Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments AHHH! gifted director comment..i have to vent!

they seriously said to me that all kids belong "in the box" and that gifted kids need to learn to fit in the box in order to function in society. and since school is a "system" gifted kids needed to learn to function in the system. am i wrong for thinking that a gifted kid, admitted to school a year early, with an IEP, who requires gifted services, compacted presentation of new material, who is reading 4 years above grade level and doing math 3 years above grade level does not need to "get in the box?" i am angry they would even suggest he needs to "learn" to sit in a desk and draw t's when he is capable of writing entire paragraphs with proper spelling and punctuation. go tell the inventors and brilliant scientists of the world to stop coming up with new ideas and get back in the box where they belong. GRRRRR....

btw.....i think if you manage to get a gifted kid "in the box", they will just come up with 18 new ways to get out of a box.

yup. btdt. i had a director tell me that my ds had to complete a series of about 4 workbooks (about 100 pages each) teacher phonics and letter awareness even though he is completely reading...as in can read the teachers manual for the workbooks themselves. they told us that he needs to learn that just because something is dull, does not mean you do not do it...even if its 400 pages of work and he is 5. they said he needs to work on "his work ethic." then they told us he has behavioral problems because he gets upset when he has to do it, and is fresh because he tells the teacher that it is boring.

its maddening, i know....

It's just ludicrous. You are absolutely right to be outraged. And you are right about finding 18 ways to get out of the box.

"He just needs to deal with not learning anything new; after all, he will have to deal with being bored when he goes out and gets a job!" was one of the administration comments (during an IEP meeting for a 5 year old) that lead to homeschooling for us.

I knew that, regardless of what the teacher did or didn't do, my boy would find a way to be interested in something in class, but that the ways he would come up with on his own to be interested probably wouldn't be ones the school would approve of. I knew that homeschooling would be easier than spending my life in the principal's office either continually advocating to get them to do the right thing or else continually dealing with the fallout from DS finding some way to make the classroom "interesting".

I second your AAAAAHHHH, momma2many!

But I have to say the analogy just makes no sense to me - obviously - but also in terms of what they were saying. Is there just one box? Is there a box for each grade level? Is there a separate box for SN and LDs? do we all have to wear the same shoe size too? Why can't DS go to the grade 4 box?

But seriously, if this is what they told you, considering he is is gifted with an IEP, how long do they think it will take him to learn how to sit at a desk. He could practice that, in a box, with the age mates, and then go learn in the right box??

And this was the director!!!!

The more i type the more annoyed I get so I can't imagine how irritated you are!!!

DeHe

LOL.... does this person know my spouse, by any chance??

HowlerKarma, now you know your spouse's superhero/supervillain secret alter-identity! The only thing left is to find the secret lair with the really cool car and the tacky costume...

ROFL!!

The, er.... SLUG-cave, as it were?

right? i think she thinks the box is ONE box that represents following lock step the path that all peers around you are following at any given time. because otherwise i would agree with what you say...if there are many boxes, then he just needs to find his place in another box. she talks like there is ONE box, or one right way, and gifted kids need to adjust to all of the other students in the class, rather than being allowed to...oh, i don't know....follow their IEP. i have asked before about him going to other grades for certain classes, and i have been told that he needs to learn to be with his grade level peers. i just want to shout WHY WHY WHY???? i have been told that he needs to learn to sit and do worksheets that are redundant because that is "real life", and that he wasn't allowed to have enrichment on the computer because "the other kids can't" (as in they don't know how to do the things DS knows how to do) and it might make them feel bad.

Oh yes ... get in the box. Wonder why we have such problems with our educational system? Perhaps because we have sold our children short with comments like that!

And I hope your comment about finding 18 new ways to get out of the box is true but lots of gifted children won't. I know my DD is the type that will sit quietly in that box and wait until someone opens it up for her and this is why we can never allow her to get into that box. We witnessed it first hand when we signed her up for a social preschool and is why we pulled her and went the academic route. She has to be challenged or she wilts. Even in her academic school where they are 2 years ahead of public she is still more advanced than the curriculum but she will patiently sit there and wait until the teacher offers up the curriculum and fly through it with no problems because she already knew it by age 2. We are doing everything in our power to ensure she doesn't sit in a box.

That is such a beautiful description of my own dd. I am going to save it as inspiration next time I am wondering if I should just get over the fact that dd isn't being accommodated. Thanks