What I have seen though, is kids who might be ADHD with parents latching on to a hopeful GT label instead. In their defense, they are often told their child's concerns could be explained by giftedness.
Oh, Dottie, I know a child just like that ... he's still young but his mother keeps pulling the "overexcitabilities" card. I'm pulling the "naughty" card! I've watched this child/mother online for three years, and ... well, if this kid's GT I'll eat my pants. Really. So I know what you're saying here. Not that this is the situation the OP is in, but it's something that teachers could be thinking of.
The idea that other kids "catch up" to gifted students eventually is a major fallacy in education circles. While I expect that some catching up does occur, it's because the bright kids are HELD BACK, not because the others start to go faster. Bright kids don't run out of cognitive steam when they're 7.
Hear hear! This is one of those things that drives me nuts, and *so* many people seem to buy into it. I was just in a heated discussion on one of my other boards about evening out ... ugh. If the HG+ child entering K reading and multiplying started new instruction at that level instead of "learning" to count and spell cat, where would they be in three more years? Probably not third-grade level like the rest of the kids. If they actually received real instruction, probably higher than fifth grade, even.
There are some things that aren't talked about in polite company. That your child is too smart for school seems to be OK to say, unless it's actually true...
Oh, how true *that* is. I've given up talking about anything KG is doing with friends who have children. It's not worth it. I love my single friends, though, because they don't feel the need to be competitive about it!
But both my friends, who I do respect a lot, were pretty insistent that parents shouldn�t attempt to tell a teacher, especially at the beginning of the school year, about their child, but should let the teacher draw their own conclusions.
That's what I did. Didn't work. The K teacher never approached us, though ds was reading chapter books and doing math that was clearly above level -- if nothing else, she'd have had to know that he was adding double digits in his head because he does it *all* the time on random things. I wish we'd have had some test results in hand and approached the school before school had even started. Ah well ...
CatherineD -- I agree, hothouse away while he's young and enjoying it! Nothing wrong with following his interests. He sounds like a bright little cookie.
That conversation must have been awkward in the extreme -- but it's very telling and seems to be pretty indicative of the attitude toward "gifted" kids, whether they truly are HG+ or not. It's a giant bummer for the kids who really *are*!
