This is my DD 11's response
"What I like about being gifted is it makes me feel special and smart. I hate being the youngest, and I’m really glad I’m not the only one any more. I don’t feel as picked on now that I’m not alone. In my classes now, people don’t try to make me feel bad about getting good grades. I don’t like being taught the same things over and over. I never get to learn anything new except in math sometimes. I like to be challenged and want to be challenged more. Classes are a lot less boring then. I really like to learn new things, but I wish my teachers would understand that sometimes it takes a while for me to understand something and sometimes I need help."
Here’s some background to help understand her comments. My dd was the youngest in her grade in K-4 elementary school. She in now in the elementary school for 5th and 6th grades which combines the three K-4 schools in the district. She tested into algebra as a fifth grader last year, but she didn’t want to go into algebra because she would be the only one. As a result, she just skipped grade 6 math and went into 7th grade advanced math this year because two other students were also being subject accelerated. Like her, they were also both early entrants into first grade at a different K-4 school. They were going into the 7th grade class, so she wouldn’t be the only young one in the class. In her other subjects, she is in a gifted cluster, so this is the first year she is not in a “mixed ability” classroom, and she is much happier though still frustrated by the level of repetition.
