Gifted children are punished by the public school systems

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Permalink Reply by Pupsin on September 11, 2008 at 8:21pm

What makes it bad is the wide range of caring and involvement from school to school. We have moved since my oldest was in 3rd grade...the school system was always high scoring on tests and all. But there were only 2 teachers that truly seemed to care. My son's 3rd grade teacher, the one I wrote about, said my son was well behaved and she liked him in her class. So it wasn't a conflict or trouble issue. When asked about the AR program, she just said 'it's what we have, and I won't go against the school'. When talking with the principal, and counselors, they agreed that even though my son was needing more of a challenge, they weren't going to do anything about it. The principal told me "All the kids need to be on grade level for reading, so we pass the tests. The main concern is getting them there, and scoring well. Don't worry your son will do fine on the state tests." Thankfully we have moved to a new school system, that really does seem to work with all levels of reading. If a child is behind, they help catch up. If a child can move on, they encourage it and let them expand. They have a great gifted program. I think it's a matter of schools, not just one teacher.

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Permalink Reply by Tracy on September 13, 2008 at 5:22pm

Hi, I would try to approach her again. Maybe she was just having a bad day. If she treats you the same, I would report this to the Principal. Also, I would ask to have my child transferred to another
class.

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Permalink Reply by JAYE on September 20, 2008 at 5:23pm

I know exactly what you are talking about. I have had a Head Mistress tell
me that they don't stream their students because those in 'dunce class'
(she used a euphenism) would feel bad....

Home Schooling is forced on the parent of a bright child. Forced, because
sending them to school retards them.

I'll give you an example of what happened to a bright child...

First grade, teacher says;

"And the Indians lined up when Columbus arrived..."

"How did the Indians know how to line up?" asks the bright child.

Teacher makes a face, kids laugh.

From that moment, through primary school, through junior
high, through High, through two universities, through professional
school, that 'child' never asked another question in class.

Now if this was a school where the teachers were trained to
be able to think 'outside the box' and had respect for the
child who realised that if the Indians 'lined up' Columbus
could not have been the first stranger they saw, then things
would have been different, and the child wouldn't have had
to 'mask' her intellect for fear of being laughed at.

This is what happens to gifted children.

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Permalink Reply by Karen Putz on September 22, 2008 at 8:11am

I had an issue with the Gifted Program teacher when my daughter was in first grade. My daughter is hard of hearing and in first grade, a lot of the test was given orally. She scored high in every area but for some reason, she didn't fall within the gifted matrix despite her scores. Her best friend, who scored slighly lower, was in the gifted program. The teacher simply said, "I do not see anything that indicates your daughter is gifted."
By 4th grade, she was placed in the gifted program but she absolutely did not like that teacher. By the middle of fifth grade, she was begging me to pull her out. I finally did, just weeks before school ended and she was like a different kid. It was the teacher, not the program. So for us, the experience wasn't a great one. She's still in the gifted strand in middle school, but it is going much better.

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Permalink Reply by JAYE on September 22, 2008 at 5:00pm

I am so ashamed, I am actually blushing. I was in the gifted program and found out that the
other kids had less homework and more fun. So I 'flunked' out of the gifted program and
coasted through school doing as little as possible to get by. (Sloth is a virtue) everything
was going just dandy.

They gave this I.Q. test, and me, Oh I love puzzles! Imagine, the school is giving me
puzzles! So I solved all the puzzles.

So they call me and my parents into the Deans office and the Dean is blathering about
something, and tells me how high I ranked, and then asked me something about why
don't I do better in class, and being a kid, and not knowing better I blurted;
"I do as little as possible to get by."

What I find is that, on one hand, the child in the average class might be like me,
lazy to the nth degree and be able to spend the time on social interaction.

On the other, if a child feels pressured, as if she's losing her childhood for the
sake of south american geography, then there's no point. There's the Internet.
One can be as brilliant as they want, look up whatever they want, and keep
their secret identity as Norma Normal.

My child loved school, hence I had no problem with what level she was at
or not, because she loved school. Sure there were 'better' schools, and
better programs, etc. but that she didn't want to be absent was enough
for me, so you have to focus on your child, what they want or don't want.

