I am still working on the letter... We go back in 7 days. I hope to get it done by then, but it's not really urgent given her preschool days are done. As suggested above I read Louise Porter's book, well the only one of them I could get on kindle and read while breastfeeding and putting the baby to sleep (my only real reading time). It's a good choice being Australian and reasonably current. I have a couple of quotes from it which I feel exactly pin point the pre-school's issues and I am ruminating on how to insert them.
"It remains a source of astonishment... that the same sane and caring adults who would not dream of forcing a child growing at a faster rate than average into shoes too small for her feet will nonetheless insist on forcing a child whose mental growth is faster than average into a learning program too small for her mind and imagination." Louise Porter, Gifted Young Children.
"Of any children in schools, those who are learning least on any given day are the gifted ones."
"A teacher's knowledge of child development - which is valuable in all other circumstances - can also be a handicap for gifted children it it sets a ceiling on an educator's expectations of them in the belief that, because of their age, they are not ready for more advanced experiences."
The last one being the most important in this context. I truly believe the center to be painstakingly set up by knowledgeable teachers around ideals for child development - having completely overlooked the percentage of their children who are very bright to gifted, and so NOT mentally 3-5 yrs old. But they are so entrenched in letting little children be little children that it is blasphemous to suggest that their developmental play is no more developmental for my 5 yr old than it would be for the average 7-8 year old. Sure it's entertaining for a while but it's not building new skills.
The school seems to do a lot of training on giftedness but I wonder if the preschool have ever done any. They are well versed in spotting many other developmental issues. This is an expensive private preschool attached to a high fee private school in a wealthy area. If the preschool suggests OT the kids get it, if they suggest hearing assessments they get them, if they suggest speech therapy it happens. This is a preschool with zero real behavioral or social issues to deal with, obviously every kid has their day but it would be unusual to even see significant ongoing separation anxiety, let alone persistent difficult behavior from a child (I hear there was one difficult child last year and I suspect he was asked to leave). Any little thing will be picked up and addressed so that each child has the best possible opportunity to thrive. Except perhaps the gifted ones.
It's almost stepford ideal really. One almost wonders if that is what the director wants from life - a perfect environment in which to put ideal children through their paces. Which would be the well adjusted very bright kids I guess.
They don't seem to be picking up the kids that are self entertaining in a quality environment but not actually stretching their wings at all. Their environment is fun and challenging to an average to bright child, so when my DD doesn't persist with what is to them a more advanced puzzle they conclude she is not ready yet - unaware that my child won't persist with the jigsaw puzzles because she was doing puzzles of that difficulty before she started preschool two years ago. They seem unaware that her friends' oddities are most likely related to giftedness too and instead conclude that the child is less mature than average. It seems they think he is a bit odd and they find him frustrating to deal with but they just can't put their finger on why. I don't know that he's gifted but I would be surprised if he wasn't at the very least VERY high average, or whatever the current term for nearly gifted is, and that's assuming a 2% cut off.
Given I have a 3rd child who, if we stick with this school, will go through preschool I would like them to have some training in gifted by the time she gets there.... Of course my 16 month old might not be gifted, but it's statistically unlikely and in some respects she may be my most advanced baby...
