We all know that the learning environment can greatly affect a child's ability to reach his or her maximum potential. Parents with access to money & means can reach out to find that environment. Yet the gifted community does not actively provide a solid support system for parents who do not have these resources. A child can be greatly limited by his/her parents, even when those parents are willing to be highly engaged. As a community we should embrace & mentor those parents. I think it would be a huge benefit to the gifted community as a whole if each of us actively mentored just 1 parent who needed it.
Our school district definitely tries to identify gifted students from underprivileged backgrounds and provides full time self contained gifted education.
I prefer to pay taxes to help people in need. I definitely prefer that to going into a high crime neighborhood and risking being murdered.
22b, you know one can be poor and not live in a neighborhood where random passerby murder is likely, yes?
I agree that these parents should be supported. The nuts and bolts seem a lot trickier. One thign I have thought about in my community is making it easier for all parents to learn about and understand their educational options.
Our school district definitely tries to identify gifted students from underprivileged backgrounds and provides full time self contained gifted education.
I prefer to pay taxes to help people in need. I definitely prefer that to going into a high crime neighborhood and risking being murdered.
It is simplistic to write as if these are the only two choices. Since the OP is from "Chicagoland", I will mention a tutoring program in Chicago (not targeting the gifted).
http://online.wsj.com/articles/bob-greene-off-of-rough-streets-into-a-haven-for-learning-1412901562Off of Rough Streets, Into a Haven for Learning
Fifty years and 6,000 students later, a Chicago church’s free-tutoring program carries on.
By BOB GREENE
Wall Street Journal
Oct. 9, 2014 8:39 p.m. ET
On a crisp-as-an-apple-slice autumn afternoon in Chicago, a man named Tylus Allen looked around a softly lighted chapel and said, “When I first came here, it was because I heard this was where people were willing to help you.”
He is 24 now, a clerk at a downtown hospital. When he began evening visits to the Fourth Presbyterian Church, he was a fifth-grader who lived many grim miles away. His father was in prison. He was a boy who yearned to learn, to better himself, but wasn’t sure how. “I was hoping to find people who wouldn’t give up on me,” he said.
He came to the right place. The church, on a postcard-glamorous North Michigan Avenue corner, has, for 50 years, provided a tutoring program for children as young as first graders. Most of the boys and girls, often from the city’s poorest and most violent neighborhoods, are African-American. Most of the volunteer tutors are white, many of them professional men and women.
On this afternoon hundreds of them—former pupils like Mr. Allen, current pupils, present and past tutors—were gathering at the church to celebrate half a century of lives made better. The premise of what goes on there on weeknights is simple: The children seek one-on-one help with the basics of mathematics and reading and writing. They don’t always get that kind of individual attention in their public schools. There are successful men and women willing to sit down with them at the church and share what they have always taken for granted: the ability to add and subtract and divide, the ability to spell and to read with understanding.
I first reported on the church’s tutoring program 25 years ago, and then, as now, I was most struck by the devotion on both sides. On the coldest Chicago winter nights, in drenching rain and biting winds, the children would arrive for their tutoring sessions right on time. So would the volunteer tutors. Attendance was typically 100%.
“At first, the children don’t even know exactly what they’re hoping for,” said Stefani Turken, who is in her 22nd year of tutoring. “But little by little, they see that there is a different world available to them, that they can dream of something better. That if you want it to, life can change.”
Jen4103, I agree that it sounds like a good idea. How do you see this mentorship playing out? Are you suggesting this would take place through this forum or some similar online site, or would this be geographically based? I wonder about identifying these parents or how they would self-identify.
We are in NZ. There is no identification and no services unless you can pay. Our school has extension programmes but they are not aimed at gifted kids and only 2 kids from each class can attend. Since they put the 3 identified gifted kids in one class (we hoped for a cluster but they didn't even work together all year) that meant one of the gifted kids missed out and one far less gifted kid attended. Ds7 is the youngest, least confident, worst writer and I think highest IQ
of the 3 and got nothing all year except what I could pay for.
In fact between us a friend and I have 5 gifted kids at that school. Only one is doing OK. This is supposedly the best school in town for gifted kids.
