Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Advocating Stinks

Sorry - didn't mean to be offensive. I do recognize that my dds have a tremendous advantage having me available to assist them with work when needed. Even as gifted kids, per IQ etc., they likely wouldn't be performing as well if they didn't have the support at home. Is that pushing? I don't know.

What I am referring to are districts where, like the OP stated, half of the kids are ided as gifted. Come on. I don't care how upper middle class the community is, these schools don't have 50% of their kids in the top 2% of the population (or even the top 5%) unless is was a planned community of members from a high IQ society or something.

I don't think that NCLB has been beneficial to a lot of kids. Even typical bright, high achieving kids who aren't technically gifted may need more. So they, too, are now "gifted." That doesn't serve the gifted kids well b/c the gifted programming is now set to serve a lot of kids with wildly different needs.

Much like you originally said that schools full of MG kids wouldn't likely serve the needs of HG+ kids, GT programs full of kids with IQs in the avg-somewhat above avg range likely won't meet the needs of MG kids. That's truly what I see in our GT programs. A child with a composite ability score (CogAT, OLSAT, or IQ) in the 50th percentile can be identified as gifted if he is high achieving in any one area and/or has leadership abilities or the "behavioral characteristics" of giftedness.

Cricket, I don't think your post was offensive at all. I've even had the GT teacher tell me the same thing. She sees a difference in the kids that are "truly gifted" and the ones who test well. Just as there is a difference between gifted children themselves. The higher the IQ, the more different they are even from each other!

No no, I wasn't offended. It was headed that way but as I stated, you have a valid point and it definitely made me reevaluate where I live.

I never thought about it being difficult to advocate in a school that serves more GT children. It seems you run into obstacles anywhere you go.

Great point mon! Many a charter school is being praised for structuring their curriculum in the way you described. It is definitely bringing up the masses.

All I can say is that it really depends on the view/perception of "GT" of the school and staff. We enrolled our son to a public GT magnet school for a semester. The admission uses IQ or achievement test results. There are also 2 other YSers in the same class, though we never identified DS as such to anyone. The school has his IQ scores, as well as his off-the-chart IBST (conducted there) results. But he was miserable over there. We were "suggested" to get him on meds. He was not challenged academically, and was scorned upon as not exactly following the instruction for going above and beyond for the homework. Teachers never truly addressed the teasing situation.

Aren't we glad that we moved him back to our neighbourhood school district and got teachers who really understand the different needs of DS. When there are teachers who really appreciate the ability of such kids and approach the work accordingly, it is a true blessing; and they are not necessary in GT schools.

More than once, I felt I was failing DS, because I was discouraged by the "wall" put up by the teacher/administrator to my request. But seeing DS' progress at home has always made me go back and try again. Little steps do add up. Yes, let me say that advocating still stinks, but it does get easier; however, it never ends. Keep at it, you will get there. And as others have already stated, this is a totally awesome group of people here who understand and support each other.