Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy How do you feel about the public school system?

I appreciate your balanced view. It can be tough to maintain that degree of open-mindedness.

I think as a whole, it's not feasible to expect it to serve every child efficiently and effectively. Children are not factory-farmed creatures and yet it seems that design is what our public schools mirror. Add to that the very real problem of poverty and the culture of disengagement and despair that poverty can sometimes create, and the ridiculous expectation that public education and specifically, teachers, make that all go away by the time it's time to test them, well, it's a wonder anything gets done.

I have to say, though, I have been very happy with the education my ds11 and ds24 received. I'll talk about ds11 for brevity's sake, though both were identified as gifted in the same school system. Ds's kindergarten teacher was the one to identify him for the gifted program despite the fact he was/is such a good kid that often his behavior is the foremost thing a person notices about him. He's had excellent teachers most of whom did a fair job of offering challenge and encouragement. When, last year, I went to the school system with more information from the Explore test, they were supportive and proactive, offering to test him further. They were also supportive regarding acceleration. They are also proactive in trying to identify as many gifted kids as they can and they recognize that it may be harder to identify kids from low SES, but they're still there. The teachers in our system are highly educated and dedicated and if the state doesn't chase them all away, my child has a good chance of continuing on in a successful way.

Is is perfect? No. It's not Davidson, which seems to be a dream for the gifted population. However, I don't expect it to be and I'm trying to supplement at home whenever and however I can.

One thing I would love to see is administrators allowing teachers to teach, less trying to teach to 24 levels in a class of 24, and less lowering of expectations.

The principal of my son's former school once raised her voice with me in the school lobby and said, "WE are education PROFESSIONALS." I was flabbergasted. I wish I would have responded, "I have an M.Ed. in Educational Leadership just like you do. I ALSO have a Ph.D. in DS." Instead, I left before things got too heated and made sure the signature block in my summary e-mail included both my current position at the local university and my degree. She responded much more nicely to me after that. . .

The number one requirement for us in selecting DS' new school was whether or not the front office staff, teachers, and administrators smiled and gave warm and genuine greetings to students and parents. We visited on several occasions at different times of the day to get a good sense of how inviting schools were. If we got courteous but cold welcomes or if many of the children seemed unhappy, we stayed as far away as possible. For now at least, we think we've found a good fit, regardless of school grade and availability of gifted programming (although they do have both part time pull out and full time gifted classes).

i'm so sad to hear this kind of thing is so pervasive. we had a version of this last year, too - albeit in a private school. "her classroom teachers know her better than you do." sigh.

Three cheers for HK

The current public school system is what happens when liberals and conservatives both get their way: a mediocre, everyone-is-the-same, community curriculum that is tested to death and big business is the only winner.

I feel the same. It seems clear to me that a lot of things need to change in the public school system as a whole, but it's impossible for me to judge based on my experiences. Right now, I am thrilled that the MN public school system offers open enrollment, so my child can go to any school as long as there is room. This has created happy islands of magnet programs, where like-minded children (I guess they're not really misfit toys) can be challenged and learn with agemates. We have been very lucky to find such an island within reasonable driving distance for our DS. The teachers there have been given more flexibility in designing curriculum, and it makes all the difference. (Hey, they let the teachers teach!)

Ask me next year, when my DS's HG program ends. I'm sure my view will be much darker.

I am in NZ and our system is very homogenous throughout the country. Honestly I think it is a good system for the 68% between -/+ 1SD when there are no other problems. It is not good for the 10 to 20% who our so called tail, and it is not goodfor the top 5% but even for them it is free from a lot of the problems complained about on this and other boards.

Sorry to be so negative on this topic. I used to tell my husband that I went through a mourning period when I realized that the public school system that I had loved as a child was actually dead and had no hope of being resurrected.

What makes me particularly frustrated and upset is my son's nosedive with regard to his attitude to school and the adults in it. He went on a 15 minute diatribe the other day after I asked him if he wanted to learn about something. He screamed at me, "I don't want to LEARN about anything. Learning is the worst thing in the world and I hope that nobody on the planet ever has to learn anything ever. Learning is so horrible!"

I started to laugh. I thought that he was kidding because all DS loves to do is learn. Then I asked him what learning means. He said, "learning is what you do in school when you have to sit there all day and learn things that you already know. Learning is sitting and being bored and listening to grown ups talk about the most boring things and then they ignore you all day." His school environment is not allowing him to learn. And as administrators and teachers have told me many times, they are focused on the "high" Common Core standards and making sure that everyone passes the test. The teachers have no choice but to follow their CC aligned curriculum, the administrators have no choice but to enforce the teachers' following it. Everyone is focused on the test scores and bringing the bottom up. Any teacher with the means and the brains have left, by and large. So my son, and many other children who are merely above average are being held hostage in this nutty environment.

We're having a good experience with our local public school district right now. My DSs have started in the highly academically gifted program and it seems to be a good fit. Would have been even better if academically gifted services started in a meaningful way before third grade.

It may be that my children are only MG by the standards of this board. (Haven't done extensive testing, had 99 CogAt and 96+ ITBS to enroll in program.) However, we are quite happy to finally have them in a school program that seems to be at about the right level for them.