Dottie, you gave me an epiphany! I suddenly understand a whole bunch of things. I had forgotten about that view that, generally speaking, MG = enrichment and HG = acceleration. Therein lies a huge amount of the confusion.
The thing is, I completely disagree with the idea of enrichment by the schools, at least for my child. Sounds harsh, but I provide enrichment at home from music to museums, to nature and problem solving. I would prefer the schools not bastardize those teachings, so enrichment holds no interest for me at all. It's either increased academics or remove from school. It's a philosophical difference that has nothing to do with scores and I do hold this attitude across the board for almost all kids. So, that's causing a communication breakdown. The tester kept asking me why I was hung up on acceleration and kept repeating the GT talking point of "His scores don't indicate grade acceleration. Why would you want to put your kid in an environment that could hurt him?" I'm staring at her not connecting the dots but now I see that she's operating on the premise that acceleration/more academics hurt kids unless they're HG. Is that the core of the reason why Americans have such a poor education system? I don't know whether to laugh or cry.
The history, as I know it, is that many other countries just teach the basics and culture (music, art, thinking) is taught at home. In the U.S., parents provide tv instead of culture, so the schools have to make up for it during the day. Enter the Reggio. That's why so many parents are opting into project based schools in urban communities. Many of them perhaps don't have a kid with scores high enough for acceleration in public so they go to an independent school who holds the philosophy of acceleration for all kids. It all makes sense now.
He also has tics. So, his tester views that (and it's consistent with the school's talking points) as an anxiety disorder possibly caused by hard work. O.k., now I'm laughing. We took the kid out of the easy class and put him in a harder class and the tics disappeared. The school is mystified and I kept telling them, "I told he prefers structure and challenge." Well, now the school's attitude makes sense. They hold that same core belief that hard work is bad and stressful and could be why he has tics. It is all coming together for me now. Wow!
