Parent teacher evening at DS10's school. The school offers a choice between Latin and French for FL from 6th grade. For some reason, the majority of the gifted track (one of five) always chooses Latin, but since there is only one class offered, just under half of the class are kids from the other (regular college prep) tracks.
The teacher explained that he was happy with the class so far but that sadly, he couldn't teach to the level of the brightest kids in the classroom and to let him know if a kid needed more challenge for him to provide on the side. "There is one kid already learning Ancient Greek in Greek club, too, I just can't teach at the level that kid would need".

Later that evening, I needed him to unlock a bathroom for me and we got to chatting. I said it was a pity that the school offered a gifted level class for most subjects with the one exception of French and Latin, and that I was hoping he'd be able to engage the gifted kids in his classroom regardless. He then explained to me that he knew he couldn't meet that one kids needs in a sixth grade class when after the first session of Greek club, that kid had quoted parts of the Iliad and the odyssey in the original Greek at him because he'd had a vocabulary question. "No way could I teach the class at the level that kid needs!"
Oh well. After we'd established that "that kid" was mine and he'd gushed a bit about his capabilities and interest, telling me that he could go far in the classics and asking whether that was a possible career interest (sadly, I had to tell him it was astrophysics all the way) I told him that I was glad that at least his abilities and interest were appreciated, even if they might not necessarily be fed. He said: "well why wouldn't I love a student who is so very bright and motivated and well behaved to boot?"

Yeah, why wouldn't any teacher, LOL? No matter the level he thinks he must teach at, with teachers like this one, who even takes a sixth graders career aspirations as seriously as he should, I'm not worried!

Last edited by Tigerle; 10/09/17 05:47 AM.