Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Advice on Starting a Parent Group

I'm toying with the idea of starting a group for parents with gifted elementary school children is our school district. I'm not sure how to gauge interest and whatnot, though, and I have no idea who the other gifted kids in the school are, so I don't know which parents to talk to. (My son is in 2nd grade, and gifted programming doesn't start until 3rd.) I was wondering if anyone else had done this and can offer feedback.

I did read through the NAGC information about starting and maintaining parent meetings, but really it starts after the organizer has determined that there's an interest.

If it helps, I'm in New Jersey.

I'm involved in a local parent group. It was started long before my joining but as people's children get older they generally drop off so we're always looking for new parents to join so some of what we do might spark some ideas.

- we offer children's programming offered at "bright and gifted" children. We don't require proof and it works out fine enough. You could start small with something like meeting at a public library for chess or something that wouldn't require a lot of set up organization. Eventually, over time, ours evolved to have paid instructors and span multiple weeks. While the kids are in classes there is a parent room for parents to chat and sometimes speakers are brought in. This is probably our biggest draw. Local psychologists give out handouts for our organization and activities when they find gifted kids.

- we run gifted 101 and 201 sessions for parents with details about testing, advocacy and gifted programs in the area. This started out as a single night but we ended up with too much material so we eventually split it into two - one catering for those that are thinking about testing and are starting out and the other for those that have been through testing and are wondering what to do (or are looking for more tips because they haven't had any luck). We offer each session twice a year and get decent turnouts (we're in a decent size city). Advocating here is a challenge so parents are pretty desperate for help.

- a local gifted parent facebook group - highlights events in the city that might be of interest as well as articles and resources that might be of interest

- pub nights - we advertise through our mailing list and facebook and pick a local pub. Most parents are happy to finally be able to speak to someone about their challenges because let's face it there is a lot to this that you can't complain about at the playground.

Depending on your school district, you might be able to get the word out through them. My suggestion is to offer something (start small - something like a chess meet up or pub night that is low organization/risk) and hopefully get a few people that you can grow things from there. Good luck!

You've received great replies above.

Active, involved parents with gifted children in a local public school district used to have a great grassroots parent group. The local public school district shut the group down, replacing it with a do-nothing group controlled by the public school district. This group is conducted much the same as the group described in spaghetti's post: The public school district has changed the direction of communication from parent-to-parent and parent-to-school, to district-to-parent... largely isolating and disempowering parents, while creating a sense of competition and a lack of trust among parents. This is consistent with the direction in which public schools are moving: to produce equal outcomes among all pupils.

Meanwhile, active, involved parents with gifted children in a local private/independent school district have a great grassroots parent group. They meet monthly, with each month's free-ranging discussion sparked by an article, book, or book chapter by an expert in giftedness. While parents may learn new information from the month's resource, conversation often turns to educational planning, advocacy, and parent-to-parent support on gifted issues.

I'm also familiar with groups which have at times offered games/activities for gifted kids while parents meet, however these groups face a variety of issues (displeasure when the games/activities do not cater to the interests of a specific family's child/ren... parent-desired level of qualifications of those interacting with the children... 2e issues... discipline... insurance). Unfortunately some parents choose the role of evaluating these groups as compared with other "gifted services," rather than appreciating the benefits of active participation in a local grassroots parent group.

It probably helps our case that we're pretty much the ONLY "gifted services" around so it isn't like they have options. The activities we do aren't going to be every child's favourite but they do fill a niche that isn't offered anywhere else and we've accepted that we can't be everything to everyone. We find that teachers and school boards are pretty receptive to advertising activities for children where they might not be as receptive to advertising our "how to deal with your uncooperative school/teacher" advocacy education events

We do have families that only do the children's activities and never get further involved and that is ok. Others sign their kid up and then find support from the parent activities and become more and more involved over time.

