My b/g twins just finished 4th grade. They attend public school and are in a 4th/5th grade class that loops, i.e., the plan is for them to be in the same class with the same teachers next year. Both kids are high performers and have been on the radar of the district TAG coordinator, and we had both take the Explore test this year. Both did very well, and dd even received a 3rd place medal among 4th graders in the 5-state region administered by the local talent search, so we now have a statistical measure of their abilities.
We ran into an interesting conflict this year, and I would love to get some input as it is a topic I haven't seen discussed much here. I'll start with a little background to set the stage, and apologize in advance for the long post....
Our school: In general, our district has a strong commitment to heterogeneous classrooms, combined with a commitment to meet special needs, including TAG. My kids' current school (grades 3-5) is even more committed to the concept of classroom community, with pretty much zero tolerance for pull outs of any sort. For example, when dd had an IEP for speech, the speech therapist came to the classroom to meet with her. One benefit of this approach is that it requires inherent flexibility on the part of the teachers to meet the needs in a class of kids with a wide spectrum of abilities, and in-class differentiation is happening on a continual basis.
Gifted strategies: Much of what I read on this forum, the materials provided by the talent search, and even what I hear from our TAG coordinator, promotes moving able kids beyond grade level in academics, whether it is full grade acceleration or subject acceleration.
The problem: In the last year, these two philosophies have come sharply in conflict in our little corner of the world, and I am coming to question my priorities as we move forward with our kids' education. It all came to a head over a district-wide math pull out. Kids in grade 5 from across the district are brought together weekly for math instruction. A test is offered by invitation only to 4th graders to determine eligibility. The invitation to test came from the TAG coordinator, and we said fine, without even knowing what the purpose was. As it turns out, both kids qualify for the math pull out, and dd had the high score in the district among 4th and 5th graders (the same test is used for select 5th graders to determine math placement for 6th grade).
So this is where things come to a head: we have on the one hand the TAG coordinator clamoring to have our high-performing kids in her special math class, and on the other hand we have our special-needs-R-Us/no-pull-outs school resisting this approach. When we met with the principal she explained that we need to protect our kids - people, including district administrators (TAG coordinator?) will consider them "like rock stars" (her words, honest!) and will want to take credit for their successes.
The teacher: this teacher is very experienced K-12 in math/science and capable of differentiating to any degree. She was their teacher this past year and will be again next year. She is at the same time *totally* committed to the school philosophy, and in particular places a higher priority on cultivating "community" in her class room than pushing able kids ahead in the curriculum. She acknowledges my kids' abilities (enough to make me blush!) but also strongly feels that they are at a stage where the kids' focus is rightly placed on finding out who they are and developing independence (while still learning), rather than being encouraged (pushed?) to move ahead in the curriculum. She would argue that the field of math is sufficiently rich that one can learn in math and enjoy it without doing trig (or whatever) in 5th grade, but rather do topics that are not in the K-12 curriculum at all.... And, by the way, she is on the record for saying if my kids do the math pull out next year, she doesn't want them in her class - it will be too disruptive to the community.
The kids: They adore this teacher. Dd has never seemed more comfortable in any classroom environment than with this teacher. They generally don't complain about being bored in school (not sure how much is their personalities vs. a tribute to the school's success in executing their philosophy). They are also fiercely loyal to their school.
The parents: Both went to public schools, but then so-called "elite" schools for college/grad. school in the sciences. Now working in a (highly ranked, but not elite) state research university, we are convinced of pretty significant differences in the training/opportunities afforded by attending an elite college. Recognizing that by college the kids' will be making these choices, our intuitive strategy is to encourage the kids to position themselves so that when the time comes, all college options, including elite schools are accessible to them.
My quandary: Although this conflict between philosophies has been evident since kindergarten, we have felt that the academic stakes are low enough in elementary school that we have made the right choice so far. We could have chosen a gifted school, but there are a lot of benefits at our little urban public school that our kids wouldn't have gotten there. And somehow dd still managed to outperform 99% of 8th graders taking the Explore, not to mention all of her age-peers at the gifted school. However, I've always felt that middle school is the point where academics would come to the fore. And now we're faced with a decision (math pull out) that could have implications for their math placement in middle school.
What we did: We had a very tense meeting with teacher and principal (dh refers to that meeting as "the paddling" - he and I being paddled (figuratively) by the principal). They agreed to our demands: 1) keep kids with current teacher for 5th, 2) provide math instruction at same level as pull-out kids, 3) advocate on our behalf with middle school principal next year to ensure the placement we want.
The real question: What about middle school? This whole experience has made me question our assumptions about how they would be educated. Our principal would argue that we are setting our kids up for a competitive academic rat race rather than intellectual stimulation if we push them into "advanced" classes. And she questions how much academic stimulation they really need, suggesting music lessons, etc. Their teacher tells me to chill - she says that with kids as smart and well grounded as mine, they are well-positioned to succeed in any environment. We have choices: there are several, but the leading middle school candidates are: 1) the "rat race" neighborhood public middle school (lots of smart kids with competitive, intense parents), 2) a "progressive" private middle school (small, no grades, low student/teacher ratio, big focus on independent projects).
We have a year to decide. Much may ride on specific teachers, but I am so curious to hear from others who have pondered these issues. Or maybe it is silly even to consider anything other than demanding academic acceleration?
