Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy yay! It's summer, time for learning!

I wonder how prevalent this phenomenon is... DS9 has shown this ever since he entered school: during the school year he is bored with work, sloppy, careless, and just seems to be always in low gear. Once summer starts, he is a totally different person. He is curious about everything, embraces learning with great enthusiasm, he wants to work hard and suddenly his level of performance goes through the roof.

I know what this means, that his school environment is not a good match. But oh well, so far we haven't figured out any way to make solid improvement.

The other day I saw an article on New York Times advocating longer school days. Then I saw a reader response that really made me chuckle. The reader said that longer school days will horrify parents of bright kids, because for these kids, learning starts everyday after 3pm, after they have endured a whole day of rote learning and boredom at school.

I wonder when this sad situation will catch the attention of the educators...

Yes I saw the same thing until the last year. It seemed each summer it took him longer to decompress from school. By the time my inquisitive, love of learning DC returned, it was time to go back to school again.

If they go to a longer school day, I bet the # of HSing families will increase for those w/ bright kids. I read longer school day, year round school, and possible Saturday school was in the new Sec of Education's agenda. One size fits no one.

Can you link to the NYT article? I didn't see when I searched.

This is precisely why I would vote for school choice in a heartbeat.

I actually completely understand the consolidation project in PA. We have 500 school districts and many of them aren't viable economically, which means that much of our state money goes into trying to keep some of those districts running as opposed to teaching the kids. I hope that they don't go too far in the other direction, but something does have to be done.

Kcab - where can I sign up for your school??????

WE have NO school choice where I am....unless you call one Montessori and one elite school at nearly $30K/year choice! It's a behemoth district with a no one is better than us, we meet the needs of all kids mentality.

The NYT links:

Letters to the Editor, the reply that made me chuckle is the one by Susan Goodkin.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/14/opinion/l14college.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1

Original article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/08/opinion/08levy.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=five%20ways%20to%20fix%20america�s%20schools&st=cse

We are in a very good school district, but things are still mostly disappointing. I have already lost interest in trying to arrange anything better for DS. Anything that the school can't give him, I will. The schools in many cases are really just nagging our kids (You are so right about this, kcab).

Gosh, that idea of Susan Goodkin's is BRILLIANT.

I actually support public schools and think my kids are in a good one, but I would still prefer to have more time with them at home for the "work" we do here.

I have noticed that in just the two weeks that the kids have been out of school, they are happier and learning more than they did all year, and it takes less time. It is easy to let them swim, play videogames, and then do some schoolwork at their (fast, obviously) level - no sitting around waiting for the other kids. I am so glad that we are skipping a grade for both, maybe this fall will be better.

Elizabethmom - goodluck! Let us know how it goes. I've often wondered how a grade skip would have done for my son. I know skipping K would have been very beneficial for him as he was more than ready for 1st grade. Now, I'm not so sure....would a one year grade skip really be that different? The pace of the instruction would be the same...the depth or lack thereof would be the same. My feeling is that my son (not talking about yours here) needed different more than a grade skip into slightly higher content but same delivery.

I hear you. That's also my concern. We talked about skipping 1st grade (the principal suggested it). But then we all agreed that it would not solve the problem. DS's way of thinking simply does not match the mode of instruction in most public school classrooms. He really doesn't need to hear about something more than once. So the day-in day-out drilling of the same math concept is simply a waste of time for him. And what do they call it again? "Spiraling"? The same math content taught year after year, every time a bit deeper. DS would rather think very deep the first time a new idea is introduced. Eventually we decided that skipping a grade would not really help DS. More flexibility in the classroom would be the key. But this requires a lot of effort from the teachers (and it hasn't worked well so far).

Yeah, just in the context of one year, I honestly do not know that my son did anything other than eat brownies and bring piles of stuff home in the last couple weeks. After the Va. SOL testing is over it seems like there is nothing left to do anyway so why keep them in? I can not imagine it going LONGER.

Ds8 burst into our room this morning earlier than he ever gets up just psyched about being OUT. It is a weight and a burden. And this is even with a pretty cool teacher and at a decent school.

Kcab, thinking about the 'negative self thoughts' that go on in ds' head all year, it would be soooo nice to be in a situation which afforded him having better feelings about himself.

Play and Learn and Dazed and Confused,
I get what you are saying and we will need more than just the skip.

However, when I saw that the K class learns the word "the" and such and at least the first graders are reading books, we thought it would be a step towards a better situation. Another example, learning to count to 100 vs. starting real math using Smartboards and other games, it was obvious which would be better. Not perfect, but better.

For DD9 some of the skip has to do with putting her in a situation where there are more stimulating kids (it is a small school so we know everyone) and where they are treated more like middle schoolers. They are given work for the week and much is self-paced, so she can race ahead and then read something she likes.

So, each school situation might provide different positives with a skip.

The problem with national standards is that they will almost invariably end up being those of California. That's what everything standardizes to in this country, otherwise known as "lowest common denominator". My folks moved away from California 39 years ago because the schools had gotten so bad. By the time I finished high school, twenty-odd years ago, the California standards had caught up with Colorado (which is twenty years behind in most things). Now we start talking about national standards, and you can bet that will be the ones we get.

elizabethmom - I definitely agree! My son would have been MUCH better off skipping K into 1st. He's now a rising 4th grader and when he was in 2nd grade, skipping into 4th didn't seem like the right thing to do...he needed different. I was just musing about my own situation and not judging yours at all. 8-) While 1st wasn't necessarily more challenging, it was a lot more fun! Whereas I've heard several times that K is usually fine for advanced kids b/c of the play aspect and freedom to move around whereas 1st grade is more drill, sit at your desk all day which can be a shock for a 5yr old. In my son's case, he was more than ready for that aspect of 1st grade. Every kid and situation is different.

I definitely agree that each school is different!

I agree. We definitely need to look at each kid and each school individually. The circumstances are all different. I didn't mean to question your decision for grade skipping. We do the best we can given what we have.

Sometimes we just have to take the least worst option .... and she could get a wonderful 1st grade teacher who identifies with her and really challenges her!

{W. Stephen Wilson is a Johns Hopkins math professor who teaches freshman calculus and is a former senior advisor for mathematics in the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Elementary and Secondary Education. He also reviewed the states' K-12 math standards for the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, and he has strong opinions about which offer the best guidance. He called California's math standards "the gold standard." Wilson recommends that parents who want to make sure their students are getting prepared for high school and college compare the topics in their students' textbooks to the California standards.
"Odds are, if you can't do that easily then there is something very wrong," he says. Why Is Algebra a Big Deal? By Linda Strean}

http://giftedissues.davidsongifted....Why_Is_Algebra_a_Big_Deal.html#Post41325

My understanding is that CA really does have the top math curriculum but rather low reading proficiency benchmarks.

CA math standards and MA reading standards might combine well to change the educational tide in the U.S.

"My understanding is that CA really does have the top math curriculum but rather low reading proficiency benchmarks."

This is my understanding as well and one of the reasons we use the Singapore Math Standard Edition with my twins and son.

Not that my kids use it much anymore, but I set our subscription to ALEXS on CA standards rather than our own state (IL). I did the same for my nephew in MN.

With my limited experience I also agree that the math standard in CA is good. We've been in a CA school and a midwest school (both are very good schools in very good districts), and I have to say the CA school has higher standards not only in math but also in reading and writing. But the midwest school has a lot more arts and music.