I think you are greatly over estimating the "resources" and the "support system" the "gifted community" (what exactly would that be?) have at their disposal, and greatly underestimating the actual limiting forces that exist.
Whenever I have, gently, tried to encourage a parent (of all types of SES) who appeared to be unaware of the possibility or the implications of even considering the idea that their child might be gifted, I have received massive pushback, usually of the "I don't *want* my child to be gifted!" kind (subtext: even if those other, pushy, parents do, shame on them). One mother, whose kids elementary school teacher had brought up the possibility and who I gently encouraged to consider (free) testing for the (free) public gifted program, admittedly on the other side of town, exclaimed "but that might mean I would have to drive him places! I want him in the local school and play sports in the local club!". For people to merely contemplate that kids might be different from them, different from other kids, wanting or needing different things, is simply too much. Again, that goes for all types of SES and cuts both ways.
I shudder at the thought what most people in the semi rural community in which I live would have to say at the thought that odd, dorky me might want to "mentor" them because I might have better understanding than them of what their child wanted or needed.
It is simplistic to write as if these are the only two choices.
"as if"?
I just type a brief post. I couldn't be bothered typing out every conceivable nuance and caveat.
22B, you know one can be poor and not live in a neighborhood where random passerby murder is likely, yes?
I live in a place that does in fact have a very high murder rate (and other crime). If you look at a homicide map it is obvious that the murders are concentrated in areas of high poverty. There is a very real risk in going into these areas, and I am not prepared to take that risk. This is also one big reason why we do not put our kids into the gifted programs, since they are strategically located in bad parts of town.
I think you are very much overestimating the risk of being murdered to simply embarrassing yourself in *most* places this kind of mentoring might take place...there are a lot of reasons I prefer mostly being in the closet as opposed to putting myself as out there as That Parent who might want to mentor people into being That Parent, Too but I admit fearing to be murdered isn't one of them.
I think you are very much overestimating the risk of being murdered to simply embarrassing yourself in *most* places this kind of mentoring might take place...there are a lot of reasons I prefer mostly being in the closet as opposed to putting myself as out there as That Parent who might want to mentor people into being That Parent, Too but I admit fearing to be murdered isn't one of them.
It is not difficult to look at statistics and quantify the risks. And you have to consider the cumulative risk of exposing yourself to a risk many times (e.g. going to a dangerous part of town every day all day for ten years, as opposed to going there once for five minutes). Even if the risk of being murdered is a fraction of 1%, why expose yourself unnecessarily to that risk. And there are other more common crimes such as (armed) robbery, assault, vehicle theft to also be worried about. The danger is very real.
In any case, my family's personal experience is not with dangerous parts of town, but with a specific and unexpected dangerous individual, and we now most certainly know that trying to help people can be extremely dangerous.
ETA: I have friends who have been robbed at gunpoint in broad daylight just walking into the wrong area. (The gifted program my kids could have gone to is in the same area.) It's real.
If you look at a homicide map it is obvious that the murders are concentrated in areas of high poverty. There is a very real risk in going into these areas, and I am not prepared to take that risk.
In the WSJ article I cited, the children being tutored travel from their neigborhoods, which may well have high crime rates, to the church, located in an area which I assume is safer.
If you look at a homicide map it is obvious that the murders are concentrated in areas of high poverty. There is a very real risk in going into these areas, and I am not prepared to take that risk.
In the WSJ article I cited, the children being tutored travel from their neigborhoods, which may well have high crime rates, to the church, located in an area which I assume is safer.
Well that makes more sense than a swarm of amateur volunteers travelling in the opposite direction to do one on one mentoring.
To give another perspective, I live in a small city where there is a LOT of poverty but virtually no murder...maybe one per year, and that's usually a man killing his wife or perhaps another personal grudge. I have zero worries about being murdered at random anywhere around here (and we go to "bad" parts of the city all the time...some would say we live in one).
Actually, I don't think random murders for being in the wrong place at the wrong time are common anywhere in the US. You could get mugged, though, for sure. I understand not wanting to go to some areas, but I guess my point is, there's plenty of poor children living in, uh, non-murdery places.
