Thanks so much for your reply! When we let her know she got into the Gifted and Talented Program, she originally started to think of herself more seriously academically and was very motivated. That quickly passed.
Contrary to what we were promised by the school and the school district, she was not clustered into separate groups for classes -- none of the GATE kids were. I had a meeting with the principal, the English teacher, and the math teacher.
The math teacher said she sends an extra math packet home with kids who are excelling in math, but my daughter hadn't mastered the basic skills well enough to deserve an extra homework packet yet.
The English teacher said, "I teach at a GATE level to all the kids." She eventually gave kids who were faster learners (no relationship to GATE) harder dictation sentences, which she gave my daughter. That was it -- harder dictation sentences.
There was none of the promised "clustering" in Science or Social Studies either. The principal just said they have great teachers and a great school.
Clearly, none of them were following the GATE guidelines as set out by the school district. Because it was my daughter's last year at the elementary school and she already had a "defiant" reputation among the teachers, I decided to not blow the whistle to the school district.
However, I do think the lack of clustering and more challenging/interesting tasks definitely gave her a more negative attitude toward school. The only thing that truly helped her intellectual motivation and growth this year was hiring a math tutor. He challenges her, discusses interesting facts about numbers, gives her exciting glimpses of calculus, etc. He likes fractions; she likes decimals. Now math is her favorite subject, and she's at the top of her class.
Thanks again!
Sugardog
