Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments And this is how I knew they didn't get it...

I've had countless similar experiences, and it is nice to know that I am not alone in that arena =]

I was consistently considered "uninelligent" or "lacking" due to my absence of motivation for classes; this was a vicious cycle that diminished my self esteem for years.

Another story occured about a month ago with a professor I had. I came up with a research question combining neuroscience and physics with graph theory-- only to be told to "refrain" from studying any mathematics or excessively difficult questions that are beyond my grasp. I was then told to study the course material rather than come up with my own interpretations. Needless to say I recieved a B in this class for posing too many questions and not regurgitating the material imposed upon us by the professor.

I think a fair analysis is as follows:

Some fear that which they do not understand. Plain and simple.

DD5's teacher, after a very polite request for reading opportunities, complete with an offer to send in books:

'You should get her to look for the letter of the week on the pages of books'

I'm still not sure what part of 'she can read' was unclear...

Maybe the teacher can compile a list of things she sees on her daily commute that are the colour of the week, and then she and your DD can compare notes...

I was guessing that maybe this was a passive-aggressive technique intended to irritate the child who always has all those questions-questions-questions...

When I told my dd's teacher she was having panic attacks about coming to school because she was so lonely and they told me she needed to 'get over it'

Mine is the public health nurse (a lovely woman with a perfectly ND son the same age as ds6). "Some kids say they don't like school it doesn't mean anything". My response "well in my case it meant I didn't like school and dreaded it every Sunday night", her "but schools are different now". Well yes there is more of the stuff I hated (group work, time wasting brain dead rubbish etc) but nothing more challenging. And my IQ is probably at least 20 points lower than my son's if not more.

Well, this kind of says it all...

apparently, my DD's school just fired their only real gifted ed specialist. The person who has been our go-to for all manner of fit issues related to gifted stuff for eight years. The entire reason that we're still with the program. One of perhaps three teachers she's had that understand how to leverage the platform/environment into a working learning environment for a majority of learning styles.... and not coincidentally, the teacher who TAUGHT most of the others how to do that.

Nice. I don't really know what happened, but whatever it was, it was all over with in a few hours yesterday. This being a charter school, too, there is no union to prevent summary... er... sacking like this.

That makes me sad.

I'm astonished by the aforementioned posts and I don't think there is much understanding and appreciation for intellectual giftedness.

If anything, I'm so glad that I joined this forum so that I know I am not alone in my dilemmas.

I wish you all the best of luck here!