I'm still a little in happy surprise/shock mode over the class room work because I thought the meeting was very mixed. But since my last post I got some one on one time with the boy. Apparently he spent time with the math specialist today and took "a very long test... um like maybe 10 pages". Now apparently this test didn't go up to multiplication, but it did include a lot of "hard math" and "complex math" (according to the boy) and time and money. As he admitted, he missed a couple "but only because I was going fast; I knew the answers."
I am wondering if after he did that if the math specialist did a wink wink nudge nudge "he really does know this stuff" to his teacher.
There were a couple of things said during the meeting that we're still mulling over and trying not to read too much into but trying to decode what they meant. For example, the GT teacher talked about getting 1st and 2nd graders that knew how to solve quadriatric equations. It was an awkward comment because on the one hand it was like she was saying "we've had other very gifted children before" but in the same breath she was trying to tell us that these kids couldn't explain the rationale behind the math (which I can believe; you can teach a gifted child an advanced algorithm). And there was an over-emphasis on having DS demonstrate his abilities.
So thanks for the kudos. The tense moments at the meeting weren't too bad. I think we came across as constructive, sane, and honest. I told the home room teacher what DS said just yesterday about the "other kids learning stuff but I already knew it" and followed that quote up by stating that we did not believe that to be a reflection of the teacher, but only the fact that the other students were receiving the appropriate level of instruction.
Of course when DW got a bit passionate during the meeting I think that helped a little too
JB
