principal's office and the woman began shrieking at me, saying, ''I am not in the habit of taking instructions from a substitute teacher.'' I said,''I am not telling you what to do. It's just that this little girl can read.'' And she said something to me that, at my dying moment, I'll still remember. She said,'' Mr Gatto, you have no idea how clever these low-achieving children are. They will memorize a story so that it looks as if they know how to read it.'' 

Talk about an Alice in Wonderland world!! If that little girl had memorized : The Devil and Daniel Webster, then we want her in National Politics!! The principal said.'' I will come in and show you.'' After School, and put Milagros through her paces. The little angel did well. Then she told Milagros.''We will transfer you.'' And when Milagros left, the principal said to me.'' You will never be hired in this school again.''

That made you want to teach Yes. The attitude towards these children in liberal New York City wasn't remotely like the attitude towards children in western Pennsylvania, where I grew up. There the assumption was that if somebody couldn't do the work, it was because they were lazy or defiant. In these schools, the assumption was that some kids were permanently disabled, and everyone had to settle in their assigned place.

So, I told the people in the Ad agency that I was going to leave to teach full time. I thought I'd be right back. I said to myself, I'm going to do this for a year or two and I'm going to demonstrate, to my own satisfaction, that these rules of classification are nonsense.

Thirty years later, I still hadn't found out how far it was possible to push human beings to become big, self-directing, independent, and able to write their own script. The trouble is, especially with poor kids, they have such an indoctrinated belief that they can't do it, and that belief is reflected in antagonism and anger that they carry with them throughout life. But the truth is that genius is an exceedingly common human quality, probably natural to most of us. 

Professor Gatto, how do you unlock that inborn genius?

When  the mind is tested against something unfamiliar, it grows in front of your eyes. Adopted children have a horrible track record in adult life, and yet they often measure on IQ tests about 20 points higher than their equals in their biological family.

For years, the medical community tried to figure out what could account for this. Just to transfer from your natural parent increases your intelligence? Well, sure. You're in this desperate situation; you don't even have enough language to find your way out. You're looking around a lot more than you would if it was all Mother Goose.

The Post continues. Please share with the whole world. And we hope to enlighten you soon with the ''state of affairs'' of education in the developing world.

With respectful dedication to the memory of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan for lifting the Indian sub continent out of sheer darkness!

Good Night & God Bless!

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless