I think I did a good job advocating for the girls this year.
Last year at this time, I was being blown off a wee bit by the principle.
Throughout the course of the year I spoke to both the girls' teachers quite a bit. I spoke at great length to the principle about both of them as well. For DD8, with the teacher's backing. For DD5 I went over the teacher's head.
The results have been:
For DD8 they changed the GT pullout for her and 4 others. Instead of twice a week, these 5 go out everyday and do work up to three grade levels above. She was very unhappy at the beginning of school, but now she is back to loving school.
For DD5 the teacher relentlessly insisted that DD5 was just average. She didn't want to send her to the pullout at all. She was overridden by DD's IQ report and the principle. Unfortunately, DD picked up on teacher's negativity and had a really bad year. I was fortunate enough to have a meeting with the principle, social worker, psychologist and teacher. The teacher sat there and said nothing, but the others were helpful and sincere in trying to figure out the problems.
It resulted in DD5 being able to go out of class twice a week with a teacher for a special project. It was enough to keep her from crying everyday after school.
We'll see what happens next year, but I can partial homeschool her if necessary.
I haven't talked about it to anyone at the school. A very good friend of mine hinted around and tried to get a little info, but I clammed up and didn't say a thing. I actually gave her a teensy bit of partly false info to get her off track.
No one has said anything to me, but I know people know about both situations. There has been a little social fall-out for both me and DD8. Again, most people don't say anything directly to me but I've heard some people think I'm a big jerk.
Also, there is an attitude of "Why do you think your kid is so special".
And there is one person who's child is in DD8's class who is in the pull-out, but not the everyday one. She has been outright hostile to me.
Maybe I should have done a better PR job with the parents, but all the advocating I've done has worn me down a little. Also, the negativity of other parents shuts me down and I'd really rather avoid it.
So, I guess if you figure out the acceptable party line, I could really use it!
Neato
