I believe that a major problem to gifted children is political correctness. Being smart and gifted is synonomous in many eyes. People who are smart and gifted are taught not to flaunt it or draw attention to it because little Johnny will feel bad if he can't keep up (conform or you're a show-off). Schools are by law required to support kids with disabilities because they are the "victims" and we as a government have to help them. Those smart and gifted kids have it easy and should just be thankful that they're smart and gifted. Why should they be given something extra when they already have life so easy? I DON'T agree with this line of BS but we all have to live with it and our kids are suffering because of it.
delbows mentioned that I should take note because my husband's the chair of our local school committee. HA - The teachers' union has a total stranglehold on the town, the superintendant job is a revolving door (3 within the last 2 years), the school board viciously fights within itself (my husband is changing that though- baby steps), the local paper only prints half-truths that only hurt the schools, the high school is losing their accredidation this year, and the town pays virtually no taxes for our 100 year old schools (a whole 7% - it was 0% before we got the new middle school a few years ago - the only school under 50 years old)
Two weeks ago we gave up on the school system. The oldest is 6 and has the most wonderful teacher but she can't teach our son to his potential! We decided to homeschool. The kid is a sponge. He'll pick up information as quickly as you throw it at him. At 3 he literally ran through an aquarium. He drove my grandmother nuts. When my husband asked how the exhibits were my grandmother piped up, "How would he know, he ran through the whole damn thing." Then my son started explaining each and every display from beginning to end. My grandmother's jaw was on the floor. At school they make him crawl so "No Child is Left Behind".
Anybody who wants to plan a peaceful revolt against this ridiculous and utterly failed innitiative can count me in; until then I guess I have to homeschool because the public school systems are hopeless in their current state.
