Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Regions Michigan

My family and I are new to the "gifted" world. We live in Southeast Michigan and of course Michigan provides no funding for gifted education. We recently found out our two daughters will be in the GT program at their school, but our specific district only has this program through 4th grade. Once they are in 5th, there is nothing formally available for them, although they have tried to reassure us they "cluster" the GT kids in a classroom. These classrooms are not just for the GT kids. There are mainstream kids along with them with all kids utilizing the same teaching style.

I am not sure if this is typical of schools and I should expect my girls to basically learn to transition into traditional learning or if there is going to be a struggle for them. The last thing I want for them is to have their first few years of school to accommodate their learning and then get put in a situation where they get frustrated/bored/teased etc., for their middle school years.

There are a handful of parents I know who would like to find a way to keep their program through 8th grade, until they are able to test into courses that can be geared more towards their interests and strengths. I like the idea of homeschooling, but my husband isn't such a proponent (he would rather I work so we can help put the kids through college and take some stress off of him). Private schooling is not an option financially and switching districts is doable, but will be very stressful on all of us. Has anyone successfully brought a GT program to your school? Was there a lot of resistance initially from your district? Any tips on how we can get the conversation started? I appreciate any help!

Welcome!
This may be typical AND the girls may struggle, based on their level of giftedness (LOG), personality, the mix of other kids in the class, and the teacher/administrator attitudes toward gifted.

While I do not have answers on gaining school-wide adoption of a gifted program for middle school, you may wish to work with the handful of other interested parents to raise awareness. For example, teachers can join the Davidson Educator's Guild, many families engage in afterschooling/enrichment, and it is beneficial for gifted kids to be able to spend time with intellectual peers. There is a group of parents in SE Michigan which may be able to help with some of these things.

If your local parents research and agree on cost-effective and easy-to-implement alternatives for your kids, such as a math alternative, and science alternative, presenting those may help - in general, schools like solutions. There are threads on these forums which discuss advanced curriculum alternatives. There was also a recent thread on Meeting emotional needs of gifted students. Your local parents may wish to become familiar with advocacy, as it is common for parents to engage in individual advocacy in attempt to get their child's needs met... or provide some amount of appropriate challenge and support during the school day.

The only thing worse than going from a good environment to a bad one is being in a bad one all along.

Take a look at Roeper's financial aid options. I think they also have a Saturday only option that might be worth looking into as enrichment.