What I think the school's don't like are parents who don't come in with facts to back up their claims. I know lots of parents who feel their children are exceptional but they don't have "proof". These are the ones the schools deal most often with. The schools have to make some sort of criteria in order to weed out the really gifted kids.
The other thing that happened was that I volunteered there regularly and developed a wonderful relationship with everyone at the school. They knew that I cared about all the kids and wasn't just focused on mine. So when I did ask for something, they took me very seriously.
I think this is an example of a great parent here. She volunteered regularly and developed a great relationship with the school. So they took her seriously.
Well...
I did all these things, and the teacher told me she felt like I "didn't trust her." She saw the test scores before I did, and I was volunteering in the room--all per school protocol. I didn't just lurk! I was supposed to be there! But being involved in the classroom and asking only that she send home harder books as homework (so no extra work for her!) apparently meant to her that I was looking over her shoulder.
In our case, I'm 100% with Cathy on this one. I wasn't supposed to ask for anything "special," at least not from that particular teacher. Granted, she was no poster child for GT education. But still, Cathy's experience is the same as mine.
Sometimes I think test scores can work against you, actually. The more I thought about it, the more I came to the conclusion that she thinks that DS7's high achievement test scores occured because I was a pushy mom. Why else would she be so defensive before I had even begun to advocate? Either she just hates and fears GT kids (which is possible, since there are people out there like that, for whatever reason) or she decided out-of-hand that I was a problem parent. What could have caused this, when I'd said about 3 sentences to her? (And had had an excellent relationship with his K teacher, BTW, so no teacher's lounge talk working against me.)
All she had were his test scores, so I'm betting they played a part in how she saw me. And she didn't interpret them as a good thing...
Just my humble experience!
