Well, that's all good news. I don't know if you remember our story. DS6 is the one who is in public K and having a hard time of it. (O.k., I just realized that meets the description of a lot of people here.) He was at montessori for the past two years and was doing multiplication last year. (He liked math.) They recommended a grade skip to first. The new school refused categorically because they are age-based. Well, it's March and his school is still teaching him 0-5. He is confounded, bored and feels like the kids in his class are too young for him and he prefers to play with older kids.
The tester thought that he would not do well in GT or a total grade skip because of his two weak areas. She said that we have to work on them first and then, figure out his educational plan. I feel sorry for him because I know how bored he is and in my heart, I believe that if he was put to the test, he'd rise to the occasion and strengthen his WMI and PSI naturally, if that makes sense. I mean, public school has taught him to be lazy and decreased his attention span markedly (with transitions every 3 minutes). All I know is that the child I first sent to preschool had an attention span of 20 minutes. The system has slowly whittled that down every year and now, he's average. As I work with him at home, I can see that same attention span expanding every day. Plus, working with him at home obviously teaches him more because I work at his actual ability level.
I think what troubles me the most is this idea that everything's no big deal because he's young. I mean, in our culture, do we not constantly talk about the importance of our early experiences? How important it is to bond, to play baby games, breastfeed. Who decided that our early education is a throwaway that can be corrected later? I don't believe that it can be. Not completely anyway.
Anyway, back to the scores. What exactly does his ability-achievement gap mean?
