Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy successful science advocacy ideas?

I totally share your anxiety about advocacy. A couple of thought based on my experiences:

1) How you approach the teachers can make a difference. My bet is that if you raise the topic from the perspective of your son's passion for science, they will be supportive, not offended. I imagine that even in a gifted school, there is a big range of abilities and interests and the level they are teaching science at may well be a good match for the average student in that class. I suggest meeting with the main teacher and science teacher together if possible. If you tell them that your son loves science and has been asking for more, I don't think they can take offense at that. I would work in this way first to get them on board with the notion of differentiation (although I might avoid being the one to introduce that word) and then once they're on board, stay in the loop on deciding what that differentiation will look like.

2) You could even ask for a follow up meeting after they've had a chance to think about differentiation options. I think it is a good advocacy strategy to give the teachers some space to brainstorm solutions - they will likely appreciate having their expertise acknowledged in this way. If you disagree with any of their proposed differentiation strategies, you may be able to object without offending by talking about what would work best for your son. You know your son better than they do, so while something (for example, extra inane worksheets) might work well for some students, you can say that it may not be the best match for his _____(fill in the blank -- "learning style," "disposition," etc.). Keep the discussion focussed on what will feed his love of science - if you know inane worksheets (or whatever) will not serve that purpose for him, I think it won't be hard to make the case tactfully. Share with the teachers what activities get him excited about science, and give some examples. The examples could give them ideas about not only types of learning experiences, but also the level he is ready to learn at.

3) Here's an example from our own recent experience advocating at our fall parent-teacher conference. I was deeply concerned about offending a particular (7th grade language arts) teacher, and it was tricky because I needed said teacher to nominate dd for a special program (let's call it Class X) - we want dd in Class X in order to get dd out of said teacher's class. (Class X is a highly selective class with only ~1% of kids in our urban district invited to participate. It is not advertised to parents and parent nominations are not accepted.) Our dd was present at the conference, and we primed her to repeat to the teacher just a few comments she had earlier made to us about wishing for greater depth in the class. The teacher was receptive and responded by describing plans for her class later in the school year, with the emphasis on opportunities for differentiation for dd. Later on, I very casually mentioned that a teacher in a program last summer had suggested that dd enroll in Class X, and then asked if she could tell us more about Class X and tell us whether she thought dd would be a good candidate. Her reply: she thinks dd would be a great candidate and she would be happy to nominate her. Moreover, she said she couldn't believe she hadn't thought of dd in an earlier round of nominations as she is such an obvious good match. I have a feeling that if we had taken anything other than a friendly/collaborative approach, this particular teacher's hackles would have gone up and we would have not had the outcome we wanted.

Best of luck and keep us posted!