Yup-- we had a similarly forthcoming realtor. Very glad of that, actually.
Dear (no-doubt now retired) Kindergarten Teacher,
Thank you SO very much for being honest with me about the damage that a kindergarten placement would have caused my precocious and sweet five year old daughter. I realize that what you told me was not at all politically correct, and that district administration would be horrified and angered to know that you'd said it to me, but you did right by my daughter, and I'll never forget it.
You recognized, with your decades of teaching experience, what TRULY "very gifted" looks like in a pleasant and introverted five year old-- and were able to peg my daughter as such without even speaking to her-- just by observing her behavior (and how very different it was from agemates). You knew that in spite of the district patting itself on the back for having such bright students, kids like mine are still very very rare-- so rare that most classroom teachers can't possibly manage to do much for them. You also knew that in a paradoxical way, "bright" students actually make that situation even worse, because even offering students like her something more suitable implies to other parents that their own little snowflakes might not be THE smartest cookies in the free world. Instead, "rigorous" means a firm ceiling on instructional offerings in the district, and no services at all until 3rd grade, and even then, precious little for the top 1-3% of students, who teachers in the district are strictly instructed to treat NO DIFFERENTLY than the top 15%-- in fact, there is a tacit agreement that everyone act as though there IS no difference between them. "Readers" entering kindergarten are mostly children who have memorized a few sight words, and the occasional child who can blend CVC words. They are NOT kids who spend hours on sustained silent reading many grade levels ahead of their ages. But all of those children are "grouped" together-- at the ceiling.
Thank you for pointing out that it would be particularly cruel to subject our daughter to the chaos and danger of kindergarten placement when there would be no academic benefit to her whatsoever.
So I thank you for being forthcoming, and warning me that kindergarten would mean that my daughter would be expected, as a "top reading" student, to restrict her selections to Henry and Mudge, and a Lexile range; to "learning" about the math operations of addition and subtraction... and expected to sit quietly for over 450 hours of classroom time in which she learned nothing at all.
I appreciate it more than I can ever say. Teachers like you are a credit to the profession. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
~Mom to the little Harry Potter fan at Kindergarten Orientation night, 2004.
