I put my DS5 on ALEKS math and he finished 3rd grade after 2 months. I asked my school if they could put him on EPGY or something. We had the meeting with the principal and here's what he said.
"That is so wonderful that your child may be GT! Just as we have a special program to support the lower 10% we have another special program for the upper 10%. Its always thrilling for teachers and administrators to find another tall poppy. We can barely imagine where his unlimited potential might lead him. Please accept our profuse apology that we hadn't noticed him sooner. We'll be able to devote some resources to him, and a self-guided maths curriculum is ideal because the sky is the limit."
EDIT: That's actually the dream I had, what happened was the diametrical opposite...
"We've suddenly discovered some problems your child has. We didnt' tell you about them last spring but they're very apparent now. There are 100 things we want kids to accomplish up to this stage, and looking at last year, he's lagging on 5 of them. All these things have to be sorted out before we would even consider it. Come to think of it, we only let 1 5th-grader a year do EPGY for 1 year, that is about the limit. Yes indeed, we now feel he has a speech impediment, you'd better find someone to fix that. If you keep pushing to accelerate him in math we can certainly keep finding new problems with him. Remember that of course we can't custom teach every child in the school, maybe your child doesn't belong here."
Yes, its agent orange for the tall poppies again. I may have to ask the principal:
What would you do if Usain Bolt were in your Kindergarten?
a. Make a rule that nobody is allowed to run
b. Don't let him run until 5th grade
c. Hobble his feet together for several years
d. Ask his parents not to let him run too
e. Tell him he's not allowed to run until he improves his writing
f. All of the above
Maybe the principal is right. I'll let all those gifted researchers know that they can relax now, because this one principal, and their teachers, know better. Someone please alert Stanford to remove the K-2 and 3-5 level from EPGY. I was going to read the International Handbook on Giftedness, but just think of all the time I'll save not having to read those 1500 pages, I can just use it for kindling since, after all, my school knows, just knows better than all those researchers and their decades of painstaking labor.
I despair. Another gifted denier. I guess I'll keep my DS5 in ALEKS, even though I was asked not to. I can probably get him through 5th grade math by the time he finishes kindergarten. I also noticed other programs: IXL, EPGY, and Mathletics. I almost wonder if ALEKS is too easy, but it does seem to cover lots of topics. I should look at EPGY but it just seems awkward the way its tied to a schedule, plus its rather more expensive than the alternatives.
Last edited by thx1138; 09/25/12 08:14 AM.
