I wonder how they think, if he's not mature enough to handle repetative, slow paced education this year, how's he going to mature extra quickly to handle a repeat of the repetative next year? Wouldn't that take even more maturity? At least that's what I'm thinking about the teachers telling me the same thing about my kid. They said, "He'll be more mature next year and we'll try again later." (about putting an advanced pre-kinder kid into kindergarten language arts this year).
Executive function did factor in, his is age appropriate, while his education is a few years ahead. Most little kids wouldn't choose to do schoolwork, but that's why we have teachers, right? I know my kid is immature, but J don't agree with the plan to send him to school and then they'll educate him after he matures. He may as well stay home until he matures, then.
I don't know the answers, though, but I trust it's fine to bring him home. I trust it's fine to send him to school, too, it's all a matter of taste. As the old lady said who kissed the cow, it's all a matter of taste. My kid can follow the directions to bake brownies from a box, I have a little garden started, we have shelves full of boardgames, we have arts and crafts. Educationally, I'd guess he'd do fine on a second grade level with a good tutor, like yours truly. We're calling the homeschool "Mayhem University Prep Oak Grove Superhero Kid School". My friend says I'm brave to try homeschooling, but I just think I'm lucky.
I don't know if you want to hear what I think, since it lead to me homeschooling (I was predisposed anyway). Teachers should teach gifted kids the things they can not do. You should expect the teacher to teach your kid handwriting. That's how most kids learn, by having people teach them. I expected the teachers to teach my kid how to "do school", since academically they had nothing to offer from day 1. Instead they taught him he could get out of doing his work at school and it was ok.
Which leads to #2. They don't start focusing on academics until third grade, when the testing begins. Well, I've read the articles on "learned underachievement" and believe that the ages between kindergarten and third grade are formative and the pace of learning then actually matters.
And #3 is really back where I started. Asynchronisity means that (debatable opinion) gifted kids need to be educated with a knowledge bank before their maturity kicks in. I know my kid is immature, he's five years old. It's normal. I read here that highly gifted kids brain scans show the executive function center matures late like adhd kids. Besides, what they're calling him too immature to do is "write a row of 7s across the paper before the timer goes off". What I have him do is copy a sentence and then narrate a book report to me orally. I think by the end of the year he will write the book reports independantly. Wouldn't it take more maturity as that gap widens? I don't think it's going to be next year.
I've decided he's not mature enough to get up and get ready for school either, so we'll try again later. Well, that's putting it snarky. Maybe he got his asynchronous maturity naturally.
Ain't Skeered
