Still no answer from our state gifted coordinator, so a few days ago I sent an email to our state superintendent of public schools with a copy to the gifted coordinator.
My special ed teacher friend set up a meeting for me with the speech therapist at the school who has an eight year old son with sensory issues similar to my son's. Her son just started listening therapy and I wanted to find out what she thought about it. Her son is receiving OT and PT at the school. She thinks my son would benefit from the services the school offers, but she said she thought the only way to get these services was to enroll him in the school, which I don't want to do.
I tried to explain why I don't want him in that school, but I don't think they really understand. I tried to explain that he likes to argue about things and ask too many questions and I think this would drive a teacher crazy. It isn't really that he argues, it is that he points out things that are not in the book. Most teachers seem to like to teach from the book. For example, when he was reading in a book that playing in a treehouse is healthier than playing video games he pointed out that wouldn't necessarily be so, if the wood was treated with arsenic and the video game was on the Wii which reqires physical activity, the Wii game would be healthier. He likes to get into discussions about things. He asks questions that aren't easily answered. I know he got on the Vacation Bible School teacher's nerves.
I get the feeling from some teachers that I have talked to that they think kids should be taught to not ask too many questions. I don't discourage questions. My husband supports me in this. We welcome a debate on any subject. I want my outside the box son to learn more that coloring in the lines. I want him to be able to say "why can't we do it this way?" or "what would happen if we do this?"
I want him to stay in the habit of looking up definitions of words he doesn't know or things he is curious about. I want him to keep asking questions. I don't want him to not learn anything in school and then spend hours doing busywork for homework so that he has no time to learn the things he wants to learn. I can't say that though, because they have their kids in school.
The speech therapist and my special ed teacher friend have both told me that teachers at the school are not encouraged to tell parents when they suspect a disability of some kind. They both agreed that teachers could use training in spotting learning differences (especially at kindergarten level) and that teachers should be required to report these differences to the parents and tell them testing and therapy are available. I intend to include this info in my letter to the senator.
