His current teacher was the "enrichment" teacher. It was similar to a gifted program but the kids who were placed in it weren't necessarily gifted. They rarely used IQ tests unless the parents already had them done so the kids who were chosen were kids who were good at doing classwork. So....not a 2e child. But as a result, he is experienced in giving challenges to kids that need it however in the beginning he had very little patience for my son's struggles especially since he could see he was bright and otherwise capable.
One of the other issues that I feel is partly responsible is that with the NCLB law our local districts have all but cut out Science and Social Studies. At most they have a 1/2 hour per day to spend on EITHER Science or Social Studies. Some days they don't even get to it. My son is incredibly interested in Science and Social Studies intrigues him. Reading and Math on the other hand he could take or leave. He likes math that he can do in his head...he was so excited to prove to me that he could do long division in his head but math that has multiple steps and needs to be worked out on paper (like certain problem solving problems) he doesn't like. So that is another problem. They spend ALL day on subjects that he is not passionate about and rarely get to the subjects he IS passionate about.
This is my dd11's situation too. She is my 2e one. The GT programs are full of high achievers but most of the kids in them are not gifted, IMHO. Almost no one has IQ scores so they rely on teacher recommendations, parent recommendations, achievement scores, and sometimes CogAT scores that are high but not necessarily gifted. Dd11 really doesn't fit in with this group and her learning needs are quite different.
Her middle school, too, has cut back science and history for 6th graders. They both used to be all year courses. Now you get one in the first semester and the other in the 2nd. Her English class is all about sentence diagramming, punctuation, and other detail things that are weaknesses of hers. While I think that the way GT programs identify and serve kids is a disservice for gifted kids in general, I think that it is a bigger problem for 2e kids.