To give another perspective, I live in a small city where there is a LOT of poverty but virtually no murder...maybe one per year, and that's usually a man killing his wife or perhaps another personal grudge. I have zero worries about being murdered at random anywhere around here (and we go to "bad" parts of the city all the time...some would say we live in one).
Actually, I don't think random murders for being in the wrong place at the wrong time are common anywhere in the US. You could get mugged, though, for sure. I understand not wanting to go to some areas, but I guess my point is, there's plenty of poor children living in, uh, non-murdery places.
That's where you live. Where I live is definitely very dangerous. There are plenty of poor children but very few of them live in non-murdery places. Random murders do happen. Innocent people do get killed by stray bullets. There are a lot of murders. A lot. I'm describing where I live. I'm not saying other people are in this same type of environment. Obviously some places are much safer, and elsewhere in the world some places are much more dangerous.
This conversation is kind of ridiculous. Is there really any doubt that there are dangerous areas in the USA? Being afraid to go into a bad part of town is a very rational and prudent fear.
Having the whole "gifted community" (whatever that is) inviting themselves into these dangerous areas to provide one on one "mentoring" (whatever that is) is ludicrous. Besides, as I said in my first post "Our school district definitely tries to identify gifted students from underprivileged backgrounds and provides full time self contained gifted education." Unfortunately this only happens in dangerous schools, so we don't participate.
I don't even know that there is a "Gifted Community" per se. I am primarily a parent and only secondarily a parent of "Gifted" children. Most of what I do is simply parenting rather than gifted-centric. I am very sensitive to infinite differences in parenting philosophies, approaches, priorities, etc and would never presume to mentor anyone in that regard. At the risk of sounding politically incorrect, I will have to say a definite no to "mentoring" parents who "are willing to be highly engaged" but do not have "money and means." Obviously, my children live in a safe home and do not go hungry, etc. However, my engagement with my children is essentially an investment of my time and my energy rather than money and means. In my neck of the woods, substantial public and private funding support education resources for all low SES children. There are also tremendous resources aimed at educating interested (particularly low SES) parents to help support their children's education/achievements. I appreciate your earnest desire to "provide a solid support system" for this subset of parents. However, I can just imagine the potential horror on a hypothetical parent's face when I, for example, instruct her to spend 3+ hours daily driving her child to/from a "better" school. On the other hand, I would have no problems mentoring a low SES kid, especially in the type of setting that Bostonian referenced.
However, I can just imagine the potential horror on a hypothetical parent's face when I, for example, instruct her to spend 3+ hours daily driving her child to/from a "better" school.
Hey, instead of mentor you could be their
chauffeur!
I don't feel comfortable either with the idea of go out to "mentor" other parents - not just in the area of giftedness. I don't feel comfortable for instance discussing breastfeeding with a new mom unless they ask me specifically about it. So I don't know I would feel comfortable discussing what I would recommend to another parent who have a different background and values from me.
The daycare we use is a mix of SES families, and families from very diverse backgrounds. There is one other boy DS's age that DH and I suspect is gifted, and it was a struggle as to whether we should say anything to her because we had no idea if we would be on the same page... And I did broach the topic, and she knows we are tapping into various gifted resources for our children. And for her, finances and time are so tight that we feel bad about the fact that she won't be able to follow our paths as easily... And we are at a loss as to how to bridge that gap. She is aware of the local resources and frustrations (we are not in the same school district but the little I gleaned, she is aware of the GT options for her district). So I have left it knowing that she has my contact information, and trying to support her when we see her (but since we are both working mothers and on totally different schedules, it is not that often).
But I am not comfortable with anything more because many parents get very touchy over all areas of parenting (and I seen this a lot with nursing vs formula worlds, working vs stay at home mothers - I had a hard time with some of the more militant parents/mothers who are hostile to the idea that there could be other viewpoints - and this is just another area that I don't feel like I want to wade into a hostile us vs them or "my way is better" tone).
Once I stop having to guess at everything I do while parenting a gifted kid and feel confident enough, I would gladly mentor given that the folks I mentor are completely philosophically in synch with me and have a kid with the same nuances as mine. Until then I'll be glad my taxes support a local district that gets it, and we'll continue volunteering at my son's school which is a heavily mixed partial magnet in a fairly safe area.
What I see a lot of in my area is programs advertised for 'gifted' or kids interested in STEM that are particularly directed at students in the lower scoring school districts in the area. These are often held at local universities. The problem these programs have are unless they bus in the students many parents can't afford the time to drive them. If you work two jobs just to pay for rent & food, there is no time to drive your kid to challenging activities. Or even time to notice the activities exist. What is needed is teachers that help identify these kids, unfortunately teachers have huge classes and are usually busy taking care of more pressing needs.
I have thought about working for one of these programs. I'm interested in helping at one of the local programs to encourage girls in computer science or math program. I'd have no problem going into the poorer area's close to me (I have friends who teach at these schools), although I might think really long before going into south central LA.
Honestly, I am quite shocked at the unwillingness of parents to help other parents. Particularly regarding the assumed stereotypes. We are all at this forum because we believe that gifted children are unique. I asked this (somewhat hypothetical) question for 2 reasons. The first is that it really surprises me this type of mentoring is already not an option. The second reason is that I hope a seed can be planted should you meet other parents who may be in this situation or should you be involved in a group or advocacy which could embrace this idea.
My 13yr daughter is very bright, though not gifted. She also has hearing loss. Our school district has a completely voluntary program for hearing loss families. This program is entirely ran by parents. The only role of the school is they have a list of parents who have volunteered to mentor other parents. The school simply notifies new parents that the mentoring program exists & should they wish to receive this assistance, the school can provide contact info. This is the program I am familiar with but I have heard of other similar programs. It is very informal but it was invaluable when I had questions or needed advice. It gives us the ability to ask a parent of a child a few years older than her what we should expect. It provides us with parents who understand our concerns. It provides our children with an opportunity to relate to children who have "been there, done that".
You were correct that I left the framework open ended. I see the possibilities here as endless. If you honestly fear for your life meeting someone perhaps you could use email, Skype, or FaceTime. It is disappointing to see people who would view this as a waste of their time. In my experience the mentor program has been just as rewarding to the mentor family.
The sad truth is that many children go without an appropriate educational environment because their parents simply do not know there is another way. Some parents are middle-class & live in good neighborhoods. That does not automatically enable them to know how to get their child what they need. Parents in poverty are very unlikely to have know where to look or even that their child needs more. I do understand hat some parents would not want this & I am in no means saying this should be mandatory for anyone. I simply think there must be a way that somehow there must be a way to be better.
This is a really interesting topic. I was surprised that I didn't see something that I thought was obvious mentioned. This forum is part of the mentorship process for gifted parents no matter where they live or their economic status. I acknowledge there may be people who don't have Internet or have never heard of this forum but for those who do find their way here, there is a wealth of advice and support.
In particular, I kept thinking of the amazing work Aeh does offering technical advice. There is hours of work and a ton of expertise behind Aeh's replies and I am sure we are beyond appreciative for the time and thought that goes into them.
In many cases, depending on where you live, there may not be very many other kids and their parents that you know who are gifted so that can be hard. A support group would be nice but if there isn't the critical mass in your area that may not work.
I appreciate having this forum and I value the advice and conversations I find here. Not everything is relevant to me or my DD but is fascinating what can be learned and applied across many different situations.
The OP is right that it is good to have someone to ounce things off. The only person I know who has kids in a similar position to mine has a very different approach to many aspects of giftedness and that can be difficult.
Don't underestimate too, the work we do advocating for our children often leads to better experiences for those who follow. While not direct mentorship of poorer gifted students it is of benefit to others. We have donated money to gifted programs my DD has enjoyed to enable students who are less well off to also attend.
I guess we all do what we can given the limitations we may have.
I was surprised that I didn't see something that I thought was obvious mentioned. This forum is part of the mentorship process for gifted parents no matter where they live or their economic status.
This is an
excellent point.
Honestly, I am quite shocked at the unwillingness of parents to help other parents. ... It is disappointing to see people who would view this as a waste of their time.
This is extremely offensive. How dare you.
Original poster, I appreciate your sentiments, but also realize that many parents (even with money and means) are stretched just trying to manage the realities of parenting their own gifted children and may not be in a position to actively find others who need help. On the other hand, I know that many of us do offer advice when it seems appropriate (ex., I've sat next to parents at ballgames and learned they had a gifted child, then shared a great deal of information about nearby and online resources they weren't aware of previously).
Well that makes more sense than a swarm of amateur volunteers travelling in the opposite direction to do one on one mentoring.
I don't see where anyone made this suggestion.
Well that makes more sense than a swarm of amateur volunteers travelling in the opposite direction to do one on one mentoring.
I don't see where anyone made this suggestion.
The OP is clearly talking about one on one mentoring. Obviously a large number of mentorees would then require a large number of mentors. Also the implication was that mentoree and mentor were living in different circumstances, and some travel would logically be needed if meeting face to face.
Anyway one on one mentoring is a terrible idea. It's much better to benefit from the collective wisdom of a large group.
perhaps you could use email, Skype, or FaceTime.
OP, you have answered your own question. This is the age of the internet - a really poor and motivated gifted student just needs to get on google to reach an unlimited array of resources that were never heard of even 10 years ago. Just one example would be MIT Open Courseware. I met an underprivileged 14 year old recently who is a Python programming whizkid with plans to get into Stanford - all the coding and projects and mentoring he has received was done on the internet.
There are public libraries and smart phones with internet access even to the poor people. So, the situation is not as sad as you think.
5. I could go on all day, but my last one is-- don't eliminate GT programs. Instead, call them something else if needbe, but keep them in the lower performing schools at all costs.
In our district, the gifted programs are
only in the lower performing schools.
I can't speak as to other posters' opinions, but I am not at this forum because I believe gifted children are unique. I think it is important to understand that this is a public forum with many intelligent posters who logically think through their life choices. Many of us may hold demanding professional jobs and dedicate many hours to our children and may also donate to charity and otherwise volunteer our time/services. It is perfectly reasonable to pick and choose our beneficiaries according to our personal scales of priority/efficiency/etc. For example, any assistance to one charity over another can be re-framed as a shocking unwillingness to help the other charity.
Honestly, I am quite shocked at the unwillingness of parents to help other parents. Particularly regarding the assumed stereotypes. We are all at this forum because we believe that gifted children are unique. I asked this (somewhat hypothetical) question for 2 reasons. The first is that it really surprises me this type of mentoring is already not an option. The second reason is that I hope a seed can be planted should you meet other parents who may be in this situation or should you be involved in a group or advocacy which could embrace this idea.
My 13yr daughter is very bright, though not gifted. She also has hearing loss. Our school district has a completely voluntary program for hearing loss families. This program is entirely ran by parents. The only role of the school is they have a list of parents who have volunteered to mentor other parents. The school simply notifies new parents that the mentoring program exists & should they wish to receive this assistance, the school can provide contact info. This is the program I am familiar with but I have heard of other similar programs. It is very informal but it was invaluable when I had questions or needed advice. It gives us the ability to ask a parent of a child a few years older than her what we should expect. It provides us with parents who understand our concerns. It provides our children with an opportunity to relate to children who have "been there, done that".
You were correct that I left the framework open ended. I see the possibilities here as endless. If you honestly fear for your life meeting someone perhaps you could use email, Skype, or FaceTime. It is disappointing to see people who would view this as a waste of their time. In my experience the mentor program has been just as rewarding to the mentor family.
Again, others may disagree, but in my nearly two decades of personal experience, parenting/advocating for a child with disabilities is different than for a 2E child and for a Gifted child. I also firmly believe that many of the regular posters on this forum already graciously answer questions and offer assistance when they are approached by other parents regarding 2E or gifted issues.
There is also the efficiency factor. For example, last year I shared our approach with our disability advocate so she could help her other clients who were initially denied the disability services that I secured for my DS. In that case, it would have been impractical (a waste of time) for me to attempt to mentor those parents individually. The disability advocate immediately understood the nuances of my approach, was far more adept at simplifying the strategy to the unsophisticated parents, and had the established relationship to "push" them as appropriate.
