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Gratified,

You're right about saying "don't compare him to others." I thought that as I wrote it. I think my frustration and the reason I allude to other kids is that "they were taught" and "they grew in their abilities." My little guy did not learn or grow. The other kids got to learn, my son didn't. That is the real point of contention.

Last year, my son came home once a week from school--sick. He went to the nurses office and told them he thought he was going to vomit. This happened for five straight weeks, then school ended for summer.

He told me a few days ago that he like school a little better this year because he hasn't lied to the school nurse this yet this year. (I thought he was faking it, but that little comment proved it.) He said in K it was so boring. He said this year, it is still boring, but there are some fun things going on as well.

His proudest moment is that he gets to help the girls that sit beside him with reading help.

He seems to be doing okay overall. He isn't miserable. But it is also clear that he isn't into the work part of school. I don't see material coming home that he can't already do--ever.

TiredMom,

Like everyone else I like to say welcome aboard! In my state there is virtually nothing mandated for GT. But what I have found is that if you can educate yourself "Past the educators" regarding the needs of gifted children, the state mandates, federal laws blah, blah, blah..... They will cave. Why? Because they start to realize that you know more than they do and they are likely to get more than they bargained for if they don't!

This really is a case of the "squeaky wheel". They will ignore you as long as they believe they can. Put everything in writing, everything! and find out what the chain of command is in your district. If you continue to get no response from the school, move up the chain of command. Be a nag, be pushy, whatever it takes to make them understand that you WILL NOT go away. Never lose your temper, but rather spout laws and mandates at them. They get nervous the second one person begins to consider the possibility of a law suit and suddenly doors open.

Because in the end, fear works!

just make sure that knowledge comes with the mohawk!! LOLOL

We have had a few conversations in the past about the top notch school districts and how sometimes they are not the best fit for HG+ kids. Many kids in these districts are gifted, but moderately gifted and the district seems to think what works for the masses of their gifted kids works for all which is just not the case. They tend to be inflexible and are harder to advocate with.

Your state is a mandatory gifted state but does not have allocated funding. So there are laws to pull from ... a positive for your case.

"The Maryland Coalition for Gifted and Talented Education (MCGATE) is a statewide parent/professional advocacy group. Membership in MCGATE is open to Maryland's local county advocacy groups, individual parents, students, educators, administrators, concerned citizens, and businesses. Work is done on the national, state, and local levels and with other educational associations to build support for gifted children in Maryland."

http://www.mcgate.org/

I would definitely contact this organization and talk to them. They classify themselves as a gifted advocacy group so it would be a good place to start.

Hope that helps!

I'd actually venture to say that it isn't that many of the kids in these districts are gifted; it's that many of the kids in these districts are high achievers who are wrongly identified as gifted. We, too, live in a district with much higher than state avg test scores where huge numbers of kids are ided as gifted. While my dds are probably more than MG, I'm not ready to say that they are so far out there gifted that they shouldn't be able to work with a classroom where a lot of the kids are MG. That might be a reasonable fit for at least one of them. Even one of the GT coordinators at a school dd12 has attended told me straight up that most of the kids who are in GT programming and ided as gifted aren't actually gifted but rather kids who score around the 95th percentile on grade level reading or math tests.

Seeing how huge the difference btwn these kids and dds is, I'd tend to agree that we don't have some unusual location where a lot of kids are gifted but rather an unusual lot of kids who are called gifted b/c they perform above the minimal grade level expectations. It's kind of a pet peeve of mine b/c it shouldn't be so hard to get the needs of my MG-HG kids met. I don't think that dd12, for instance, would need to be entering high school next year if the schools were better able to serve the needs of low end HG kids without the types of steps we've had to take to keep her learning a little something in at least one or two subjects.

I saw this last year with one of my coworker's sons. The boy was 5 and doing 2 digit multiplication in his head and reading 6 grades ahead. This top notch DFW area district told him there was nothing they could do with his son. Luckily, his parents looked for alternatives and found a good fit for him and the boy is really happy where he is at.

Wow, what a great thread. I've nothing to add, but as someone at the begining of this process too, I am just grateful that you've all given such insightful advice! I'll be emailing this thread home as a keeper

Hellloooo People! I've been off for awhile and was just checking in (the glories of being at a gifted school as I'm not a panic all the time).

I have two conflicting thoughts:

Never give up.

Take some days off.

Never give up. Make it work one semester at a time. Try not to focus on the overwhelming hurdles down the path. Work hard to not to burn bridges or get labeled. Doing gifted right isn't about time, or money. It is about philosophy. And advocating successfully sometime requires a little luck that one day you'll find the ears that can hear and help.

Take some days off. Literally and figuratively. Advocating hard core can suck the life out of you. I admit I got very one tracked and it was hard to live life beyond making school work. Every now and then I found it refreshing to "throw in the towel" and just think they'll be ok. I always got back up off the mat. But full steam ahead can take it all and leave nothing for you, or your family. And frankly, when we were in public school I wish we took more days off. I didn't want to send the message that you can miss school. But in hindsight, a few plan planned school year vacations wouldn't have killed anyone.

I used to think when reading here all the time that it all got easier as they graded up but I think a lot of folks give up, give in, or find ways around (like horizontal learnings, alternative education, and out of school enrichment).

Our kids are bright. Hell I even use the word - they are gifted. And in most circles you cannot complain about it. You won't win people over saying your kid is too smart for school. But here... here you can say it.

I love this thread !! Ds7 is in 2nd grade, and goes to 3rd grade for math. I have been happy with that - even knowing he is way ahead on reading, I thought he was still OK. His teacher gives him 5th grade spelling words. All is well. Then his teacher made the ocmment in an e-mail that he is "superior to 2nd, 3rd and 4th grade in Language Arts". Now I'm thinking...does he need more than 2nd garde is offering ? Conferences are coming up. This thread is my friend Thanks !

I'm the type to give people the benefit of the doubt... I don't like to jump to conclusions about someone else's child being 'pushed' when I know my DD is probably being classified under that same title ... and if not she certainly will be at some point or other. When I read the first part of your post: I was a little annoyed. It falls under us too? But then I kept reading and I think you have a valid point and it made me think about the district I live in. I still think we have higher than average gifted rates than most districts but this is also an upper middle class district and these kids usually have a full time parent at home and they are actively involved in many activities from a very early age. Take the sons of all my friends. ALL of them have been in OT at some point or other. I found that strange. All of them? This was to ensure they were writing by the time they were in Kindergarten. Now one of them really needed it and has/had other issues but for the most part I saw typical boy issues that would disappear with maturity but they chose to use OT to get them past that point.