Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy already in the highest reading group....

Thanks all - and DeHe, I appreciate "more ire" Ha! Yes, I suppose he can read what he wants to at home - which is good. They absolutely will not let him read anything he wants at his school - they think it is damaging. They use some kind of "controlled reader" system - first read all of the -at ending books, then read all of the -ed ending books etc... god forbid you skip straight to silent e. Your reading will be permanently and irreparably damaged. Already reading at 5th grade level? Better go back to make sure you did not skip over the "ing" books - need to be sure all of the holes are filled. Ugh.
Yes twogiftgirls - I should probably brace myself for the "socialization is what is really most important at this age" conversation followed by the "doing things that are too easy will help boost his self-esteem" conversation. Oh what fun.

Fortunately, there is a program at our library where you can sign up to read to dogs... this might be a good option - at least the dogs will not care what he reads.

mom123-I just have to say, from my own experience...have you looked at other schools? It was really hard for us to accept the school we chose for Butter wasn't a good fit, but now I see the problems that were there from the very beginning. If you have a fundamental difference of opinion with the way they do things at the school, especially something like reading, I would really suggest you at least think about finding a whole new school. Maybe I'm spoiled with lots of choices where we live, but that program just sounds so awful!

DS 6 is also in the highest reading group and in a gifted and talented 1st grade. He is not in any reading group and just reads on his own. At school he is assessed at reading at middle of 3rd grade but I don't think the teacher has gone further than that as she has no books available past the level he is at. At home he reads at 4th grade or whatever he fancies! DS doesn't like to read so I haven't brought up the subject with his teacher as he would rather read easier books than harder books. He would be very happy reading picture books all day! The teacher knows he can do more but she said that she really just can't accomodate him and their are lots of other things he is working on in class, which is true, so I haven't pushed it.

Good golly, how do they think anyone learned to read for the first 3,000 years of human literacy?

If I may go off on a tangent rant, I hate the way teacher training programs lead them to believe that they are experts. Example: developmental psychologists noticed that kids go through a stage of learning how to categorize (e.g. being able to sort toys by color, size, or type). Education people heard about this and decided that kids need to be *taught* how to categorize. After all, it's a neccessary stage! Reality: toss the kids into a room full of toys for a year, and they'll come out with exactly the same skills as the kids who were explicitly taught.

Teachers are not experts on how kids learn. They are just experts on particular "methods," of varying degrees of wackiness, depending on the teacher training program they attended.

End of rant.

I am the expert regarding MY child. I used to feel that way when Butter was a baby, until I sent her out into the world. Now that we have removed her from the problem school, this is my mantra and I am remembering what it felt like before, to listen and really HEAR what my child was saying...YOU are the expert regarding YOUR child.

One of the best things we did for DD9 was to introduce her to the children's librarian at the public library. Librarians are thrilled and amazed by gifted readers- at least ours was. There was a period of time where they talked weekly about books DD might enjoy, etc. It was a great opportunity for enrichment, and it kept DD happy when at school they were reading WAY below her level...

Indeed. And the corollary to this is that anyone who deems themselves an expert on child development can throw out everything they think they know about the subject when it comes to exceptional children... because "exceptional" doesn't mean "totally awesome" in this context, it means, "the exception to every rule."

OK, sort of an aside, but related to the tendency of teachers to not let kids go at their own pace. I just saw this in a nearby district - teaching by script. Yikes. Sounds like a nightmare for GT kids, but maybe it explains why some schools are unwilling to let our kiddos go beyond - it's mandated by the district.
Teachers balk at managed instruction

My goodness, how terrible it would be to teach under those conditions. It's like something out of a dystopian novel.

I know, right? I tried to open it again to quote something, but the site must be down at the moment... There was a discussion about how on such and such date, at such and such time, all the kids would be reading the same poem.

And another quote from a mom saying how there hopefully wouldn't be so many requests from parents for a particular teacher who is thought to delve more into a topic. I can't see how that would be a positive (hooray, now everyone is teaching the same stuff, no one teacher will be better than the others...)