Anyway one on one mentoring is a terrible idea. It's much better to benefit from the collective wisdom of a large group.
I'm no bleeding heart but recognize that there are, unfortunately, children who don't have parents who care much or who care but have no idea how to navigate the sometimes complex U.S. educational system, especially the college admissions system. I read newspaper articles about high school students who only find out in 12th grade that they ought to take the SAT if they want to attend a selective college. I am not planning to volunteer as a mentor, but I am glad there are people who do so. I hope that forums such as this, freely available to all, help youngsters who are not well advised by their parents, even if they browse but never join. There are various ways one can contribute, and different people will find different ways of contributing more satisfying.
2. PTAs from wealthy/high performing schools could become "sisters" to lower performing schools. (supposedly this is impossible due to the national PTA rules? You can only fundraise for your own school????)
I really don't want to get pulled into the OPs discussion because, well, none of us really know anyone else's situation or circumstances, especially online. I'm very happy that this forum is here to help answer questions (including my own!).
I just wanted to point out that the Portland Public School district has a policy where 1/3 of all parent donations are pooled into an "equity fund" run by a foundation that distributed the money to schools that don't raise as much.
http://allhandsraised.org/ppsfoundation/The PTA at our old school did this.
Anyway one on one mentoring is a terrible idea. It's much better to benefit from the collective wisdom of a large group.
I'm no bleeding heart but recognize that there are, unfortunately, children who don't have parents who care much or who care but have no idea how to navigate the sometimes complex U.S. educational system, especially the college admissions system. I read newspaper articles about high school students who only find out in 12th grade that they ought to take the SAT if they want to attend a selective college. I am not planning to volunteer as a mentor, but I am glad there are people who do so. I hope that forums such as this, freely available to all, help youngsters who are not well advised by their parents, even if they browse but never join. There are various ways one can contribute, and different people will find different ways of contributing more satisfying.
What you are describing is a situation where mentoring/volunteering/charity may fill some need, but this is far from optimal. Basically if a mentor/volunteer is doing something like this then there is a problem that needs to be fixed. Someone should be employed to do a job like this.
More generally, the existence of a mentor/volunteer/charity should (sometimes) set off alarm bells that something has gone wrong, and that there is a need in society that could be served in a much more efficient way.
Well that makes more sense than a swarm of amateur volunteers travelling in the opposite direction to do one on one mentoring.
I don't see where anyone made this suggestion.
The OP is clearly talking about one on one mentoring. Obviously a large number of mentorees would then require a large number of mentors. Also the implication was that mentoree and mentor were living in different circumstances, and some travel would logically be needed if meeting face to face.
So basically, you reacted appropriately, as based on all of the following assumptions:
1) Mixed-class communities are not a thing.
2) Poor children only live in places of extreme danger.
3) It's not possible to meet poor parents of gifted children through ordinary, everyday activities, like going to work, or the library, or taking your child to soccer practice.
4) One-on-one interactions are only possible face-to-face.
And the problem is, none of these assumptions are true.
My family is comfortably in the second quintile in household income, so we could be accurately described as upper middle-class (as opposed to those bringing in >$150k and describing themselves as such, sorry, but top 10% is not a middle of anything), and we live in a stereotypical suburban community that you'd normally associate with that... it's safe, quiet, there's a golf course just down the road, we have our own park, people cut their grass, etc. And if I wanted to actively mentor a parent of a gifted child in an underprivileged family through face-to-face contact, I could travel all the way across the street.
I do volunteer my time to work with a child (not tested but I'm more certain that he is gifted than I'm about DD) but it's a big responsibility and I only feel comfortable doing so because of my professional and personal background.
My DD is a full-time project and I'm already exhausted trying to balance everything so to be honest, I wouldn't be volunteering my time if I thought DD was getting nothing out of it but she loves having educational "playdates" with this boy and I enjoy spending time with him too. I was worried at first that DD's precocious reading and writing abilities would make him self-conscious but amazingly and fortunately, it's working out really well. We exchange an hour of tutoring with an hour of "baby sitting." This is probably one of the better things I've done for DD this year. His parents are not poor, by the way, and their ability to pay or not pay wasn't a consideration for me.