This sounds ideal, Kudos to you! It gives me great hope to hear of communities with healthy, thriving, active gifted groups.

i had a similar thought, but i don't know if i want to wait a year.


our district isn't very good with communication. there's some communication between the district and the schools but not much. and it's almost non-existent between the district and parents. each school has a home and school association (i think most places call them parent-teacher associations or organizations) and a BOE member is assigned to attend HSA meetings to provide some information, but it's very general for the most part. unless we have time to attend BOE meetings, that's about all we get.

i would kill for meetings with updates on the G&T program -heck, i'd take an informational session on what the district offers- but i suspect part of the reason we don't get updates is because it's barely changed in the last 5 years. i may contact one of the BOE members and suggest that to her.

thanks!

thanks, all, for the replies! i very much appreciate the thoughts and ideas, and i'll do my best to respond in the next few days.

Thank you, chay, especially for the library suggestion. i hadn't thought of that, and it would be a good, neutral location.

your second bullet is one of things i want to address. the district offers very little information on the G&T program, how it operates, how students are identified, etc. I'd like to offer a way for parents to understand how the entire process works without having to contact multiple school administrators, which is how i got my information. the district also doesn't offer any parent resources on G&T in general, aside from a few website links. i want other parents to have an easy way to find local and global G&T resources without having to scour the internet.

thank you!

PM me if you want more specifics/examples, happy to share what we have.

Staff treats gifted resources and information as if it is top secret in our area as well and what they do share is often just meant to scare people off and is inaccurate. There is so much secrecy and misinformation to it all and then they complain that low SES and minorities are underrepresented. I don't know how they expect anyone without a lot of time and resources to be able to navigate the system and get past their misinformation. Our Gifted info sessions are our best effort to address that (although I wish we could do even more to reach out to even more parents).

thank you, chay! i definitely will. i think i'm going to regroup and do more strategizing first, but i plan to move forward with this in some capacity in the new year.

Be sure to mention that parents can join this free, anonymous Davidson Gifted Issues Discussion Forum!

of course!!

it looks like i'm actually starting this parent's group. i have to say, i'm dreading it. i hate -really, am borderline phobic of- public speaking. i'm not very organized. and i have a lot of doubts about how much it can accomplish. and i really don't have the time or energy.

but.

i'm doing it anyway.

i set up an email address and a facebook page. i shared about the group at two HSA meetings, and the HSA for my son's school is "hosting" the first meeting.

i talked to the district about it. (they said they were supportive, but then asked that there be no mention of them on the page/flyer/etc.) they're distributing a flyer district-wide, so that's something.

so. i guess this is happening. unless i chicken out at the last minute. which i (probably) won't do.

thank you all for the encouragement and support, even if it does feels like an exercise is masochism... and the group hasn't even started yet. lol but seriously. i wouldn't have moved forward if it weren't for y'all.

and i'm sure i'll be back with more questions and the like.

So many parents are going to be so grateful to you for making this happen, they really will. You are doing an amazing thing!

I am proud of you. Really! You are doing what your family and a lot of other families need--stepping up, even when it's hard, because you care.

Sounds like a great start! As PP have mentioned, you're doing an amazing thing that will help a lot of families.

I'd be happy to share our slides from past presentations if you're looking for some ideas to help get you started. I've been doing this for about 5 years now and can blab about gifted stuff for hours now but I still prefer to have material that I can lean on and keep me focused (of course everyone is different so feel free to do whatever you feel most comfortable doing).

Good luck!

thank you, everyone.

i vacillate between:

"you know... i can actually make this a lot better and maybe even FIX it eventually!"
and
"what. the. heck. you know this isn't going to fix anything, right?"

i know it'll likely fall somewhere in between, and i definitely feel like i'm getting in over my head, but i also feel like i can affect some level of change.

time to buy a cape and go crusading!
ei

chay, i'll be pming you shortly. thank you!

Good for you, echofuzz! A friend and I recently--like in March--started a group in our district. We have not made any change yet, though we did have a couple nice meetings where like-minded people got the chance to gripe to a sympathetic audience. And I feel like that alone is worthwhile, because parents need support, too.