I am grateful for all of you who share your struggles as I am also in a very difficult situation in regards to my DD8 school situation. We were able to see a ray of light last school year when we enrolled her in a ver well known gifted school; to our surprise, the emphasis of the school has been changing and they are more interested in high achievers and pay little to no attention to gifted kids, let alone a PG one. We have met several times with the school principal and the teachers to find a way to help my child stay motivated and just make her feel she belongs ( raises her hand to participate in class, and has never been called in 2 years!, she has never been chosen to present in front of her class or any event, talent show and she played a very, very difficult Bach piece on the piano in her effort to be noticed by her room teachers...no comments were made whatsoever, and the list goes on and on..) and this is supposed to be a "school for the gifted" where we pay 23,000 a year for each of our 2 kids. Last meeting I had, we asked for math acceleration of my DD and the teachers reply that the groups needed to have a certain amount of students and they could just not move students to cram the next group up. In the meantime my DD tells me she wishes she could fall asleep during class like one of her friends....
My daughter is competitive but is highly creative, she has the need to create and explore new ideas and new different ways to do things, all these is a priority for her. Is she is given the freedom to explore, create and contribute, she could care less about being "the best" or the "winner". Sadly in her classroom there is a very high achiever who does what she is told when she is told and does not give any extra work to the teacher. My heart goes to the 2e kids in the classroom whose need are not addressed either.
Needles to say we are looking for a new school and are planning to make the change. Unbelievably the neighborhood public school offers grade acceleration if we need it and offers math acceleration as well, the principal told us they have a few kids who go to middle school for math classes and then they drive them back to the elementary school for their regular day of classes.
Who would've thought we were going to find more support at a public school than a "gifted" school!
BTW did I mentioned that in the current "gifted" school they do not like girls in math classes? the girls are assigned to science because "they don't want them to feel uncomfortable in an all male classroom".....too bad the founder of the school passed away already, she would have been heartbroken to see the direction her school has taken...
Ugg.. I had been directed away from our local 'gifted' school for similar reasons. That it was more a school for rich high achievers. I was told by friends that my local public school had the best gifted program around and would be a better fit. That turned out OK 4th & 5th but a disaster in 6th grade. I hope you find a program you like.
