Yes, it does. But a quick look at any state reveals that this is not just the opinion of those posting here-- it's a legal/legislative reality most places. Parents who have a wide social justice streak themselves will try to do something about it-- but after they have seen the inside of a local school for a few years (about 2nd to 4th grade) they realize that they cannot change things in enough time for it to matter to their own kids.
Or that we can't change anything
at all in a meaningful, long-term way.
When I first found this forum, my kids were very young and I was full of enthusiasm for trying to improve some of the problems in the school system. Back then, I was sad to see older members saying precisely what HK just wrote.
Nearly seven years later, I've realized that they were right. There's nothing we can do as individuals or even as small groups
because the schools aren't interested. I've tried multiple ways of approaching this challenge, and nothing really works. I've tried volunteering, committee time, advocacy about individual kids (from gentle and obliging to aggressively assertive), and grant review. I've tried suggesting (twice) to the people who run a struggling private school that there's a niche waiting to be filled in serving gifties, and they didn't even respond to my emails. Years ago, a school said that my son could do fifth-grade math when he'd finished his second-grade work, but then his teacher got him to tutor other kids instead. I've interviewed principals who've told me, "I've never allowed a grade skip in 20 years here, and I never will." Etc. and depressing etc.
The only real solution is to find a school that gets it. Unfortunately, they're rare. Even in Silicon Valley, the high-performing schools are organized around high achievers. A school I used to think of as being like Davidson Academy in Silicon Valley shut down. We're still getting over that three years later.
Back in the 80s, parents of disabled kids had a lot of success by banding together and complaining very loudly. I remember attending a meeting for the local "gifted program" and realizing that they were giving all the money for gifted kids to special ed. The parents at that meeting were, literally, yelling "
What are you going to do for my kid?!? He can't read!!!" at the school board. Those board members were sweating bullets, and those parents
forced them to make changes. They certainly didn't do it because it was the right thing to do. This won't happen with gifted kids until the same thing happens or unless there's another Sputnik-level event that forces the hand of the government.
This is what you get when you put mediocre types in charge of something so important.
