Dear group of my highest esteem,
I met with the principal this afternoon armed with all your thoughtful suggestions and comments. I also printed out the email exchange with the teacher, but I was careful not to bash her. I made it a point to say that I "got" why she held back books and gave review math while she took the time to assess each kid. I then pulled out a parent/teacher conference report written by my DS's preschool teacher when he was four (I can't believe I saved it!), and it said, "DS is able to do addition problems in his head with great accuracy. He was then given an opportunity to use paper to write equations using manipulatives. Within 15 minutes he was doing double-digit subtraction." I then pulled out the math assignment from the day before from his 2nd grade teacher and said, "this is what DS was asked to do in class yesterday." It was a worksheet with 8 single digit math problems with some coloring. I told him I thought this level of work was harmful to DS. He was shocked, and said, "you think review is harmful?". I explained using research back data that for some children it is harmful to ask them to complete tasks they mastered YEARS ago, because they can lose their ability to try hard, think everything is easy, go on to have difficulties in the future, etc.
I think he was listening. He did tell me that parents come to the school saying their children are smart, but they aren't that advanced, blah, blah, blah. But my example got him thinking.
A grade skip is not out the question but he wanted to talk to his teacher first because usually grade skips are teacher driven. I then told him I think DS is hiding his abilities from her, and again, using research backed data, explained how this can happen. He said the first thing he was going to do is ask the teacher about her reading assessment of DS and see if it showed any regression from last year's assessment by the reading specialist. He said if it did, "we have a real problem."
He said DS can start the on-line math program and even said he wouldn't be surprised if DS was at the 6th grade level by the end of the year. At least he believed it was possible! I told him it needed to begin by Monday.
We will see where this leads, but I'm encouraged. I will be hearing from the school tomorrow at least with some information. Thank you all for your messages both public and private. They helped me get my thoughts in order. I'll keep you posted.
Eleanor
