Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Grrrrrr....school is driving me insane!

Love it! I was not an early reader but more of a stubborn one. It was my grandmother who was an avid reader that pushed the topic. Every summer she would insist on library time (so she could get another book) and quiet time where we were to read in the afternoon. I, of course, rebelled BUT eventually started reading thanks to "The Secret Garden". Once I did I was hooked. I must have been about 7 at the time. I quickly went through the Judy Blume books and others similar and found myself drawn to cheesy romance novels. I read so many of them it was pathetic. Shockingly enough, my family didn't stop my interest. As long as I was reading, that was all that mattered. Before leaving high school I had tired of the simple plots and hungered for more complex books. The more twist and turns the better.

As for school librarians: my grandmother was a primary teacher at the school and her close friend was the school librarian. There weren't too many obstacles in the way. Yet, as I stated: I was not big on reading early on but my cousin was an early reader and the school bent over backwards to provide for him. Primary school was grades 1st through 3rd grade and I remember being in 3rd grade and him in 2nd grade. He would come to our class to read and even that wasn't enough advancement for him. Most of the time he was helping the teacher teach the advanced group. His parents were very anti-grade acceleration so he stayed within his respected class through graduation.

I would like to think that the librarian meant well, but was misguided. Our school district just came out with a policy that large groups of kids will not be accelerated in math but will instead be kept in heterogeneous groups because the high school math teachers complained that even the accelerated students were arriving unprepared. I think that has more to do with the Everyday Math curriculum than any disadvantages of accelerating. I don't think the district is intentionally exercizing their power to disadvantage gifted kids, but doing what they think is best and responding to parents of kids who complained that their kids were being pushed too hard. Maybe same situation with the librarian who hasn't seen too many kids who could handle that level of material and was trying to prevent "frustration".

Even if the student could not read the book, why stifle the curiosity? The only reason I can think of not giving a student a book is unsuitable content. In that case, the parents should be asked if the book is okay.

My daughter read a few books in elementary school that had a relationship with a little kissing. She has since reread the book and said that she understood the rest of the book, but the relationship part was over her head - now in 8th grade, she gets it.

I think less and less students are prepared and that is a huge problem. Many just forget almost as soon as they have learned the material. I have no answers on that one.

Gifted students retain knowledge and that should be accepted.