I think people are often willing to help if they thought they could help but it's not always clear if you might be causing more harm than good. You know how the saying goes. And with education and children, as I mentioned before, it is a big responsibility. You can't push back the clock and hit a reset button.
I live in a reasonably sized city and we do have an organization that runs gifted programs on weekends for both kids. The programs aren't cheap but they do waive or reduce the fees for some kids each session.
For the parents they run free parent discussion nights (great group therapy and networking opportunities) and free info nights that talk about all of the local school board's gifted programs. The association also has representatives that sit on each school board's Special Education Advisory Committee. The committees are made up of school board employees, school trustees and representatives from various groups with a stake in special education (gifted, autism, deaf, visual impaired, Down's, brain injury, LD, etc). My school board has a parent group that organizes speakers (free and includes free babysitting) and gifted education has been a topic in the past.
This isn't gifted specific but our school has a sister school and a percentage of all fundraising goes to them. We also do specific fundraising activities such as buying fruit for their lunch program, a Christmas gift buying program, snowsuit donations, etc..
I'm sure there is more that can be done (for a start all of the above are all in english so that likely excludes some...) but it is a start.
The internet does make it easier for kids who have internet access, self drive and time. Many poor children don't though and can't get to the library. They may also be responsible for younger siblings and most of the housework (this is not limited to poor kids). They may also be in an environment where study is considered laziness. I have met adults who don't read because when they were kids every time they sat down to read they were handed a cloth and told 'if you have time to read you have time to clean...'. Mentoring these kids parents is probably not going to change. I have wondered about a gifted version of Big brothers and Sisters though.
Again, others may disagree, but in my nearly two decades of personal experience, parenting/advocating for a child with disabilities is different than for a 2E child and for a Gifted child. I also firmly believe that many of the regular posters on this forum already graciously answer questions and offer assistance when they are approached by other parents regarding 2E or gifted
This is very true, the situations are very different (foot in both worlds here, too). still, a lot of what I do in the disabilities world I do online, too, but it's not like in the "gifted community" which I agree with PPs exists, if at all, almost entirely online, due to critical mass but also a bigger need for anonymity. Many kids with my child's disability use wheelchairs. What's to hide? I freely share his diagnoses with anyone. I have not shared DS8 s test result with close family even.
Also, quite apart from the problem how you'd even identify beneficiaries for a program like this (after all, with most disabilities you will not face denial that the disability even exists or is a problem and not an upper middle class fictional construct - thanks clementine beauvais!) the idea here is not that you would mentor a family simply because you have travelled this road before them, but because you are telling them, in essence, "your kid is much smarter than you, and because of your background/race/SES, unlike me, you don't have a clue what to do about it."
Remember, you are proposing to mentor *parents*, not the kids. In parenting. As I have found, in my few mild mannered attempts, hardly a touchier subject.
In my experience, some of the poorest environments for gifted children are those in which intelligent, high SES parents chronically neglect their children for self-serving reasons.
I'm reminded of my former SVP's children. Both parents had PhDs, and both of their children had either failed a grade or were poised to do so, despite being gifted, I believe as a result of parental failure to be present.
Here's another double PhD couple, a former consulting partner where I worked whose wife was a genetic counsellor. (Really, all of the partners were some flavour of this trend.) When he learned I was pregnant with DS, he made an effort to sell his version of family balance which, in a nutshell, involved his being physically in the same room as his son on evenings and weekends while keeping his eyes scrupulously glued to his laptop 24/7.
We live in a high SES area, and I am constantly surprised at the disconnect I see between parental knowledge of best practices (and buzz words) and the lack of parent-child relationship in which those best practices take root. What advocacy would look like with this target is a big question mark for me. Effectively the advice is, "put down your device and get involved with your child." Most of the iParents I see won't. For many gifted children, parental ego and insecurity are the greatest stumbling block to accessing appropriate care and education. The parents would have to extract their heads from their lower halves to begin to care about someone other than themselves, including their children. Harsh but true.