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Permalink Reply by JAYE on March 7, 2009 at 7:35am

This is so true. Firstly, many schools don't recognise gifted children until fairly 'late'. For example; by age 12. By age 12 the gifted child has inculcated 'lazy' habits. That is, do as little as possible to get by. Coast. Ignore the teacher, sleep with eyes open, doodle, be a clown, be
defiant, etc. so that by the time someone realises, 'oh my, Troublemaker is brilliant!' she's already become demotivated, so being put into a
challenging environment often results in her being kicked out of it, because why should she have to do an hour of homework when she
can be in average class and finish everything in ten minutes?

The next problem is the inability to schools to actually use the technology available and supply a rotating basis of teachers who simply
come in with some interesting subject, do a short course, and move on, so that why the average kids are doing average work, the
gifted can do something else...i.e. class is dealing with Columbus, gifted child is dealing with the World 1400 - 1500...

So many people find that the kid wastes hours at school, then comes home, gets on the computer to learn something new.

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Permalink Reply by Karissa on March 7, 2009 at 7:50am

Well, actually, I DON'T have that problem - the school district here has a gifted program that begins in the spring of the kindergarten year and runs all the way through 12th grade. There's one that is from K-2, one from 3-6, 7-8, and then 9-12. The teachers recommend students for the program and send home a questionaire for the parents to fill out. My oldest never could get recommended because she doesn't do her work (on-going battle). My middle girl will start in a soon, though, she's in kindergarten. :-)

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Permalink Reply by JAYE on March 7, 2009 at 8:26am

You are blessed! In so many areas they 'wait'...
I know one little genius...he's two...I recommended www.starfall.com to the Daddy
and it's been great. It's a nice little learning programme for the little ones...does
the alphabet and why I like it, it lets the kid go further.

The dunce might just press the 'A' and be happy with it, the the average will
press the 'Apple', and the bright all the other possible A words.




Karissa said:

Well, actually, I DON'T have that problem - the school district here has a gifted program that begins in the spring of the kindergarten year and runs all the way through 12th grade. There's one that is from K-2, one from 3-6, 7-8, and then 9-12. The teachers recommend students for the program and send home a questionaire for the parents to fill out. My oldest never could get recommended because she doesn't do her work (on-going battle). My middle girl will start in a soon, though, she's in kindergarten. :-)

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Permalink Reply by ame i. on March 22, 2009 at 8:45pm

I'm may have hit the wrong button. I'm not commenting on the last post, but on the article.
The problem stems from the No Child Left Behind crap. A public school classroom teacher has to "dumb down" the lesson plan to where the least capable child in the class gets high enough grades to pass on to the next grade.
Both of my daughters have I.Q. scores higher than 140. I do not and neither did my (late) husband. My older daughter attended public school from K-4th grade. She is a 5th grader and attending a private university prep school this year. My younger daughter is a 3rd grader and attending the same public school as her sister did. It is a good school as far as public school goes and less than a mile from our home. Neither of my daughters have (had) a report card score in any subject lower than 99. That told me that neither was being challenged whatsoever.
Our public school has a Gifted Enrichment Program. The children are taken from the regular classroom for one hour twice a week. The teachers don't bother to have the kids make up the work they missed in their regular class. The work done in the Gifted class isn't any more challenging, just different than what the kids are doing in the regular classroom. Last quarter,my 3rd grader learned about Egyptian culture and made a pyramid with sugar cubes and glue.
The private school my older daughter attends exposes children to foreign languages in first grade. My older girl has studied Japanese, French, and German this school year and is now studying Spanish. She has keyboarding, music, art, foreign language classes every week. My younger daughter may come home with one worksheet of homework 3 days a week, has a spelling and reading test every Friday and has a test on one other subject each week. My older daughter has a minimum of 2 hours of homework 4 days a week and weekly tests in 3 or more subjects. So far, her lowest report card grade was a 96.
There are good public school systems but the our county's is not one of them. I don't like writing the $700 check every month to my older child's school, but I could not fathom keeping her in our public school system any longer.

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Permalink Reply by EDWINA BAKER on September 25, 2009 at 10:25pm

I don't understand it myself my son who is 11 and is in the 6th grade sometimes his classes are not enough of a changlle for him and then he get bored with the lessons that they are doing.

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