Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Another setback for DD11

I first posted in the Fall and had thought that we were making progress with my daughter's teachers. We had identified an accelerated Math program that she was hopefully going to get to use and she moved ahead in a Literature based computer program. Our principal seemed eager to help but since then we have hit walls and circumstances have kept the principal from helping us. I asked our school counselor to talk with DD just so she would have another avenue to vent her feelings of frustration that wasn't mom or dad. Just found out tonight that the counselor met with her teachers and was told that until DD could produce 100 % in all of her work they could not be sure that she could handle anything more challenging. Her last report card's lowest average was a 95% and the rest were either 100% or high 90's. They told the counselor that DD needed to try harder and not work so fast because she was making mistakes that could be prevented. DD is very mature and when I asked her what she thought she said "I am not perfect, mom so why would the teacher's expect me to be that? Nobody is perfect, mom! Thank you for letting me vent!
Maria

I'd ask those teachers if they got 100% on their teacher certificate exam, and if not, then why were they teaching?

Do all the kids have to get 100% to move to the next grade?

IMHO, I'd get some test scores and then shop around for a school that wants your child.

That's ridiculous. Gifted does not mean the same thing as perfect.

I think that is the silliest thing I have heard!! She is an A student with the 95% and it shows competency in the subject. Does this school not let student move to the next grade until they achieve 100%? This sets a very unhealthy expectation for your daughter.

Jen

I agree, that's insane. Fortunately, it's so far from what anyone who knows anything about it advocates, that it should (in theory!) be easy to argue against. For example, you might want to look at Susan Assouline's Developing Math Talent, or to have your daughter's teachers look at it.

That is ludicrus, It violates basic scientific principles that nothing is absolute or perfect. It is in very rare instances where goals of 100% are ever set for students and these would be in cases of behavors related to safety. I have never heard of a goal of 100% for any academics. violates human error variable.

ask them to complete a number of task with 100% accuracy and see what happens, ie my spelling on a keyboard.

Thank you for your support! I just reread my initial post and didn't realize how poorly it was written. I was fairly emotional after having the discussion with DD last night and wanted to make sure that I wasn't being a over reacting parent when I thought the teachers were being ridiculous.

Maria

Love it!

I would have serious concerns about any teacher who would set those types of expectations for your child. That only sets them up for perfectionism and problems down the line when they reach more challenging materials. My DD is her own worst critic.

I'm very sorry for the situation. We deal with something very similar but are making some headway with DS (almost 11.)

We have stopped trying to get big changes and are working on smaller baby steps. For instance, DS gets to test ahead in math when he gets 3 perfect test scores in a row. I hate that it has to be perfect scores but at least they aren't mandating 100% on the entire curriculmn. Doing this has let DS compact more than a school year into 4 months. Like Dottie's son, ours makes more errors on the easy stuff than something that makes him stop and think.

For those of you in the education field, how much time either in college or in in-service or continuing Ed training is spent on how gifted can present and ways to meet the needs of gifted students? I ask because we had a really illuminating discussion with DS's teacher in the Fall. She really didn't seem to understand the difference between gifted and teacher pleasing high achieving students. Add in the 2E issues and we all began to understand why things could get derailed very quickly.

thank you for venting Maria!

How did the counselor seem to feel about what the teachers told her? You may have a real ally there.

My personal experience is that with 'unusually gifted students' it's often easier to move the student to a classroom where there is a better fit than it is to change the classroom to make it fit better.

Good luck,
Grinity