I am curious what you have told other parents about your child's subject (or grade) acceleration?
Brief history. DS is subject accelerated in math from 3rd to 5th. Our district basically has nothing for G/T in K-5 except a once a week enrichment pullout for 4th and 5th grade in math which a good half of each 4th/5th grade qualify for. We have the type of district where half the parents think their child is in the top 5%. The district and principal are (justifiably) concerned that there is going to be a mad rush for people asking for accel for their child now that they have done it for DS.
I've only discussed his accel. with one parent, who also has a gifted child and who is also a friend with whom I spoke about many of our math concerns last year. I only just told her, because we wanted to make sure DS was doing well before anyone knew (even family). But now, the cat is apparently out of the bag. When I went to pick up yesterday a neighbor yelled very loudly "hey, what's with DS being in 5th grade math." There were a number of people standing around, although luckily I didn't know many of them. I didn't realize it but her 5th grade son is in DS's math class and he told her. I explained to her quietly that it was the right placement based on some tests but that we didn't really want to publicize it because we didn't want pressure on our son or if things didn't go well (things are going great BTW) have him feel embarassed if he moved back down to 4th. She understood, but literally 4 hours later I get an email from another mother (who is pretty pushy about how "brillant" her child is) asking about it. I just said the same thing -- that DS knew the 3rd and 4th grade and a hunk of the 5th grade material and therefore the placement was correct, etc. But she wanted to know about testing, etc. etc.
I ended up telling her that perhaps if he qualified for the SCAT test, that would be a good place to start, as the scores will give you a sense of what sort of accomodations one might need. I don't want to dissuade anyone who has a gifted child from trying to get help for their kid, and I do think our district needs to address this. But I will be honest (and it makes me feel guilty to admit this) that I fear if there is a bunch of hoopla over this the school will regret DS's placement and make it harder for the same or more in the future- I feel like I would like to keep it all secret (which is impossible of course since 2 classrooms of kids know about it), just to protect our position. Not very altruistic, is it
Anyone in a similar situation? What did you do and how did you quiet down the chatter?
Cat
