My Dad is semi-retired at 70 (was in sales until the last 10 years) and works as an aide teaching Life Skills in HS. The sad thing is he is the aide and he is the only one teaching and mentoring(Dad is college degreed with teacher certification). The two teachers could care less about helping these students out. We have a DD7 who tested into GT and my Dad feels that she should have the same learning oppurtunities as the disabled students. Accomadating GT kids is much cheaper (grade skips, sub acceleration, differentiation, GT only classrooms in larger school districts, etc.) than accommodating disabled students. Definitley, believe disabled students should get every opportunity available to them because after HS most programs stop. I swear my brother was 2E gifted but the school couldn't figure him out since he didnt fit inside a perfectly square box. He refused to do busy work or take notes but would ace tests. Unfortunately, he would fail the class due to not completing assignments. This was all in the 80s when no one had a clue and there were NO options. District wouldn't allow him to take courses at the tech or community college. He finally dropped out as a sophomore and was able to pass the GED on his first try without studying or taking all the HS courses. My brother is now thriving in the mechanical engineering field and is constantly being bombarded with job offers in this economy due to his natural raw talent that public schools could never harness. I just wish public schools could use their resources and energy more wisely and try help all students at all learning levels. My DD7 is bored to tears at school (literally) and is not getting any differentiation in school. GT students are grouped in math with kids that can't make atleast a 70 on their end of unit assessment (CBE). The students who don't pass get 1 hour of free tutoring per week from their teacher so they can try to comprehend the lesson so they might be able to pass the staar testing. There are 6 kids in her GT cluster class that can't pass math CBEs so the pace is ridiculously slow. Would sure be nice if the school would offer th GT students one free hour of challenging math work per week. I am all for tutoring students who are struggling (I struggled in math to say the least) but they are getting challenged my daughter is not. Now DD7 is a math buddy to one of these students so less learning will take place.....Ugghhh!
