Part of my Ds's long story is this: DS was terribly bored and frustrated in math class. While he did not 'spontaneously' know the new concepts he mastered the work quickly and without a lot of repetition. He wanted to move ahead and learn more but was thwarted and discouraged from doing so and even disciplined for trying to do so. He found math class "excruciatingly boring" as a result. He did go on the internet and IXL and other places and tried to teach himself more (with some limited success). I was one who was not, at the time, interested in spending a bunch of money and time on private tutoring... We are in an excellent (and expensive) district and I was actually kind-of against such a thing, quite frankly. I was certain once DS's teacher saw that DS need more she would give it to him. In addition, I could not teach him math myself because I am terrible at it and just don't have the time. But I thought 'he'll be fine, school will realize and he'll get mor, etc.' Then, at an IEP meeting late in the year, I became painfully aware that Ds's teacher was not interested in differientiating for DS... She told me she thought DS was fine and "just wanted to feel special" (she said this to me and about 13 other people on DS's IEP team) - she said if he were bored it was probably because he has adhd (which he does not have a formal diagnosis of ). I sat in that meeting and realized no one wanted to give or teach DS more. I realized if he didn't get more instruction he would be stifled and, for the foreseeable future, appear not capable of more. He'd never get a super high achievement scores if he were not exposed to the material but that did not mean he didn't need the exposure! The principal closed the case on it right there on DS"s teacher's assessment. The school psych then gave DH and I a list of family psychologists to go to for "family counseling" (we were still perplexed by that, but I am thinking now it was because they all thought that *WE needed DS to be "special"* and that *DS also "needed" to feel special* and that we all needed some serious counseling for this. Uh, yeah. Humiliating.) It seemed like no one really believed in DS and I felt like they though *I* was being a neurotic, pushy tiger-mom. His WJIII achievement scores were average when normed for his age (but he was old for the grade) and about a year ahead when normed by grade. No big deal, they said, he's just fine how he is. That was when I decided to get him tutored. He LOVES it. He spends an hour each Saturday morning getting tutored in math. His WIAT and WJIII achievement scores went to 95%ile based on his age-norm in a matter of a few months. But most importantly he is thrilled to learn more and that someone actually believes he is capable of it!
I guess my point is that I agree with Blackcat. And I'd also like to point out that not all gifted children are the same.
As most of you know, my kid is 2e. He is also only mild/moderately gifted with a GAI of only 139. I realize there are very gifted and highly gifted kids who just 'know' things. And some need to be taught but learn the stuff quickly. My kid does just seem to know vocabularly and grammer. He is much more gifted there. His reasoning is in the 98th and 99th percentile on two different IQ/psycho-educ tests. Someone who hears him speak may think I drill him on vocab words or speech... but the reality is he just absorbs it... However, exposure is still necessary. He just latches on to words somehow. Math he loves but he doesn't just absorb it from the environment like he does words and speech - he does need some instruction in it.
And, btw, isn't this what the "cougar" analogy/article is all about?
Anyway, just my two-cents on this issue.
Oh, and Blackcat, your district does seem to be asking for a lot, imo! In my district, you need a WISC IV of 130 and you get in - you could have dyslexia (and be in the bottom reading group), you could not be able to write, you could have dyscaculia, autism, ADHD, whatever... You get a GAI or FSIQ of 130 you're in. If not then there are some different ways based on lower GAI/FSIQ combined with achievement tests and teacher recommendations that add to points. However, it's my feeling that the school's emphasis is on the 130 WISC score.
