Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Throwing in the towel. Hiring a tutor

I thought others might be interested in our story. I have a profoundly gifted child in the 6th grade in public school.He is particularly gifted in math, but does superlatively in everything else. After several years of trying to get the system to accommodate his needs, the district math supervisor just told me to stop calling him, "We can't provide an individual education for every student." Actually, he's right. In our state the law does not require any accommodation or special instruction for the gifted. Several years of "enrichment" haven't done much for him. Most of the enrichment he gets is from me, but although I have an advanced degree, math is not my strongpoint.

So fortunately we can afford to hire a tutor, and we think we found a good one, a person who is a post-doc at the local university and has a PhD in mathematics. Our plan is for our son to work his way through at least algebra 1, algebra 2, and geometry so he can take advanced courses in high school. K-12 is the weak link, but our public high school has a full complement of AP classes and an arrangement with the local university so you can take classes there. It's getting such kids to the high school in good shape that's the problem.

We are very excited, actually, about giving up the struggle with the school system and taking control of this issue ourselves. We still hope that the school will allow him to integrate his independent math studies into his school day, but, if not, we reminded him it takes him about 5 minutes to do his math homework so he can do both. We're not happy about the message of saying to him don't take what's going on in school that seriously, but what's the alternative?

That sounds so exciting! As for alternatives, I think full time homeschooling would be one. I don't know if that's feasible for your family. I'd love to hear more about how the tutoring goes. Please keep us posted

thank goodness you have the resources available to you to do such a thing!

i hope it works out and i wouldn't worry about sending the wrong message.... make sure that he understands, he's ahead of the other kids and there is nothing wrong or right with that ... it is what it is.

also you may want to make a point that the school has to teach to the adverage level, that is why the work is so easy. he's ahead of that level

I'm not sure whether congratulations or condolences or both are in order. I'm sure it's been a long, hard road to get to where you are. You've really stuck it out in the school system. Crossing my fingers that the tutor works. Please keep us posted.

I give you much credit, you lasted a lot longer than I did. Isn't that sad? I wish you luck with the tutor. Please keep us posted, this may be in our future soon as well.

Good luck with the tutor. Our kids are so let down