Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Ridiculous GT things I Heard "

DD's teacher pulled me aside today to tell me that DD5 (turned 5 today) was complaining in class about being tired while working on a fractions job. I asked, "tired or just lack of focus"? She replied, "well it started with her saying she was tired and then I saw a lack of focus. And the fractions job was more of a puzzle/game, so I think we are just a little out of her ability range." (this was her not so subtle way to tell me that DD should not really be in 3rd grade)

I did not have the heart to call her on the fact that a year and a half earlier DD then 3.5 was the one who brought that exact puzzle into the school, since she was doing it at home and wanted to share it with her then preschool friends. The Preschool teacher thought the 1-2 level teacher would have more use for it, and had us deliver it current teacher's classroom.

I asked DD why she was saying she was tired, and she said it was rude to say you are bored, so tired was more appropriate.

What do I say now?

You tell the teacher exactly what you just told us - having practised your serious, non-smug expression in a mirror beforehand! Good luck...

One of the major reasons we removed DS from his "gifted" hahaha private school:

Said by evil Kindergarten teacher, after she removed the book corner from her class to prevent DS from accessing the books:

"Children in my class do not just learn to read on their own. I teach them and I haven't taught HIM yet."

I do believe this is my new favorite.

Here's one..."Until your son can show more responsibility, he will not be allowed to participate in any further reading"...Huh??? A TEACHER taking away READING??? Oh funny, funny, funny...No, actually sad, sad, sad...sigh.

That's really disappointing.

When presenting 1st Grade Teacher with "What a Child Doesn't Learn," and explaining that we were concerned DS (then 6) wasn't being challenged, she said, "You know, for some people everything in life just always comes easily. They just never find anything difficult." Disappointingly, I didn't think quickly enough to respond on the spot to say, "Don't you think that the people who grow up to find nothing too difficult are likely those who learned to overcome challenge when they were young -- hence learning that nothing IS too difficult if they apply themselves?"

I almost forgot one from the principal. When I expressed my concerns about the curriculum being used for DS (then 5 or 6) and explained that he wanted to learn his times tables, she said, "Oh, for goodness sakes, don't let him do THAT! He'll be so bored in 2-3 years when rest of the class is just beginning to learn multiplication." Like DS wasn't bored already when his K Math was limited to learning to write numbers properly.

From my dd's then 2nd grade teacher on hearing that dd read at a high school level: "I was only hired to teach second grade."

From an administrator (not at my school): "All children are gifted. We treat them all the same."

And my all time favorite: from the gifted teacher at dd's middle school on discussing scheduling for how to get her to the high school to take honors english:

"But we only have one bus to take gifted children to the high school and it's for MATH students."

Reading these is a choice between laughing or crying!!!

Here's an really positive one though. What is ridiculous about it is that most people don't get it. It was said to me, Wolf's teacher and the district psych who has a TON of GT experience by a (possibly the only) GT staff member in the district (who I might add has nothing to do since there is NO funding and NO program this year...). Slightly paraphrased since I don't remember the exact wording."

"What most people don't get is that these kids aren't just gifted a couple hours a week during pull out classes. They are gifted 24-7 and need to be treated as such."

When my daughters K teacher first suggested my DD get tested for GT. I was shocked, excited, and proud. In my excited shock I mentioned in to my BF.
Her reply back to me, was that they had wanted to grade skip & test her oldest DD back in K, but they declined it, because they think that "kids need to be kids".

It was a hard blow coming from my BF. I thought if anybody would have been excited with us, it would have been her.
I have since learned that parents seem to get defensive if a child, other than their own, does something that their child can't do.

In hind sight having my DD tested was a great move. Getting her test results back was a huge wake up call for us. We started paying attention to her cues and gave her the choice to move at a faster pace.
Needless to say in the 2yrs since K the gap between my DD and the "above average" kid has more than doubled.
*** And from time to time we even give her permission to "be a kid" LOL ***