Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Subject mastery and random venting

Okay, I know we've been on this topic before, but I'm hoping it doesn't hurt to get fresh input...

Had a chat with DS8 (9 very soon)'s teacher today. I didn't want to, but he's going to visit a new school tomorrow (possible gradeskip to grade 6 next year). I had to tell her he won't be there tomorrow and why.

We talked about DS8 overall and moving DS6/grade 1 to 2nd grade reading. In summary, she said that mastery of a subject is very important and that a child can't move forward until s/he scores 80%+ on a subject exam. This is why she won't let him do 5th grade science in spite of his obvious interest in moving to that level.

She mentioned that she'd seen a big jump in DS6's reading abilities recently, and said she'd try him in 2nd grade materials, but she said "enrichment" rather than "acceleration."

<sigh>

I'm just not convinced about the need to master something before moving on. I mean, I thought that an important characteristic of gifted people is the ability to backfill on learning to suit their needs?

This is especially difficult because this school professed to be so open to the needs of bright and gifted students. Granted, it's open to whole-grade skips and is better than their last school in some ways, but it still doesn't seem to be living up to its promises. Most of you know how excited I was about this school. Unfortunately, it's not working out as we thought it would. Now I'm looking at a new school that's making promises and am feeling cynical instead of optimistic. I'm also wondering if my kids' abilities are in my imagination.

Okay, maybe I'm hitting too hard against reality of the least-worst option here, but this particular blow is a harsh one, regardless.

On the one hand, I don't want to push my kids so hard that they become unhappy. On the other hand, I don't want to let them languish in work below their abilities. My DS6 really shines when he reads books that are above his grade level, and it would be really nice if there could be some formal acknowledgment of his abilities. I'm told that he "struggles" with reading, but the fact is that his level of struggle with a third grade book is only marginally more than that with a 1st grade book (I wrote a post about his reading here.) When I brought this up, the suggestion was that maybe he has ADD!

Sorry if I'm rambling here; I'm a little tired and feeling a need to get this out.

Val

I am sorry you are going through this. I have a similar problem also. Hope you don't mind. I feel like venting also.

DS7 is supposedly in a charter school that uses GATE curriculum to teach all kids. However, we got a non GATE trained teacher this year for first grade. She came from public school and the only differentiation she did was to pull non-english speaking kids out for english language instructions.

She got a "little" nervous when she found out there are a number of gifted kids in the 10 students class. She doesn't seem to like gifted kids because she seems to think differentiation is a burden to her. One time when she got upset because some rumors were floating around, she threatened to shut all the parents out, stop all differentiation (she called that favors) and pull DS back to 1st grade for math. To me, this is showing she doesn't like gifted kids at all.

She differentiates in language arts. I think she did an OK job.

Many parents has mentioned to her that she needs to differentiate in math also, but she has ignored us. My son is doing math a couple grades above and she had no idea until I showed her his work. So she sent him up to second grade.

There was a mismatch in the math schedule and the second grade teacher was going on leave. DS is currently back down to 1st grade for math.

I wanted ds to continue 2nd grade math, so I brought this up with the administration. The philosophy of the school is not to accelerate, but to challenge kids at their grade level. First grade teacher was not supposed to send ds to second grade without checking with the head teacher first. Since ds is back down to 1st grade for math, it's impossible to send him back up to 2nd grade again.

First grade teacher is very upset with me, because she is now working with the head teacher to learn how to differentiate in math. She needed training and I brought her training. Why is she upset with me?

So DS has been doing even and odd numbers, counting money, and matching correct amount of money to cards. He is doing multiplication, division, fraction and algebra at home.

I feel like I am done fighting.

What about suggesting that she set a subject exam for him to show his mastery? Or could she give you a list of topics she feels he hasn't "mastered" yet and work on them with him at home? This could speed up the process. I'm guessing that she requires "mastery" more as a way to protect herself from other parents who may want the same thing, but not have the same type of student. (ie wanting to keep up with the Jones') Many teachers have had bad experiences with too many pushy parents (I don't mean you) and as a result develop rules that they apply to all students to save themselves problems.

On math, I can understand some principals where mastery can make a difference (Note, I am not taking the teachers side, just an observation) A student can know how to multiply, and understand the concept, yet not be quick, or intuitive. It is my belife that to do well in divison, and fractions, you will need to be able to do multiplacation quickly, without working it out. I am not advocating just memorization, but more undertsnding the concept well, and using it quickly. Sort of like mastery. With language arts, DS6 has improved greatly, by a very good undersytanding of phonics. Sure he can read well, and picked up sight words quickly, but once he understood the many rules of phonics his spelling works better. I may not be explainging this well, but he can spell words correctly even if he has not seen them before. On the flip side I do believe that students should be allowed to move beyond mastery. The desire for more knowledge on a subject should be fed, and the stretching out to more difficult areas is good. I really don't see why you can't do a litle of both.