Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy vent - conversation with incompetent aide

time to try to recruit some new school board candidates

We are working on it. In the meantime, we are having a meeting next week with our tester. The school has already AGREED - in writing - to follow the tester's recommendations. (Although I'm glad that they did agree already, it just shows what kind of poor leadership they have. Who agrees to something before they've even heard what the recommendations are?) So, we will be spending more time homeschooling. DS will probably attend school for morning specials and afternoons will be at home. There is another child in his school who already does this, so this shouldn't be too shocking for them.

Sounds like a scheduling problem. Rather than encountering a logistics problem with a retrofit schedule... possibly the requirement for appropriate class placement for these accelerated pupils could be proactively build into the model. It sounds like the needs for appropriate placement are known proactively, so there is scant reason for the school or district not building these requirements into the schedule proactively, rather than considering it an ad-hoc program of pulling kids from classes if it happens to work with the schedule.

there is scant reason for the school or district not building these requirements into the schedule proactively, rather than considering it an ad-hoc program of pulling kids from classes if it happens to work with the schedule.

We have already suggested revamping the entire school's schedule. It's not going to happen. Two issues: 1. the people who created this charter school have a fundamental opposition to singling out children for any reason. I don't want to write about the specific group that opened this school. But they have a philosophical problem with gifted ed. They also have a problem with kids at the other end of the spectrum. Yes, federal law mandates that they have to meet disabled children's needs. But they don't, hence the other kid in my son's school who is partially homeschooling. 2. there is no state mandate for gifted ed. There is simply nothing that they MUST do for gifted ed. And each grade has a waiting list of hundreds of kids. If I want to pull my kid out, his spot will be taken in about 5 minutes.

What charters do, they do well... they tend to be very bare-bones, efficient, cookie-cutter... there is good and bad in everything... in their streamlined approach they may not tend to customize well.

The incredibly sad thing is that this charter is so much better than the local public school. Even knowing what I know about the charter first hand, I would STILL choose this charter over the local public school. So so sad that there are so many families left to choose between these two schools (or other similar charters). I am feeling so fortunate that I CAN homeschool partially and eventually send my child to the private school of our choice.

Agreed. Another poster recently mentioned identifying the "least worst" educational option. We find our "least worst" and do what we can to help move it forward. However families are just passing through.

Yes, your child is very fortunate to have some homeschooling. How is the private school toward gifted kids and their families?

"Yes, your child is very fortunate to have some homeschooling. How is the private school toward gifted kids and their families?"


Very good. I am intimately familiar with this particular private school. It will be a very good fit. Not perfect, but quite good.

At this private school, during the first week of school, everyone (who is interested) tests to figure out what GRADE they belong in for a particular subject. They sort kids according to ability.

My son would be there now but he is too young - even if we skipped him a couple of grades.

My dream school. I believe this may be the educational model of the future. So many would benefit, including gifted kids who would not have expectations hoisted on them to always be at the top... but could enjoy working with kids of all ages at the appropriate challenge level in each subject. We could drop the labels...

Would be good. The existing system is a bit strange.

I totally believe it is because the schools are too big here where I live...smaller schools can totally make the schedule work where everyone in the school has reading and math at the same time and the see which kids need history/science at a higher level and figure those scheduling situations out on an individual basis. I believe writing/language arts is a class that a good teacher can teach with a varity of levels and easily differentiate.

It is different when you need to schedule 300-400 students k-5 to my son's school of over 1000