I have fraternal twins (very much opposites of each other). One is very verbal, one very visual-spatial. They just finished the 2nd grade. One is miserable, hates school, and feels that he has no friends that are like him. They both are in top classes (our school ability groups). We have never felt that their teachers have "gotten" them or formed "connections" with them. We had them independently tested (WISC IV FSIQ's of 131 and 134). Our school district does not accept outside testing for admittance into it's gifted program. The tests that they administer for admittance are the COGAT and the ITBS (not the best tests for my visual/spatial one, and not even the right tests for giftedness in my opinion). We have talked to teachers, the gifted specialist (just a teacher), and the principal - and don't feel much better about things. Both of our next door neighbors' kids are in the gifted program; out of 9 kids from our school on our soccer team, 7 are in the program; out of our top language arts class of over twenty kids, only six aren't in the program. Is it just me, or is something just not right? I could go on and on giving more details about this story. Do I even want to bother having them tested at school, which wouldn't be until spring of the next school year (they only test once a year)?
