Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Hypothetical question

PM geekout for the win!

*neon excel spreadsheets spiral on screen in psychedelic/hypnotic swirls*

My gut reaction is follow the great teacher, as in the end, the teacher is what really matters.

But - - - a bit of sober second thought, and I was reminded that we actually did this scenario for a daycare/ pre-school. And unfortunately, the great teacher was far too busy dealing with the massive administrative burden of her start-up to really do any teaching. Totally understandable - but the kids had a rather mediocre year, a far cry from the outstanding experience our friends had had with this teacher in her old environment.

We have also had an experience similar to MichelleC's, with a teacher who had been an AMAZING administrator as we entered the school, and a terrific resource in that capacity, and who had GT background and a fantastic reputation...

but then when my DD had her as a teacher, she was totally AWOL because of external factors (a heinous administrator micromanaging her contact with kids, plus she was doing an advanced degree on the side at the time); it was easily one of the worst years EVER.

My friend and I had the same thoughts in our discussion. The reason I put restrictions on the curriculum is that in our area it is like pulling teeth to get curriculum questions answered at any schools, other than the really expensive private school.
My friend and I both have younger kids (5 and almost 7) and were just discussing various scenarios that could happen in the area and came up with the same ideas that if it were completely hypothetical then it is easy to see what we would do and the research we'd tried to do and all, but if it is reality, neither of us know how much we'd follow our plans.
I wanted to see if you all agreed with our lines of thought. We are happy to see that we do.
Thanks for thinking along with us.