N.C. Department of Public Instruction Exceptional Children Director Mary Watson says…
- 2003: “The school is designed to encourage them to develop their potential for contributing to society as creative leaders in their various fields of endeavor. Acceptance into Governor’s School is one of the highest honors that we provide for North Carolina high school students.” Source
- 2004: The academic environment of the Governor’s School thrives upon students’ intellectual curiosity. Acceptance into Governor’s School is one of the highest honors provided to high school students.” Source
- 2005: “Being a Governor’s School participant opens students’ eyes to the world in an entirely different way and enables them to experience rigor, relevance and relationships in a manner that is unparalleled in the typical high school experience.” Source
- 2006: “Governor’s School provides some of the state’s best and brightest students with a unique opportunity to explore and develop their talents.” Source
- 2007: “Governor’s School provides some of our more academically gifted students with a unique opportunity to explore and develop their talents in a specific curriculum area while building strong friendships with other students who share similar interests.” Source
In addition, this sentence appears in the press releases from 2003-2005, but not in 2006 or 2007. “The courses and activities are designed to stimulate student creativity, move students to question basic assumptions, explore unanswered questions, and develop an acceptance of the process of change.” (Emphasis added)
All of these quotes were taken from press releases on the NC Public Schools website announcing the selection of Governor’s School students. Stumbling upon these press releases has given me an interesting view of how the politics surrounding NC Governor’s School have changed since I attended.
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I stumbled upon the Save NCGS group on facebook and got here.
It’s a little saddening to see a shift in focus of the program, but there’s still a demand for this kind of summer program. Maybe another university or the UNC system can sponsor a similar program so that we can get away from the bureaucratic mess that’s been happening, at least to me from reading Tanya Olson’s letter. While such a program may not be free anymore (which would limit accessibility which would suck and defeat a lot of the purpose of GS), at least we could do what we want.
There are a million summer academic programs that provide an academically rigorous experience, but I don’t think anyone gets that out of GS; everyone was challenged in ways imagined, which is what made it special and why we’re all so attached to it and why it really sucks that the powers that be would rather it go a more traditional direction.
- Daniel, GSE 2003, Instrumental Music